Very cool recovery of a stuck Unicat

[gjackson]

Check out this video of the recovery of a Unicat stuck on the Makadikadi pans near Kubu Island in Botswana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQepZFRqS4

Great use of team winching and lots of rigging!

cheers

 

[Michael Slade]

Very nice. I left a comment on YouTube.

 

[Spikepretorius]

Let's see the Tirfor proponents tackle a recovery like that. They'd need a Red Bull sponsor. LOL

 

[Brian McVickers]

Were they digging holes in front of the Land Cruisers' tires to prevent them from being pulled forward? -- Seems like a good idea.

 

[winkosmosis]

I think I see someone putting a strap on a tow ball

 

[gjackson]

Were they digging holes in front of the Land Cruisers' tires to prevent them from being pulled forward? -- Seems like a good idea.

Yes, you can see both Cruisers sink into the holes as they start winching.

I gather that the Unicat belongs to Thomas Waas owner of Unicat. His travels are here:

http://auf-achse.info/MT_Weltreise_2007/html/index.php?site=home

(Got the link from the T4A mailing list)

cheers

 

[adventureduo]

Thanks for posting Graham. You just made my day.. or quite possibly me week. That was awesome.

 

[kerry]

Wonder how they went about finding so many Land Cruisers to help? Lots of white faces too. Does Botswana have a large white population or are those people also expeditioners?

 

[BlackX]

That was great to see. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nadir_E]

Looked like textbook work per the Vehicle Dependent Expedition Guide - nice to see it in action.

I thought I read somewhere that the maximum torque/pulling power from a winch is derived when there is the least amount of cable on the drum (within safety limits, of course - the five raps, for example), but perhaps I'm remembering backwards. If I'm right, though, wouldn't the lead winches have been more effective if they started further away from the Unicat?

-n

 

[Spikepretorius]

Wonder how they went about finding so many Land Cruisers to help? Lots of white faces too. Does Botswana have a large white population or are those people also expeditioners?

Those are South African licence plates on the vehicles. So many Safricans go to Bots that it gets like the mall at times

 

[jcbrandon]

Excellent.

That's what, six?! snatch blocks in use for a single recovery.

...maximum torque/pulling power from a winch is derived when there is the least amount of cable on the drum ...wouldn't the lead winches have been more effective if they started further away from the Unicat?

I think they were. There were four lengths of line from each winch truck to the stuck truck. Figure perhaps 100 feet of line on each drum and the distance looks about right.

 

[78Bronco]

Stuck unicat...

exactly the reason I never want a giant land anchor for an expedition rig. The bigger the truck the bigger the stuck. Good thing this person was able to wrangle up some pulling power.

 

[DiploStrat]

Those are South African licence plates on the vehicles. So many Safricans go to Bots that it gets like the mall at times

Ain't THAT the truth!

 

[Willman]

That is one cool planned recovery!

I bet the Unicat guy had a pretty good bar tab that night!

:coffeedrink: