Patent ID: 7942360

Claim:
A retractable tow strap apparatus for towing a vehicle, comprising: a protective casing; a reel disposed within the casing and including a hub; a tow strap for winding about the hub between a fully extended position and a fully retracted position such that, in the fully retracted position, the tow strap is wound about the hub, the tow strap further including a tow strap webbing and means for attaching at least one end of the tow strap webbing to a vehicle to be towed; and means for automatically rotating the reel to automatically wind the tow strap onto the hub; wherein when the tow strap is in the fully extended position, the tow strap apparatus is configured to transmit substantially all of a tension force applied by a towing vehicle to a towed vehicle through only the tow strap, wherein the tow strap webbing comprises a non-disjoint tow strap webbing having two ends that are each extendable from the casing such that, in the fully extended position, the tow strap webbing is completely unwound from the hub, and wherein the hub includes a first component, a second component and an aperture extending therethrough, and wherein at least one of the first component and second component includes teeth extending toward and engaging the tow strap webbing to grasp a portion of the tow strap webbing to inhibit the webbing from moving with respect to the aperture of the hub when the tow strap is in the fully extended position.