Vehicle recovery equipment is always evolving to make things easier and safer. Among the evergrowing list of shackles, shovels, traction boards, tow straps, snatch straps, and kinetic ropes are essential pieces of recovery gear.
Kinetic ropes specifically, were designed to improve upon the shortcomings of static tow straps and snatch straps. The Rugged Ridge kinetic recovery rope is an excellent value option that sits in the middle of the category’s price range.
It’s a higher quality rope than some of the Amazon options while being more affordable than something like the MasterPull Super Yanker. While Rugged Ridge is probably not the most suitable for commercial use, it’s perfect for the weekend warrior.
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- Rugged Ridge Kinetic Recovery Rope: Check Price
Table Of Contents
Who Is Rugged Ridge?
Rugged Ridge is an in-house brand of recovery and off-road equipment under RealTruck.com. Their products offer a solid value proposition for the recreational user or weekend warrior. With a wide product range including winches and auxiliary lighting, it’s a good place to start if you’re new to off-roading.
Are they meant to be on the same level as top brands? No, but they’re not trying to. If you’re familiar with Harbor Freight’s Bandland product line, the Rugged Ridge products seem to be for that same target market. This is going to be equipment that has good durability and materials for occasional use rather than regular use for professional recovery services.
Benefits Of Kinetic Ropes
There are several benefits of kinetic recovery ropes over static tow straps and even snatch straps with elasticity.
Safety
Kinetic ropes typically have between 25%-30% elasticity, which builds and transfers kinetic energy to the recovery pull rather than the vehicles. If you’ve seen vehicle recoveries using static tow straps with 0% elasticity, you’ve seen how vehicles get jolted and even break parts.
While more elasticity is gentler on the vehicles, you should still be familiar with how to use properly use kinetic recovery ropes as a little more speed is involved with the pulls. Kinetic recovery pulls can be safe, but only when paired with good judgment and proper use.
Effectiveness
The kinetic energy built up into a rope during a pull has a massive impact on capability. If you’ve ever seen Matt’s Offroad Recovery, kinetic ropes are a big reason why he manages to pull out HD trucks and trailers with a small Jeep Cherokee.
Longevity
As static tow straps are never advised for recovering stuck vehicles, consider their lifespan to be nonexistent for that use case.
Snatch straps such as the ARB Strap are only certified for up to 20 pulls. After you pass that amount, you’re supposed to replace the strap. Kinetic recovery ropes don’t usually have a finite lifespan. Rather, you’ll mainly want to replace them when you either see damage to the rope or feel that there’s no longer enough elasticity to be effective.
Rugged Ridge Kinetic Rope Specs
- 7/8″ Diameter x 30′ Length
- Working Load Limit (WLL): 7,500 lbs
- Breaking Strength: 30,000 lbs
This kinetic recovery rope pretty much matches the industry average for lightweight vehicle recoveries. They’re not meant for HD trucks or commercial vehicles. For all of the Jeeps and Toyotas that you see on the trails, these specs are plenty.
There are other options on the market with varying diameters and lengths. However, this is a good size for all-around use. Too short a rope, and you may not be able to build up enough energy. Too thick or skinny a rope and you may over or underutilize the rope’s elasticity.
Materials & Build Quality
The rope is made of smooth braided nylon and is stated to have up to 25% elasticity. While not quite the 30% that I’ve seen on other brands, it’s still more than the 20% elasticity of snatch straps. It’s also certainly more than a static tow strap that has 0% elasticity. You should still be able to achieve relatively gentle pulls with the Rugged Ridge kinetic rope.
The hooped ends have protective sleeves to help protect them from abrasion on either D-Rings or soft shackles during vehicle recoveries. The nylon appears to have a light coating to keep the surface slick, which will help minimize abrasion in use.
A mesh is also included for storage and preventing damage from other equipment in your gearbox.
This kinetic rope is backed by a 5-year limited warranty.
Important: If your snatch strap or rope is ever frayed, it is time to retire it from use.
Final Thoughts
In my gear collection, I also have the Ironman 4×4 kinetic rope. Compared to that, the Rugged Ridge variant seems to be identical in build quality, materials, and capability. The 7/8″ diameter is ideal for mid-size vehicle recoveries and the 30′ length will let you build up just enough kinetic energy for optimal effectiveness.
Overall, I think this is a solid option if you’re in need of a kinetic rope but don’t want to spend a fortune. Sure, there are more expensive brands like Yankum Ropes or MasterPull. However, unless you’re using it several times a week, it’s hard to justify the price tag.
At the end of the day, I think it’s more important to thoroughly learn how to use your recovery equipment and understand its limitations.
