devon deer stalker
Well-Known Member
Came across this when I was researching portable winches
Off road Vehicle recovery
- Thread starter hogey
- Start date
Sunk a l200 laden sat on its chassis with wheels turning farmer came to the rescue we had a couple of load straps took one look and said put those away youll get them dirty puts his hand into his mac pocket pulls out a length of bailer twine ties it into a loop and doubles it hooks it onto front towing eye and tow hitch of tractor two of use looking at one another thinking this will never work less than a minute later we were on solid ground this was the yellow twine from a big bale so always carry baler twine and be near a tractor used this a few years later to recover a range rover after breaking some 10mm blue rope.
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
I have been in a situation where the ute was in lowest 4x4 and the hand throttle turned up so the car wheels were spinning whilst i was winching,not ideal but it worked.
Plus 1 and have done so.
Years ago when we all had Landrovers with solid bumpers and back members we all used 5 foot hi lift jacks to get stuck trucks out by using as a short winch or jack up one end high and pushing over, dropping 3 feet sideways then move to the front and do the same. Slow and bloody dangerous but better than a long walk and maybe carrying a rifle . If you own a 4x4 and use it offroad regularly get yourself a list of friends on your phone with suitable 4x4s and be prepared to return the favour at 3 am !!
Can't count the times my hilift has got me out of trouble by pushing the truck off it like this.
I always used to carry a small tirfor winch for that very purpose. Winched the truck out, then the trailer to the truck. As Firefly says, it's still hard work, just sometimes quicker than waiting for help!
Stalker62
Well-Known Member
I have a mid-range Tirfor and they are the dogs.
The wee mistake I made, was ordering double the length of the wire cable that they normally sell it with. The spool is seriously heavy and frankly a pain in the arse.
A mate suggested taking it off the original spool and then spooling the wire into an old tyre - the tyre then becomes storage and transport in one. A great suggestion that I have not yet got around to implementing...
A "hidden" winch is not what you want ideally when you need itNot aware of any 'standard' breakdown services that recover vehicles stuck off road but am aware of 3 instances over a number of years where recovery has had to be carried out by a commercial recovery firm using specially kitted out vehicles, cheapest (& simplest) cost £400 +VAT... a Nissan Navara buried so deep it was sat on the chassis rails with each wheel in a hole of its own in an area where solid ground was some distance away cost the hapless owner (who had tried to take a short cut) north of £1k
Am seriously considering fitting a winch to my D2 in the spring, not sure whether to get a fixed hidden one at the front or to have one that can be mounted front or rear using a suitable square hitch mount type of arrangement & Anderson plugs for the power - positive of that is recovery front or rear, negative is the winch would need to be carried in the car. Will probably just go for a front hidden installation.
I've done a fair bit in my time and things in practice rarely end up inline except in the classroom. A pull off line will lead to the rope bunching in one corner and once this is jammed you are royally stuffed and now stuck in the floor with a guitar string hanging out the front
A Tirfor is an excellent reliable, but slow, tool and even works with a dead motor whether thats not of your own choosing i e water, or of your own choosing i.e. vehicle on its side or upside down
I still have a TU1600 and funny enough used it twice in the last few months for friends.
Don't underestimate the forces involved and prudent use of snatch blocks can divert the direction of forces elsewhere if something does go wrong.
Once had a Discovery upside down on the M62 on a Friday morning in the outside lane. Traffic cop turns up and he's seen it all before. He starts fishing about in his boot so I asked him what he was looking for. He proudly pulls out a washing line and said we'll soon have you sorted
Clips on and promptly lifts the ar5e of the Volvo clean off the floor
He jumps out after 2 goes and said lets wait for the Recovery
Completely agree. My FL2 winch tucked away ready for use and if I know it’s going to be challenging, I take a Warn portable with me too that can be used at the rear or if one’s there, a nearby tree, and a couple of heavy duty glass-fibre sand mats.
Used to do this all the time with my old Defender - sadly cannot do it with the FL2
kimh
Well-Known Member
Don't forget to put the 'Spare Wheel' in the hole?
8x57
Distinguished Member
or a suitable log. (Improvised ground anchor and T slot trench).
Regarding concealed winches. I did a fair bit of rescue winching in a previous life using both electric and hydraulic winches. Problems cropped up fairly often where it was necessary to access the winch drum to resolve an issue. Therefore while they are much neater on the vehicle personally I would have some reservations about hidden winches and would probably opt for an exposed or detachable winch for self recovery on a small vehicle.
Stalker62
Well-Known Member
Apropos hidden "stuff" in vehicles.
My neighbour phoned me a couple of weeks ago. They have a small fleet.
Could I pop over with some leads and "jump start" her son's car. I forget what he was driving but when I tried to use her car (Ford) as the donor vehicle - the battery was in such a place that I could not access one of the terminals.
Ten minutes later I was back with the truck and off he went...
Was there not an Italian car "back in the day" that if you wanted to change the spark plugs you had to lift out the engine?
Chris J
Well-Known Member
Not sure that's a particularly well rounded view of what a hidden winch is. I can get to mine quite easily by lifting the bonnet. It's just not on show. It's not buried. I've had to mess with many winches that were sitting in winch bumpers that you simply couldn't get to. The point is that if it's a challenge truck, fair enough. But we're missing the OP here. It's about fitting a winch to a more or less daily drive, just in case but without attracting unwanted attention or making it look like the destroyer of rain forests.
F355 belt service. Yes, I do on mine. It's a pain
F355 belt service. Yes, I do on mine. It's a pain
Not sure that's a particularly well rounded view of what a hidden winch is. I can get to mine quite easily by lifting the bonnet. It's just not on show. It's not buried. I've had to mess with many winches that were sitting in winch bumpers that you simply couldn't get to. The point is that if it's a challenge truck, fair enough. But we're missing the OP here. It's about fitting a winch to a more or less daily drive, just in case but without attracting unwanted attention or making it look like the destroyer of rain forests.
F355 belt service. Yes, I do on mine. It's a pain
Get an F430!
S
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