Three suitcases. That's what Rick brought to Alaska: 500 ft of 3/4-in winch line, 500 ft of 1/2-in winch line, three kinetic recovery ropes, 14 slings, one giant 1-in sling, 14 soft shackles, and seven winch rings. He reads the whole list off before they even leave the cabin. And every single piece of it earns its keep. Forty miles up a frozen river in Alaska's northern interior, on a recovery that starts with a 9,000-lb tracked vehicle frozen solid to the bottom of the ice.
It's every piece of it, broken down: what it does, why he packed that much of it, and how it ended up rigged to what Rick calls, in his own words, "pretty much the biggest tree in Alaska."
- Rick packed 500 ft of 3/4-in winch line, 500 ft of 1/2-in winch line, three kinetic ropes, 14 slings, one giant 1-in sling, 14 soft shackles, and seven winch rings into three suitcases for a 3,571-mile trip to Alaska.
- Every category did a different job: winch line for the static pull, kinetic rope for the snatch, slings to protect the anchor, soft shackles to connect without metal, winch rings to build the rigging trick that got them there.
- With no rated recovery point 40 miles from anywhere, the anchor was a tree. Sized to the load, wrapped in the giant sling so the pull didn't cut into the bark.
- Murphy's builds the shelf version of the same system: the Recovery Rope ($269.99) and Recovery Kit ($795.94), both co-developed with Yankum Ropes and backed by Wrecker Rick.
- A loaded winch line and a stretched kinetic recovery rope both store real energy. The safety section below isn't optional reading.
- Rick plugs one more tool twice on camera that isn't rigging at all: a pair of pocket pliers that fixed a dead starter connection in the middle of nowhere.
1. The call: 3,571 miles for a 9,000-pound problem
It starts with a call about a vehicle that's already been sitting in a frozen river for weeks. "We've got a Hagglund Sisu," Rick says at the open. "It was on a river, fell through the ice, then it froze to the bottom of the river." Nine thousand pounds. Read that again if you have to. Not a toy, either. It belongs to a military veteran who uses it to haul supplies into his ranch, sitting 40 miles from the nearest civilization, reachable only by plane or another tracked vehicle. And Rick's got one week before the ice gets too thin to bring equipment in at all. That's the clock you're working against.
He rallies the crew: his dad, his nephew Heavy T, and Brando. And the video's own title does the math. 3,571 miles, door to door, for a job this far outside cell range. That's where the plan starts: fly to Anchorage. Buy tracked equipment off Facebook Marketplace, because that's actually how you reach this site. Truck it nine hours north to Fairbanks. Drive three more hours to a village of 25 people. Then run 40 miles upriver by tracked machine to a trapper's cabin on the South Fork of the Yukon. And that's just the itinerary. The recovery hasn't even started yet.
The only thing they actually packed from Arizona? Rigging. Three suitcases of it. That's it. The truck and the tools got bought once they landed. That loadout is what this whole article breaks down.
2. Three suitcases, one rule
Everything Rick brought from home fits into three suitcases. He reads the whole packing list out loud before they leave the cabin: "We've got 500 ft of 3/4-in winch line, 500-ft of 1/2-in winch line, three Wrecker Rick ropes, 14 slings, one giant 1-in sling, 14 soft shackles, and seven winch rings." Plus bear repellent, because springtime in the Alaskan bush means the grizzlies are already out of their holes.
That's not a random pile, either. It's redundancy, and it's on purpose, for a job with no hardware store within a day's drive. Rick says the rule himself while wedging it all into a suitcase: "Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." And forty miles up a frozen river? That rule earns its keep fast. There's no rated recovery point on a wilderness riverbank. No quick trip to town for one more shackle. Whatever's zipped into that suitcase is what you're recovering a 9,000-lb vehicle with.
"When Wrecker Rick puts his name on something, you know it's built to work."Murphys Diesel Recovery Rope product page
3. The kinetic rope, the slings, and the rest
Five kinds of gear here, and each one does a job the others can't. Line them up next to the loadout and it stops looking like overkill. It starts looking like a system.
Winch line: the static muscle. Rick packs two spools here, 500 ft of 3/4-in and 500 ft of 1/2-in. Winch line barely stretches. That's exactly what you want for a slow, controlled pull on a 9,000-lb load that's frozen in place. The last thing this recovery needed was stored energy snapping loose unpredictably. The heavier 3/4-in line does the main pull; the 1/2-in rides as the lighter backup and rigging line.
Kinetic recovery rope: the snatch. This one does the opposite job. Built to stretch under load, up to roughly 30 percent for a rope in this class[1][2]. That's way more give than a standard recovery strap. And it releases that stored energy as a rolling pull, one that can break a stuck or frozen load free where a static pull alone won't budge it. Rick packs three of them. The loadout list calls them "Wrecker Rick ropes," the same kinetic-rope line Murphy's builds with Yankum Ropes and puts Rick's own name on.
Slings: the anchor savers. Fourteen standard slings, plus one giant 1-in sling. Why so many? There's no rated recovery point anywhere on an Alaskan riverbank. When your anchor is a tree instead of a hitch receiver, a wide sling is what spreads that pull around the trunk. It stops a bare line or chain from just biting straight into the bark. Hang onto that giant sling. It's got a specific job coming up in Section 4.
Soft shackles: the connectors. Fourteen of them. A soft shackle does the same job as a steel bow shackle, joining two pieces of rigging, at a fraction of the weight. And because it's rope instead of forged steel, it won't turn into shrapnel if something downstream lets go. Murphy's own hitch receiver recovery points are chamfered specifically to take soft shackles up to 7/16 in, so nothing chafes against the metal edge.
Winch rings: the hardware behind the trick. Seven of them. These are what let Rick build what he calls a "hitch jobby," a loop tied into the winch line. It threads back through a ring big enough that the hitch rolls straight through it under load instead of binding. Wait for the next section. This is the best piece of rigging in the whole video.
One tool that wasn't on the rigging list
Not everything that earned its keep on this trip was recovery gear, either. Twice on camera, Rick reaches for "pocket pliers" to fix a mechanical problem, once on a dead starter connection: "Good thing I got my pocket pliers. Go to murphysdieselstore.com, get yourself a pair. They're even good in Alaska." The closest match on the shelf is the Knipex Cobra® XS Water Pump Pliers, a genuinely pocket-sized 4-inch adjustable plier, not a full mechanic's toolbox. It's the same packing rule from Section 2, in miniature, and kind of a perfect little example of it. Cheap. Light. And when a starter won't turn over 40 miles from the nearest parts store, you'll be glad it's in your pocket instead of on a wish list.
| Winch Line | Kinetic Recovery Rope | Recovery Sling | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stretch | Minimal | Up to ~30% | Minimal |
| Best for | Slow, static pulls under continuous power | Snatching a stuck or frozen load free | Wrapping an anchor without cutting into it |
| Powered by | A winch | A second vehicle's momentum | N/A (passive rigging) |
| Attach to | Winch drum and a rated point or ring | Rated recovery point only | An anchor sized for the load |
| Never | Exceed rated line pull | Join two lines with a metal shackle | Shock-load or exceed rated capacity |
4. Rigging the anchor: the biggest tree in Alaska
Forty miles from the nearest hitch receiver, Rick's anchor is a tree. Not just any tree, either. "I want to be anchored to a really solid tree," he says on camera. "So I found pretty much the biggest one in Alaska." His crew doesn't argue. "Biggest tree I've ever seen." Fair. It's an unbelievable trunk, even on camera.
Getting a line to it takes the whole loadout, working together. Rick runs three snatch blocks off the front of the recovery machine. Then he builds the "hitch jobby." That's a loop worked into the winch line, threaded back through one of the seven winch rings. Sized big enough that the hitch rolls straight through it under load instead of binding up. Even 500 feet of 3/4-in winch line isn't enough distance on its own. "It took 500 ft of winch line and one Wrecker Rick kinetic rope to get there," Rick says. The kinetic rope closes the last stretch the winch line can't reach.
And now, the piece that's been riding in the suitcase the whole trip. "Stand by, folks, I forgot my sling," Rick says, wrapping it around the trunk: "the world's largest Wrecker Rick sling for the world's largest Alaskan tree." Watch what that giant sling actually does. It spreads the pull around a few feet of bark. That beats cinching a bare line down to one narrow band, which is exactly how you girdle a tree, or lose the anchor outright. "That tree's not going anywhere," Rick says, and rigs the line back to start the pull.
"Built for the folks who do the recovering, not the ones waiting to be rescued. Made in the USA. Ready when you are."Murphys Diesel Recovery Kit product page
Did that first pull break the vehicle loose? That's its own story, and you can probably guess it doesn't end there. A second layer of river ice underneath the first one had other ideas. Finishing that fight is a whole different chapter, told through the two Warrior Gladiator winches Rick brought north with him. This part of the story is just the rigging. It's the rigging that made any of it possible in the first place.
5. Build the same kind of kit
Rick's loadout was scaled for the worst recovery on the continent. But the categories? Same ones any serious recovery kit needs, yours included: a kinetic rope, soft rigging, and a place to anchor it. Murphy's sells the shelf version of exactly that system.
1" x 30', 33,500 lb breaking strength, rated for 7,200 to 10,249 lb trucks and SUVs. Co-developed with Yankum Ropes and backed by Wrecker Rick. Double-braid nylon with a Code Red polymer coating and rubber-dipped eyes. This is the shelf version of the same category Rick packed three of in Alaska.
Would you rather buy it pre-built? The Recovery Kit bundles those same categories from the Alaska loadout into one bag, sized for a truck bed instead of a wilderness expedition. You get a 1"x30' kinetic rope, two 7/16" heavy-duty slings, and two 7/16" soft shackles, all in a water-resistant roll-top bag.
Includes one 1"x30' Murphys Diesel kinetic recovery rope, two 7/16" heavy-duty recovery slings, two 7/16" soft shackles, and a medium roll-top bag. Built in collaboration with Murphys Diesel and tested by Wrecker Rick himself. Made in the USA.
Neither one replaces a rated anchor point, though. If you're on pavement or a job site, that's a hitch receiver recovery point. Not a tow ball. Not a bumper. And not a tree, no matter how big it is.
1"x30', 33,500 lb breaking strength. Controlled kinetic stretch for 7,200 to 10,249 lb trucks and SUVs. Built with Yankum, backed by Wrecker Rick.
Rope, two slings, two soft shackles, one bag. Built in collaboration with Murphys Diesel and tested by Wrecker Rick himself.
Pins into a 2.5" receiver. WLL 18,000 lbs (5:1 FOS), MBS 66,400 lbs. Chamfered for soft shackles up to 7/16". CNC machined in Idaho.
Pins into a 2" receiver. WLL 13,200 lbs (5:1 FOS), MBS 66,400 lbs. Chamfered for soft shackles up to 7/16". Same Idaho-machined build.
6. Safety: a loaded line doesn't care how far you drove
Every piece of gear in that suitcase can store or transmit enough force to seriously hurt somebody, and the distance from the nearest hospital doesn't change the physics. A kinetic rope's whole design is stored energy. A tensioned winch line is a slow, brutal force that doesn't forgive standing in the wrong spot. And rigging, slings, soft shackles, winch rings, has its own rules about inspection and rated capacity that don't care how remote your job is.
These aren't suggestions. Every one of them exists because someone got hurt learning it the hard way.
- Anchor only to something rated for the load. On a truck, that's a hitch receiver recovery point, never a tow ball or bumper, which "are not rated for recovery and can break off under load."[1] In the backcountry, that means an anchor genuinely sized for the pull and wrapped in a sling built for it, never a bare line around bark.
- Never connect two lines with a metal shackle. "If the shackle breaks, it can fly like a bullet and cause serious injury."[1] Use the right soft rigging for the connection instead.
- Keep everyone at least 1.5 to 2 times the rope's length back and out of the line of pull. For the 30-ft rope Rick runs, that's 45 to 60 feet, both sides of it, not just behind the vehicles.[4] The same margin applies to a winch line: "a good safety rule is to stand farther back than the full length of the winch line."[1] OSHA's rule for rigging generally is blunter still: "All employees shall be kept clear of loads about to be lifted and of suspended loads."[5]
- Inspect slings and shackles before every pull. Federal rigging standards require it daily, by a competent person, and are explicit that "slings that are damaged or defective shall not be used."[5] A frayed sling or a shackle with a bent pin gets retired, not reused.
- Don't shock-load a sling or exceed its rated capacity. "Shock loading is prohibited."[5] A kinetic rope is engineered to absorb a sudden jolt through controlled stretch; a sling isn't, and loading it past its working limit is how rigging fails without warning.
Sources: [1] BFGoodrich: Recovery Techniques · [2] Yankum Ropes: Racer Kinetic Recovery Rope · [3] Yankum Ropes: Rattler Kinetic Recovery Rope · [4] offroad-ed.com: Taking Precautions When Using a Winch · [5] OSHA 29 CFR 1910.184: Slings
None of that requires a professional's truck, or a trip to Alaska. You just need a rated point (or a genuinely solid anchor), a sling sized for the job, and some distance. Add the discipline to slow down and inspect the gear before every single pull.
7. The bottom line
Rick didn't pack for a normal Tuesday. He packed for 3,571 miles, no backup, one week before the ice window closed. That's why the loadout looks heavy on paper: two winch lines, three kinetic ropes, 14 slings, a giant sling, 14 soft shackles, seven winch rings. Every single category had a job in Alaska. And every one of them is worth having in your own kit too, scaled down to your own rig.
You don't need three kinetic ropes. You don't need a sling big enough for the world's biggest tree. What you need is one good Recovery Rope, soft rigging that won't turn into shrapnel, and a rated point to anchor it to. Whether that's the rope alone at $269.99 or the full Recovery Kit at $795.94, build it before you need it. Not after.
So did that giant sling and the biggest tree in Alaska actually get a 9,000-lb tracked vehicle out of the ice? The top layer broke, barely. Satisfying, even watching it secondhand. Then a second layer underneath had its own opinion about letting go. That fight, and the two Warrior Gladiator winches that finished it, is its own story.
Sources.
- BFGoodrich Tires, "4x4 Driving Guide: Recovery Techniques." Kinetic ropes stretch up to ~30%; do not attach to a tow ball or bumper hitch; never connect two straps or ropes with a shackle; a good safety rule is to stand farther back than the full length of the winch line. bfgoodrichtires.com/auto/learn/4x4-driving-guide/recovery-techniques
- Yankum Ropes, "Racer Kinetic Recovery Rope." A 30-ft rope is recommended for wide open deserts and dunes, versus 20 ft for dense woods or rocky areas where space is limited; the rope can stretch up to 30% longer when being used. yankum.com/products/racer-kinetic-recovery-rope
- Yankum Ropes, "Rattler Kinetic Recovery Rope." Minimum breaking strength of 33,500 lb, for use on vehicles weighing 7,200 to 10,249 lb, a safety margin of roughly 3x gross vehicle weight at the top of that range. yankum.com/products/rattler-kinetic-recovery-rope
- offroad-ed.com (Kalkomey Enterprises, state-delegated OHV safety education provider), "Taking Precautions When Using a Winch." A safe distance is 1½ to 2 times the length of the cable you are using. offroad-ed.com/michigan/studyGuide/Taking-Precautions-When-Using-a-Winch
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 29 CFR 1910.184: Slings. Daily pre-use inspection by a competent person; damaged or defective slings shall not be used; employees shall be kept clear of loads about to be lifted and of suspended loads; shock loading is prohibited; slings shall not be loaded in excess of their rated capacities. osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.184