Winching 101

[valpacer]

Absolutely a must read thread here Sal, good work. Iva actually linked this thread to some guys down here to read.

My only comment is on the current trend of cheap winches, ropes and blocks. Short story.

We spent over 5 hrs last weekend winching a dead XJ (broke the front locker, and locked the drivetrain up solid, until the winch overcame the centre pin the wheels freed up about 10m into the pull) up Big Red at Glasshouse mountains. One of the trucks has a no name 9.5k winch on his XJ, and only the factory battery. Not only did his winch make more noise than a broken patrol gearbox, the factory alternator and battery couldnt keep up after only 3 mins of winching. At the time his was the only truck ahead of the stranded one. We took my Grand and another XJ around the chicken track (which is now almost as hard as the main track!) and set up in place at the top of Big Red (around 55m to the stranded truck below) Using multiple snatch blocks, the other XJ as a land anchor we inched the XJ up to the top with many changes of location and angles etc.

My Warn Magnum 9k (yep just an entry level warn) didnt stop all night. It got hot enough that you only just couldnt touch it but that was it. The club has a 45m rope extension (genuine Dyneema), i carry a 20m and my winch has 32m usable rope (All Dyneema). All this gear worked flawlessly.

The day after someone was stuck up the road and I got a call to go and give a hand. Different area, almost same situation. Except that 2 chinese winches had blown solenoid packs (1 has also blown a battery in a patrol!) and 1 unknown ebay rope and so called heavy duty snatch block failed. According to the guys it had not even touched the ground under tension. The snatch block centre bearing ground into itself and locked up tight. Another 2 hour winch to get a fat arse landcruiser up the hill, and again the winch just kept going and all my gear worked perfect.

There are some things that at the end of the day you just have to pay the right money for, and do the right maintenance too.

Happy winching.

Dave.

[valpacer]

On another note too, the above diagram of the indirect line pull is a very important one. By putting the snatch block on the truck being recovered, you can actually still steer that truck quite easily and make things much safer (ie choosing lines etc) than if you jjust ran between the two vehicles, and usually gives you a much better choice of placement for the recovery vehicle..

Dave

[Matt]

There are some things that at the end of the day you just have to pay the right money for, and do the right maintenance too.

Words of wisdom right there my friend!!

[Sal-XK]

I agree with that and warren would be my choice. But which one to get? For my needs the basic entry level one will do for valpacer you could justify spending more for a bigger faster model.

[valpacer]

I actually have a larger Warn coming in the next container, with the contactor pack instead of solenoids. A little bit faster but a lot better for fighting water ingress and maintenance time.

Dave

[Sal-XK]

Most places I go snatching is all that's needed. If I found my self pulling full size rigs out needing several hard pulls to get the job done I would spend more on a better winch with faster pull speed and ones that run cooler as well.