Flat Tyre Blocking
If you use the Flat Tyre blocking technique for vehicle stabilisation, you may find this little device handy.
It is basically a spare valve for a foot pump, which fixes onto the tyre valve for inflation, for flat tyre blocking you simply lock it onto the tyre valve and and the air will leak out in a controlled manner, this will also enable the tyre to be inflated at a later stage for vehicle removal if required, with no damage to the tyre valve itself.
On this one i have attached a cable tie so that i can attach them to a key ring, this unit is available from many stores around town.
Here we can see it fitted to a car tyre, all that needs to be done is the lever which is pointing down needs to be moved either left or right 90 degrees and the tyre will deflate in a controlled manner. The air outlet can be seen pointing to the right mid way on the device.
StaBfast
For those rescue services that use StaBfast, here is a simple tip which makes getting it to work a lot easier.
When stowed ready to be used the ratchet strap is wound around a spring assembly to hold it taught.
Now you may have found that when you want to extend the main part of the unit it will also require you to pull the strap from the spring holder to give you enough slack to attach the hook to the vehicle, this can be awkward at times as the spring clip can hold the ratchet strap quite firmly.
What we have found is that if you remove the ratchet strap and roll it up not using the spring holder as seen above, once this is done you just secure the ratchet strap under the spring arm.
As you can see below.
When you get to work all you need to do is just take the ratchet strap from under the sprung clip and extend and fit the StaBfast with ease, and without the need to pull the strap from the spring unit, as it will now be free with no friction on it.
Attaching the StaBfast hook
On some occasions the StaBfast hook will need to be attached to areas of the vehicle where a hole will need to be made using the tool provided. However sometimes due to the tip of the tool becoming blunt or where the body work of the vehicle is flimsy this may prove difficult and may require excessive force which could cause unwanted movement of the vehicle.
So we have found that the use of a drill and a coring drill bit is a very quick and effective method for making a purchase point for the hook.
Very little effort is needed to drill into the car bodywork.
Now as you can see the hook fits nicely into the hole, a very quick and easy technique, the tool that comes with the StaBfast does its job very well, but as with every situation things dont always work the way we want them too, this is an option you can use if you have the tools available.
See Video page
Squash Ball
When we are faced with a footwell entrapment and one or both of the feet are entangled within the pedals, or in a situation where we need to remove a pedal by cutting the wide foot piece off to enable the removal of the feet or foot.
There are various methods of displacing the pedals but where we decide to cut them, this can leave a very sharp / jagged piece of metal where there remains a risk of catching the foot on this metal causing further harm.
What we can use to aid us is a small ball such as a squash ball to cover the sharp remains of the pedal, this will protect the casualties foot from further injury.
This method may not always be suitable due to lack of space or a rapid extrication is called for even though it takes seconds to use.
This is something that can be easily carried and takes up minimum space.
