PDB TESTED No. 131: Lil’ Bubba Rope

We test a lot of products each year, but this one was one of the most memorable for us. I have had great success with the original Bubba Rope for my truck, so I wanted to get the Lil’ Bubba for the boat. My Super Duty broke down awhile back and I used the Bubba Rope to tow it home and I love that the rope has a little give to it.

All Bubba Ropes are made of 100 percent double-braided nylon that is actually designed as three ropes in one. The inner nylon core is braided looser to absorb more of the lower loads and the outer nylon jacket is braided tighter for higher loads. The difference is in the exterior urethane polymer base coating that Bubba Rope is dipped in. The coating provides a protective shell, making it water-resistant, UV- and abrasive-resistant. In combining these three layers, Bubba Rope actually “stretches” to create kinetic energy, which helps in the pulling effort, making it a kinetic energy recovery rope.

At a recent boat test I attached the Bubba Rope to see how it would tow and evaluate it for this review and it worked great. But then only minutes later we spotted a boat stuck on a sandbar so we truly got to do some real hands-on testing. The boat was really stuck, but the rope held up extremely well and we were able to free the other boat. 

Bubba Rope has five different diameters and strengths for all type of recoveries, including the Lil’ Bubba, which pulls up to 7,400 pounds. Each diameter sized rope comes with Gator-ized color-coded eyelets for easy identifying and additional wear protection. The half-inch by 20 foot snatch rope is $89 and now it permanently stays on our boat. Simply put, I never leave home without Bubba.

—Brady L. Kay, PDB Editor