Do any of the members here use or carry any type of recovery equipment in their hunting vehicle?  While replacing an older and deteriorating recover strap that I keep in my vehicle, a thought occured to me. On all the vehicles I've ever owned I always keep a 30 foot recovery strap rated for 15 tons in the truck and always have a solid forged steel Warn Reciever Shackle Bracket and 3/4" thick recovery D shackle rated for 4 3/4 tons pinned into my Class IV tow hitches.  This equipment has come in very handy a dozen or so times over the last two decades, especially when in the backcountry and I would never think of going very far without this gear.  

I went all over the net reading on other 4x4 and off-roading forums about winching, shackles, and recovery straps, and other equipment to get an idea of what seasoned off-roaders and 4 wheeling folks use.  Turns out most of their stuff is the same as what I have.  What I don't get is why there seems to be way too much emphisis placed on the strongest rated gear and very little thought, if any, given to the weakest link?? I've pulled out plenty of stuck vehicles in my time, as well as moved a couple large fallen trees off of isolated mountain roads.  But I concluded that if I ever needed to rescue or pull-out any stuck vehicle heavier than say 9000 lbs or move a large trunk tree heavier than that I'm not likely going to be able to do it with the truck I have, despite my Class IV hitch rating of 5 1/4 tons, the 15 ton strap rating, and the 4 3/4 ton shackle rating, my current vehicle is only rated to tow freewheel just under 10,000 lbs.  Couple that with the fact that the weakest link looks to be the hitch pin itself which is designed to pull max load on freewheels. Yet I can't find any information from anyone (even the manufacturers) as to the shear strength or pull weight rating of those 5/8" hitch pins.  Sounds like all those off-road guys on the other forums have never really given it that much thought either, all they seem to care about is the toughest hardware in their arsenal, having recovery equipment with upto 50,000 lbs of capability in some vehicles that can barely even pull a quarter of that, much less that weight being stuck in a ditch or mud. It goes without saying that your gear is only as good or as strong as it's weakest link.  I think that can be said for most equipment out there.