How would putting a blanket over a rope or chain under tension (i.e. pulling a truck out of sand/mud) work to reduce the risk of it flying out and hurting someone should it snap?

Question

Awhile back I helped pull a couple of guys who’d gotten their truck stuck in the sand out using a couple of heavy cargo straps that I had in my truck.

One of the guys put a blanket over the straps and said it would dissipate the energy should the straps snap. It sounded plausible to me, but curious if it’s a legit claim.

In: 72

Answer 1

they’re called recovery dampers, if you wanna google them.

basically, when a cable breaks, all of the energy stored in it can only leave through whatever the cable strikes. it’s not actually a lot of energy, but it tends to be heavily concentrated at whatever it hits. the damper forces a lot of that energy to be spent differently, preventing it from being concentrated into a single whipping strike.