Petersen's 4Wheel & Offroad Magazine Articles & Reviews

 

Bubba Rope Replacement Winch Line Victory Eye.jpgTesting Bubba Ropes New Winch Line

FourWheeler Network - December 16, 2015 - A few years ago a company called Bubba Rope brought a kinetic towrope to the off-road aftermarket. Since then the company has continued to think outside of the box with a few innovative recovery-related items. Next to come was the Gator-Jaw, an easy-to-use and lightweight soft shackle that takes the place of heavy steel D-ring shackles. The light- weight helps keep down your overall vehicle weight and increases safety because the soft shackle won’t store as much energy while under load. This means that in case of failure, people are less likely to get injured by flying cables, hooks, or shackles.

Most recently, at the 2015 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, we spotted a new Bubba Rope Replacement Winch Line. The winch line uses some of the technology from Bubba’s recovery ropes as well as some of the innovation seen in the Gator-Jaw. First, the rope, available in 80- or 100-foot lengths, uses a Gatorized vinyl coating that protects the rope from UV and environmental abrasion (like sand or mud). Also available is a nonmetal, lightweight Gatorized Victory Eye on the end of the winch line for the ultimate strength without the weight of any metal (the ropes are also available with a smaller standard Gatorized eye for use with aftermarket thimbles). With that in mind, we had to get a Bubba Rope Replacement Winch Line for ourselves for a good old 4-Wheel & Off-Road beat down.

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Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadLOCKJAW—The Good Kind

Gator-JawMaybe one of the most revolutionary new products we’ve seen in recent years is the Gator-Jaw from Bubba Rope. This rope-based “soft shackle” uses a self-tightening loop that slips over a specially designed knot to complete a continuous closed ring. You can use it like a traditional steel shackle or D-ring when connecting tow ropes, straps, winch lines, hooks, and the like. The Gator-Jaw is made out of Plasma rope, the strongest synthetic rope available, yielding a shackle that weighs less than 7 ounces yet is stronger than commonly used steel shackles. The Gator-Jaw won SEMA’s Best New Off-Road Product Award for 2014 and has a tensile strength higher than steel.

Gator-JawWHY WE LIKE IT: It’s a cool alternative to fiddling with heavy steel shackles that store kinetic energy (and can quickly release it upon failure) and have stubborn threaded pins that you occasionally have to fight. Plus the Gator-Jaw is light and compactable. The best part is it’s made right here in the USA.

SOURCE: Bubba Rope, 877.499.8494, bubbarope.com.

 

Bubba Rope Renegade

Petersen's 4Wheel & Offroad MagazineThe new Renegade from Bubba Rope is a 3⁄4-inch by 20-foot-long recovery rope, the perfect size to have on board your Jeep or light truck. Built to military specs, the camouflage green with black eyes Renegade comes with its own mesh carrying bag and camo Velcro strap for easy storage. A Gator-ize elastic polymer coating adds protection, giving the rope a durable outer skin. The entire rope is dipped and cured in this coating, penetrating deep into the soft nylon rope fibers.

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Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadTree Hugger

Tree HuggerYou never want to wrap a winch cable around a tree, as it can “ring” the tree and kill it. Fortunately the sensitive souls at Bubba Rope recently introduced their Treehugger, a 6-foot-long, 3-inch-wide strap that is rated for 58,000 pounds and useful around trees, rocks, or rollcages. Always place the tree-saver strap as low to the ground as possible to limit the leverage on the tree.

 

Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadUltimate Adventure

Ultimate AdventureBubba Rope’s Matt Kime and Faron Tidwell did a great job of powering their fullsize truck in the sand and mud. Kime’s classic K truck is no lightweight, but that didn't stop him from catching a little air on the sandy ridges.

 

Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadUltimate Adventure - Bubba Rope: Official Recovery Rope

Ultimate Adventure 1974 CHEVY K30
DRIVER: Matt Kime
CO-DRIVER: Faron Tidwell
STOMPING GROUNDS: FL. SC, deserts of CA

What started as a mistaken order of a wrong-size rope for a Florida sling company has turned into one of the best offroad extraction tools available. We’re talking about the Bubba Rope, a high-quality snatch strap with elasticity to assist in yanking big buried trucks from the deep mud. Faron Tidwell of Bubba Rope enlisted Matt Kime and his Hulk of a Chevy truck to represent Bubba and showcase both the rope and the new Tree Hugger winch straps. The Chevy big green Chevy had a good week until the second-to-last day, when the TH400 began to whimper and die (it is hard to explain the “No Whining” rule to a transmission). They unfortunately missed the final trail in order to save the trans for the long drive home.

>DRIVETRAIN
ENGINE: 5.3L Gen Ill small-block. tuned ECM, Howell Racing Harness, Hooker Headers, custom in-cab air intake, K&N drop·in, Flowmaster mufflers
TRANSMISSION: TH400
TRANSFER CASE: Stak Monster Box 3-speed
FRONT AXLE: Chevy Dana 60, Detroit No-Spin, 5,13s, Superior 35-spline inner and outer, Yukon Super Joints, Dedenbeer turning knuckles, Warn hubs, Offroad Design high-steer arm
REAR AXLE: Corp. 14-bolt, Detroit No-Spin, 5.13s, Ballistic Fab shave kit, Blue Torch Fab rear disc conversion
STEERING: PSC hydro-assist with PSC box, pump, and ram
>SUSPENSION
SPRINGS & SUCH: ORO 6-inch coilover conversion, King 2-1/2 inch coilovers, King 2-1/2 inch bumps tops in front: King 2-1/2 inch shocks. Tuff Country 4 inch leaves, Daystar urethane bumpstops in rear
TIRES & WHEELS: 40x13 Nitto Mud Grapplers on 17xl0 Spyder Locks
OTHER: Warn M12000 Winch, Hella auxiliary lights, ViAir onboard air, MasterCraft Baja RS Bucket Seats, Hi·Lift Jack

 

Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadUltimate Adventure - Official Recovery Rope: Bubba Rope

Ultimate AdventureWhen mud was on the docket for the day, everyone knew to have Bubba Rope handy. Using kinetic energy, the braided nylon core and nylon jacket of the Bubba Rope was a safe, quick, and effective way to pull rigs out of the muck. And with each rope receiving a special polymeric base coating, the week of dirt, water, and abuse didn’t faze the next-generation mudder’s rope. We were glad to have the Bubba Rope Floridians back on board for the second year in a row and have no doubt that the product is a perfect fit for adventures big and small.

Helping Hands

Sometimes help comes from where you least expect it. On the way out to the start of the Ultimate Adventure, the Bubba Rope-sponsored Nissan X terra chewed through a rear ring-and-pinion. Since there wasn’t enough time to ship out a new gearset, Bubba Rope’s Ricardo Olavarrieta got on the phone and began to quickly assemble Plan B. Luckily his sister was willing to make the drive all the way from Miami to hand-deliver the correct parts in Nevada, Missouri.

With parts in hand, the Bubba Rope team had every intention of tearing down the rear axle in the scorching hotel parking lot. Luckily, Beth Burlingame from Country Inn & Suites made some calls and got the guys some working space at her father’s shop. With her parents’ anniversary coming up, the guys at Bubba Rope sent her a little present to say thank you for her help and thoughtfulness. The world’s best wheeling community just got a little bigger.

 

Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadUltimate Adventure - Official Recovery Rope: Bubba Rope

Ultimate AdventureNew to the Ultimate Adventure this year, Bubba Rope was a natural fit. This recovery snatch rope helped us unstuck vehicles every day of the event. Faron Tidwell from Bubba Rope handed out Bubba Ropes to the invited readers. The rope uses kinetic energy to snatch and unstuck a vehicte.lt is constructed with a braided nylon core for tower toads and a braided nylon jacket for higher toads. The rope is also coated with a polymeric base, giving it a protective shell. The coating protects the rope from abrasion, resists UV tight, and is waterproof.

 

Petersen's 4Wheel & OffroadBubba Rope Gits-R-Dun

Ultimate AdventureGet yer tuggin’ dun with the new Bubba Rope recovery rope. This synthetic rope is design specifically as a yank strap. Hook it up to your stuck buddy and slowly pull him out of his predicament. If that doesn’t work, back up and put a little momentum into the tug. The momentum stretches the rope, and as it rebounds it multiplies the force of the extraction. The Bubba rope is available in three sizes and ratings. We threw the $110 30-footer in our truck for a weekend wheeling and mud tire test trip. Then afterward we simply hosed it off and stuffed it in the mesh carrying bag in anticipation of the next trail.

The first rule of using any recovery is make sure you have strong solid recovery points and rated hardware. Our 30-foot bubba rope was rated to 28,600 pounds, and the hardware and shackles need to be highly rated also. Do not loop the rope over a tow ball, as they can break and become a projectile hunting driver’s heads.

Notice how this little flatfender can extract a four-door Wrangler twice its size from a mud hole. The momentum of the little Jeep combined with the elasticity in the rope can often overcome the grip the mud has on the stuck vehicle, even if that stuck vehicle is heavier than the pulling vehicle. However, it is helpful to have the stuck vehicle’s tires driving forward should they gain traction.