Printable Recovery Gear Checklist: Four Tiers, One Page, Free PDF

MAXTRAX, ARB, Bubba Rope, and WARN are trademarks of their respective owners. CA4WDC (California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs) is named as the source organization for its own published vehicle-prep standard. RiggingOps is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.

Here’s the printable, multi-tier off-road recovery gear checklist: a free one-page PDF, no signup, plus the same list below as a checklist you can scan and check right now. It covers four tiers, from what belongs in every off-pavement vehicle up to what CA4WDC lists for its own organized trail runs, and every item traces back to a manufacturer or organization source, listed at the bottom of this page.

Download the printable checklist (PDF, one page). No signup, no prices, tape it to the tailgate.

This is the condensed, print-first companion to our full tiered recovery kit guide, which walks through the reasoning behind each rule and adds budget, mid-range, and premium picks for every item. Use this page and its PDF to check your kit against the list; use that guide when you’re deciding what to actually buy. Once you own the gear, a different question matters just as much: is it still safe to load? For that, see our printable recovery gear inspection checklist, a separate two-sided PDF built for pre-trip condition checks, not purchase decisions.

The Checklist, Tier by Tier

Tiers are additive: Tier 2 carries everything in Tier 1 plus its own items, Tier 3 carries Tiers 1 and 2 plus its own items, and Tier 4 carries all of Tiers 1 through 3 plus its own items. Where a manufacturer’s manual differs from anything below, the manual wins.

Tier 1: Every Off-Pavement Vehicle (Beginner)

The floor. If the tires leave pavement, carry this.

• Heavy leather gloves. WARN specifies heavy leather gloves any time you handle winch rope, to protect against wire barbs.
• A rated recovery point, front and/or rear. ARB is explicit that a recovery point is a frame attachment rated for heavy load; a factory tow hook isn’t the same thing. See our tow hook vs. recovery point guide.
• A shovel. Overland Expo lists a shovel alongside traction boards and straps as an effective self-recovery tool, winch or no winch.
• A tire pressure gauge and a way to air back up. Overland Expo’s figures: roughly 35-37 PSI highway, 18-22 PSI moderate off-road, 12-15 PSI deep sand.
• A basic first-aid kit and a way to call for help (satellite communicator or two-way radio where cell service won’t reach).

Tier 2: Self-Recovery, No Winch Required (Intermediate, adds to Tier 1)

Turns “stuck” into five minutes, no second vehicle needed, for most sand, mud, and snow situations.

• A pair of traction boards. MAXTRAX’s own instructions call for wedging them against the tread, angled rather than flat, and never spinning the wheels. Picks by tier: our best traction boards guide.
• A kinetic recovery rope or snatch strap, sized to your vehicle. ARB’s rule: 2-3x your gross vehicle weight (GVW). Bubba Rope’s own sizing for kinetic rope runs higher, at 3-4x vehicle weight; check which one your gear’s manufacturer sizes for. Picks by tier: our best kinetic recovery rope guide.
• Rated shackles, minimum 3.25 tons. ARB’s minimum for recovery use. Picks by tier: our best soft shackles guide, and WLL-by-size figures on our recovery shackle size guide.
• A recovery damper. ARB instructs fitting it to the middle of the strap or winch line, to restrict whip if the line fails under load.

Tier 3: Winch-Based, Remote Travel (Advanced, adds to Tiers 1 and 2)

Add a winch when you travel solo, travel remote enough that a second vehicle isn’t a given, or regularly face terrain boards and rope alone won’t clear.

• A winch sized to your vehicle. WARN’s rule: gross weight of what you intend to pull, times 1.5, never exceeding the winch or rope’s own rating. Sizing detail: our what size winch do I need guide.
• A snatch block, if your rigging plan needs more pull than the winch alone provides. WARN’s mechanical-advantage progression: single line is standard, one block doubles it, two blocks triples it. Picks by tier: our best snatch blocks guide.
• Rated shackles and hardware matched to the winch line, not just the strap. ARB’s own recovery points, for scale, are rated for 4.75-ton shackles and 17,600 lb snatch straps.
• Stand-clear discipline, briefed before every pull. WARN: always stand clear of the winch rope and load, and keep bystanders away. See our how to use a winch guide for the full procedure.
• Minimum rope wraps verified on the drum: at least 5 wraps of steel rope, or 10 of synthetic, remaining at all times.

Tier 4: Club Run Ready (Organized trail runs, adds to Tiers 1 through 3)

For sponsored or organized runs, not manufacturer-sourced but CA4WDC’s own published standard for its events, via the Rubicon Trail Foundation.

• A jack capable of lifting the vehicle, plus a tool that removes your lug nuts.
• A spare tire equal to, or within 3 inches of, your existing tire size.
• A fire extinguisher with a gauge showing good or full, appropriately stored.
• Battery hold-downs (no bungee cords).
• Adequate front and rear attachment points: tow hooks, receiver, and similar, beyond your recovery point.

What You Can Skip

Not everything sold as recovery gear earns a place in the truck.

• A second winch, for most builds. One winch sized correctly per WARN’s 1.5x GVW rule, paired with a snatch block for the rare high-load pull, covers what a second winch would.
• Chains or improvised straps as recovery gear. ARB’s guidance is direct: use only properly rated, serviceable equipment.
• A tow ball as a recovery point. Not rated for the shock loading of a kinetic or winch pull.

How We Sourced This Checklist

Every item above is here because a manufacturer or organization publishes a rating or instruction behind it: WARN’s winching guide, ARB’s recovery basics series, MAXTRAX’s instructions, Bubba Rope’s own sizing guidance, and CA4WDC’s sponsored-event vehicle-prep standard, published via the Rubicon Trail Foundation. We don’t test gear and don’t claim to; we read the specs, cite them by name, and link the full guide behind any item that has one. Full detail on how we source and rank gear is on our review methodology page.

Want these numbers computed for your exact vehicle instead of matching them by hand? Our recovery kit builder runs the same formulas above and returns a full rated kit, with tier-matched picks, in one pass.