2007 Jeep Patriot Owner Manual - Page 269

268 STARTING AND OPERATING CAUTION! Damage can occur when spinning your tires at an excessive high speed. Do not spin your tires faster than an indicated 30 mph (48 km/h) • Using The Tow Hooks With A Tow Strap - Tow straps are a quick and easy way to recover your vehicle from minor situations if you have a secondary vehicle which is not stuck. The tow hooks on your vehicle are designed to take the abusive force generated during vehicle recovery. Do not use the bumper or any other vehicle component as an attachment point. Using tow straps requires coordination between the two drivers. Good communication and line of sight are required for a safe recovery. First connect the tow strap to the correct attachment points on both vehicles. There should be a least 20 to 30 ft. (6 to 9 m) between the vehicles to allow for a safe recovery. If necessary join two tow straps together using a 1 1/2 in. (4 cm) hard wood dowel. This will keep the straps from becoming knotted and is safer than using a clevis pin if the strap breaks. Next have the tow vehicle backup, leaving 2 to 3 ft. (61 to 91 cm) worth of slack in the strap. Then the tow vehicle, using light throttle, should accelerate tightening the strap providing the pulling force needed to free the vehicle. The vehicle being recovered should assist in the recovery, at the time of the snap, by slowly spinning the tires in the same direction as the pulling vehicle. After the vehicle becomes free, the driver of the previously stuck vehicle should signal they are free and should hit their brakes stopping both vehicles. The driver of the pulling vehicle should let off the throttle without using the brakes, once signaled by the other driver. This sequence is important to avoid having the recovered vehicle hit the pulling vehicle.