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Scenario...winching/recovery techniques and safety

campfire said:
I need to think this one through. Plenty of suspensions will do a crummy job of transferring force to the frame. But aside from that, what is the downside of using a suspension mount? If your wheels are buried, and you can get a strap securely on the affected axle, it will give a more direct connection between the stuck wheels and the winch. Pulling on the frame would require the suspension to transfer that force to the wheels, and that springiness may not always be desirable. :dunno:

:thinking:
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If both axles are anchored somehow, it will come right out. Not meaning the truck

last year in Pritchett they peeled apart a military wrap spring by pulling on the front bumper when the rear tire got snagged. Could just as easily done similar if the front was anchored and they pulled on the axle.

food for thought
 
Bent77 said:
If both axles are anchored somehow, it will come right out. Not meaning the truck

last year in Pritchett they peeled apart a military wrap spring by pulling on the front bumper when the rear tire got snagged. Could just as easily done similar if the front was anchored and they pulled on the axle.

food for thought
Click to expand...

Don't you always have that problem, regardless of which direction you are pulling? And If both axles are anchored, won't you be trying to sheer both sets of spring packs? I could understand not wanting to pull directly on one axle while the other is buried. But even when you pull from the frame, the frame is putting the same (opposite) force through the springs, no?

:thinking:
 
campfire said:
Don't you always have that problem, regardless of which direction you are pulling? And If both axles are anchored, won't you be trying to sheer both sets of spring packs? I could understand not wanting to pull directly on one axle while the other is buried. But even when you pull from the frame, the frame is putting the same (opposite) force through the springs, no?

:thinking:
Click to expand...
Yep, It was also kind of a "understand that shear and those forces"

We have done it, but it isn't my first choice. Also ratchet strapped axles to the frame while winching.

Strange things happen out there
 
I don't think it was mentioned yet. But something that can be done is have the hood open if you are winching and inside the vehicle. If something snaps and flies back at the driver, the hood will have a much better chance at stopping it than the windshield will
 
When winching with wire-rope remember that it is 6 springs wrap around 1 spring,without the twisted wire it would not wind on the drum or go around blocks
 
The 3 things that scar me the most....
Using bolts in lifting shackles ,there not made it..the shackle pin is 1/8" bigger then the bow size,if it is a carbon or alloy steel it will have a alloy forge pin..
2)using tie down straps for lifting or towing,there rated with a little less then 3 to 1 safety fator wll 3350lbs bs of 10,000 lbs most lifting slings is 6 to 1..
3)angles, pulling at less then 60deg off center u lose 15% or u add 15% to the weight of the pull.
 
Seen the video and on putting up the hood,might work,good thing to do but my lock it would flip over into the back window or the side window ,mufphes law, what u think won't happen will..
 
Here's a video of a situation Larry and I went through a couple of years ago. This is one of those situations where stuff broke and almost made a bad situation worse. Thankfully I had my winch at the ready to finish getting him off the edge.

A quick backstory to what was going in before the video started. Larry and I were heading up a trail that had two snowdrifts still across the trail in late May. We were at close to 8,000 ft of elevation with a sheer drop off the right side of the trail. As he approached the final drift we both got out to inspect and layout an attack plan. The snow was a solid block of ice that was not going to crush under the weight of the truck. Climbing over the snow with the left side would put an already top-heavy truck leaning way too much over a sheer drop. We decide to try and go around it, but we knew it would put the right side tires right on the edge of the trail and it was damp from the snow melt. He moved cautiously as I spot and the ground under the right front gives way slightly. Nope. We are not proceeding and move into recovery mode.

You'll see we have the rear winch on Larry's truck attached to a tree up on the side of the mountain with a tow strap as the tree saver. Larry's rear winch is running synthetic rope so we did not put a weight on the rope. I ran the controls as Larry tried to gently back up as the winch pulled it. Then the failure happened. At 38 seconds in you'll hear the winch housing snap. (thanks Smittybuilt!) What is hard to see is in this process, the ground under the right rear gave way also. It's now really ugly. We regroup, set a new plan calmly to use my winch while leaving the other rope hooked up as an anchor. My winch has steel cable so we did end up breaking out a winch weight to make the cable drop if it broke. Larry's mother in law was with us and we made sure she was well behind my Blazer for safety. It didn't take much to pull him back up, but we both took a deep breath and backed down to the last turn to camp for the night.


Watching after it occurred I can say we could have done things differently. I should have hooked up my winch as a safety line prior to using the rear winch on the K10. When the tension was on the steel cable Larry and I should not have been standing next to it. I normally run the winch control all the way to the cab where I can run the controls and apply the brakes to aid in pulling vs the winch pulling my lighter truck to the heavier one. I did not do that this time. Even with barely pulling it a couple of feet before Larry was able to back up without a problem. Despite the way Larry and I are behaving in the video we were both pretty spooked by almost loosing his truck. We tend to joke to keep it light, but we were stressed and made a couple of mistakes for sure. We didn't get hurt by it on this occasion, but we could have been.

It shows that even with experience one can lose sight of all the safety issues in a given recovery.
 
Great example...sometimes hasty decisions are made, and a lot of times, its easy to look back and make a better decision.
Thanks for posting this!
 
campfire said:
Don't you always have that problem, regardless of which direction you are pulling? And If both axles are anchored, won't you be trying to sheer both sets of spring packs? I could understand not wanting to pull directly on one axle while the other is buried. But even when you pull from the frame, the frame is putting the same (opposite) force through the springs, no?

:thinking:
Click to expand...
I don't believe that both axles will be stuck in every recovery situation. Make sure to lessen resistance as much possible. I have watched some forget to take it out of gear with a dead engine. Or disconnect a locked up axle..

Bent77 said:
Yep, It was also kind of a "understand that shear and those forces"

We have done it, but it isn't my first choice. Also ratchet strapped axles to the frame while winching.

Strange things happen out there
Click to expand...
I have used a strap or chain to go under the axle , then up to the frame to make a sling. Caution is advised when doing this, of course.
 
So who's recovery gear do we like ? Snatch block should be twice the winch rating? Tree savers, d rings, hooks?
 
Factor55 has some really cool stuff. I just bought a rope thimble and splicing needle from them, I haven’t put it on yet but the quality looks amazing.
 
I've used a Ramsey snatch block for years. I'll try to see if there's a tag
 
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