Guess I should have been more specific, meant a hook attached to the vehicle, possibly being superior to a D ring. Hopefully the hook will snap at the curve or better yet straighten out and let the strap go without the hook or a D ring attached. Don´t use any metal attached to my straps.
As far as a chain goes, the phrase, weak link, has been around for a long time. 30 feet of chain came back at me faster than I could say chit, maybe a blanket would have slowed it or deflected it, who knows. I used that chain for for more than a decade, no problems, but then again, it only takes once.
I´ve got a good length of 5/8" cable I´m looking hard at, but will probably end up with a really serious strap instead. Just call me chicken or once burnt twice shy.
For RichP, I´ve never broken a tank tow cable, but have broken a few tow hooks (think they were designed to be the weak link). I`ve also snapped the winch cable on my tank recovery vehicle (M-88) with a 40-50 lb. snatch block on the end, thankfull I was behind a couple of inches of armor plate.