Another Anza Borrego day trip 1/26/08 - practice sand extraction

TheRoadie

Explorer
After getting stuck in the sand two trips ago in this thread, I vowed to bring my winch EVERY TIME, and also test it and the Pull Pal winch anchor, which I hadn't done under real-world conditions since buying them. It was also a great day to beat the approaching storm.

Since I needed a spotter in case I got well and truly stuck, SWR volunteered to come, and I also introduced him to the Pumpkin Patch and part of the Truckhaven Trail.

The first set of pics are from Mark:

At the edge of the Badlands

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Getting stuck on purpose in loose sand. Side hills are surprisingly annoying with heavy doors and swing-away spare holders. (Video coming)

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Assembling the fold-out Pull Pal winch anchor. In a place without trees or rocks or another vehicle, this is the gadget of choice. Alternatives include burying your spare tire in a deep hole to connect your winch line to. That's real work.

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Pull Pal placed where its blade will bite in and dive down to whatever level will let it get traction. It's rated for 12000 pounds force. I know it's off-center from the truck and the winch, but this was supposed to be a worst-case test - me doing it all alone with Mark just taking pictures.

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Connected up and ready to pull

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The uhaul blanket is a safety precaution everybody should take with winch lines, to absorb a bit of energy in case anything breaks loose.

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Tensioning up the winch line made the Pull Pal dive almost three feet, and it moved toward the truck by 6-8 feet as it got underground traction.

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Almost out now.

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Some Borrego Badlands shots:

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TheRoadie

Explorer
More of Mark's pics

The Roadie's lucky shirt - wearing this shirt has prevented me from rolling down ravines, running out of fuel, and disabling breakdowns on the trail.

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Colorful badlands

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The Pumpkin Patch, a unique collection of spherical concretions formed underground by sand and minerals in the groundwater. When the sand blows away when dry, these are left on the surface. Very rare to find the conditions necessary to grow them.

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Hiking up to a palm oasis, possible only with an underground stream.

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17 Palms oasis

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Down a shelf road into a wash. The Envoy is in this picture.

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Glad we missed this collapse

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Down into another wash.

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And up out of the wash to flat land again

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Look up Truckhaven Trail for more reading
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TheRoadie

Explorer
And some of mine...

Badlands (for more reading click here)

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Pull Pal assembled

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Currently I have a 12 foot winch control lanyard. But I bought an RF version that will work up to 100 feet away, but it isn't installed yet. I prefer being well outside the danger radius with as much as 9000 pound stress on the winch, cable, and other parts. This wasn't that hard a simulation, though.

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In mud or dirt I'm sure it won't be this easy to retrieve

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Trench left behind. I probably should have raked it flat so people wouldn't think I got stuck doing something dumb.

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SWR cresting a rise

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Narrow gap - H1's need not apply

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"Prospector's Post Office" in one palm grove at 17 Palms Oasis

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Yearly log books and geocaching stuff

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Decent size rockfall in Truckhaven Trail

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SOAZ

Tim and Kelsey get lost..
great area. I really need to make a trip out there.
Nice pics too. It looks like a ton of fun!!
 
S

Scenic WonderRunner

Guest
Thanks Bill..........!

Great day! Great Trails! ...........and the perfect Pilot/Navigator ALL in one!

GO! Inspector Gadget! ..........hehe


2008_0127AnzaBadlandsPumpkin0001.jpg


Who knew.....we could even drive on little atv trails!:wings:



And..........the Truckhaven sign. This is a Must Do trail heading north from the Pumpkin Patch!

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Life_in_4Lo

Explorer
that is some good stuff, thanks:26_7_2:

i had not realized people were modding the Envoy! interesting indeed
I have a winch but no pullpal, there are other 'creative' options but maybe not as convienent. the only thing i don't like is how bulky and heavy the pullpal is but it is certainly useful!
 

adventureduo

Dave Druck [KI6LBB]
Bill, at any time did you assist the winch with forward motion of the tires? That would take some of the load off. Also, if you're out of the vehicle, what steers the rig? Do you have a hand throttle to keep the idle up while under load winching?

Thanks for sharing.
 

TheRoadie

Explorer
SOCALFJ said:
Bill, at any time did you assist the winch with forward motion of the tires? That would take some of the load off. Also, if you're out of the vehicle, what steers the rig? Do you have a hand throttle to keep the idle up while under load winching?
All excellent questions! I was simulating being alone, and out of the vehicle, so I could see how things were going and not be in-line with the winch cable and Pull Pal fragments in case anything broke. I started with the engine turned off, to make sure the winch could pull off the battery (Optima red) alone - I'm using the top terminals as recommended by Optima for the Warn winch harness. Then I started it to put it in neutral and just left it on. At idle (600 RPM) I get 30-40 Amps charging, but it's a 150A alternator. So I wasn't really testing the full capacity of the battery.

Anyway, I wanted the winch to do all the work to stress it, also to test the Pull Pal fully, so I never got in to help it, which I would in a real situation.

When I was outside, the wheels turned twice on their own because the power steering was on, until I thought to lash the wheel to the shifter. Again, in a real stuck situation, I would have been inside steering.

And the hand throttle is an interesting one. The GMT360 platform (Trailblazers and Envoys) are full throttle by wire controls. No distributor - one coil on top of each plug, no throttle cable in the usual sense, and the accelerator pedal has two potentiometers on it, for redundancy. So a hand throttle would be a gadget to plug in place of the pedal assembly, two pots and a dial. Or a PROM adjustment to the engine control unit - I do have the tuning software in my tablet PC to do that, but it takes a couple of minutes to download a new tune so that's not the optimum route to get 2000 RPM. Have to think about that one a bit more, and until then, hope to not need the winch much.

Oh - why does it stick out in front so much, you might ask? It's in a Warn multimount and I have a 2" receiver in the bumper. I wanted the choice to move the winch to the rear receiver, or remove it altogether for storage around town - it's my daily driver, too.

Next stress test - up a 45 degree hump that Ocotillo Wells is full of.

Anybody have data or advice on how much tilt is too much for a running engine? I'm pretty sure 45 degrees is too much, so that test will be on the battery alone.
 

TheRoadie

Explorer
Considering the only two times I needed a winch and didn't have one with me, I also was out there solo, and there were no trees or rocks to use for anchors. Once in loose windblown sand that I misread, and the other in Borrego Sink mud that I also misread. Guess there's a clue there, but I learn.

Since I'm not always willing to put off a trip to wait for a wingman, and I admit the Envoy isn't a traditional offroading vehicle (even though it does have a frame and 2-speed transfer case), it made sense to aim for total self-reliance. A buried Pull Pal has to be easier to get out than burying a spare tire, especially since you can try to pull it out backwards.

And besides, it's a gadget. I love gadgets.
 

MountainBiker

Experience Seeker
Awesome test report!

I travel alone most of the time, so I've been eyeballing the Pull-Pal for some time now. So far I've been planning on using the buried spare tire if needed.
 

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