It is important to understand how to safely recover a vehicle using a snatch strap. There have been too many cases resulting in tragic loses:
Towing death highlights dangerThe most common mistake is to snatch straight off your tow ball. Never snatch off the tow ball or trailer chain mounting brackets:
Snatch traps are very elastic and can store a lot of energy. When something fails they tend to go flying.
Snatching should always be done using rated mounting points off the chassis. If your vehicle does not have this then the next option can be to snatch off a tow ball block or at worst putting the snatch through the tow ball square hole and putting the pin through it. This minimizes the amount of weight that can be turned into a projectile.
Rated D-shackles
Some hardware stores will sell you cheap Chinese D-shackles. They can be identified by the lack of ratings written on them (avoid these at all cost) they will break and turn into a projectile. Only use rated gear when snatching.
Reversing
Always try to avoid towing someone out in reverse. The reverse gear in your car is normally a lot smaller than your first gear thus can not handle the same abuse.
Damper
Tie a wet towel in the middle of the snatch, this will act like a dampener when something fails.
Communication
Having a good way of communicating will make snatching easier. A 2-way radios will help if you are in areas with limited mobile phone signal.
Speed
On your first snatch always go slow, then progressively build up speed per snatch. If you are finding yourself going over 20 km/h stop and re-asses the situation. You will need to remove sand/rocks/obstructions before you continue. Snatching above this speed is just going to cause you more problems. Remember that no matter how bad the situation is you can always make it worse, so take your time and think it over.
Connecting multiple snatches
If you tie snatches together and do a recovery the knot will get so tight you will never get it out. To avoid this you can put something in the knot like a newspaper. It goes without saying if to not put a D-shackle in between the knot as this will go flying when something fails
Snatching on more than a 30 deg angle can be dangerous as you can make the car roll
Speaking from experience, you don't want this to happen to your car