Basket Stretcher AM-BS004

The AM-BS004 is our standard basket stretcher — the workhorse. I’m not going to dress it up as something it’s not. It’s not our cheapest basket (that’s a different model) and it’s not our most heavily reinforced one (that’s the BS006). It occupies the middle of the line, and it occupies it with the kind of reliability that makes it the default choice for search and rescue teams, fire departments, and ambulance services that need one basket stretcher that handles most situations most of the time.

The shell is rotomolded polyethylene with UV-resistant additives baked into the material — not painted on, not coated. That matters when this stretcher lives in the back of a rescue truck in Arizona or sits on a helicopter deck in the Mediterranean. UV degradation doesn’t just make plastic look bad; it makes it brittle. A brittle basket stretcher is a failure waiting to happen. The rotomolding process gives us uniform wall thickness, no weak points at seams or joints, and a shell that can take impacts without cracking.

The frame is high-strength aluminum alloy tubing — thick enough to be rigid, light enough that two people can carry a loaded stretcher over uneven terrain without burning out in the first hundred meters. The four stainless steel D-ring lifting points are individually tested to 500 kilograms. I repeat that number in every conversation about this product because it’s the number that matters. If you’re hoisting this stretcher under a helicopter, each D-ring is holding more than the entire rated load of the stretcher. The failure point isn’t the attachment — it’s the frame or the shell, and both of those are rated well beyond the stretcher’s 250-kilogram load limit.

The built-in foam core gives the BS004 positive buoyancy. You can use this in water rescue — the stretcher floats with a patient secured inside. That’s not a marketing claim; it’s a design feature. The four-point safety harness with quick-release buckles keeps the patient centered and secure regardless of the angle of the lift. In a slope evacuation, where the stretcher might be at a 30-degree tilt, the harness prevents the patient from sliding and shifting their center of gravity.

At about 18 kilograms, the BS004 isn’t light. Basket stretchers aren’t supposed to be light — they’re supposed to be strong. For teams that want something lighter, we make smaller baskets. For teams operating in extreme industrial environments, we make the BS006. The BS004 is for everyone in between — the rescue team that does two cliff extractions, a flood evacuation, and a wilderness carry in a single season and needs one piece of equipment that handles all of it. That’s the workhorse, and that’s why it’s the basket we sell the most.

Technical Specifications — AM-BS004 Basket Stretcher