Winch technique

[Dirt Rider]

Have not seen a lot of information on how to deal with the anchor vehicle while winching out another vehicle. Should you leave it in park, neutral, drive, leave parking brake on or? If possible I like to have my front bumper against a rock or tree, or better yet my rear anchor point attached to something. I would think that if you left it in park there is a chance to damage the transmission.

 

[Winterpeg]

Anchor vehicle: In neutral with your foot on the brakes.

If that's the vehicle with the winch... you can also increase the RPM's a bit to have your alternator produce more amps and reduce the amount drawn from your battery.

 

[alanymarce]

Anchor vehicle: In neutral with your foot on the brakes.

If that's the vehicle with the winch... you can also increase the RPM's a bit to have your alternator produce more amps and reduce the amount drawn from your battery.

I agree - you need someone in the winching vehicle in case it starts moving. Footbrake on, handbrake on, in neutral.

 

[NatersXJ6]

I personally wouldn’t anchor the rear of the winching vehicle unless I was in life/death dire emergency. I think you might end up tensile testing your frame, and while it’s probably fine 99.99% of the time, you won’t know which time is 00.01% until it becomes a bad day. You probably don’t want to “know” what the weakest point in that system is.

 

[Superduty]

As mentioned above, Neutral. You don't want that kind of pressure placed on the parking pawl of an automatic transmission. You can also put a rock or a block of some sort in front of a tire(s) as a wheel chock.

 

[Tudor Tanase]

If you are on your own and need to winch something out of the way I usually place the bullbar against a tree, Toyota handbreaks are not something to be trusted

 

[dbhost]

It's already been covered, but...

Winching / anchor vehicle running, RPMs up, in neutral, with the drivers foot FIRMLY on the brake pedal.

ALWAYS use a weight on the cable in case of a cable snap to make the cable drop instead of whip back through your windshield. I have an old heavy winter coat I fill the pockets with tools to add weight to the cable.

No do NOT anchor the winching vehicle to any permanent land objects. It was metnioned above, but you will subject the frame of your vehicle to all sorts of pulling and twisting forces, not to mention the bodywork of the vehicle. Resist the urge...

I know not always possible, but it would be best for the vehicle to be winched, have a moveable winch mount and anchors front and rear so that it is independent of other vehicles to get it out of trouble. This is not always an option though...

 

[Metcalf]

This was a good video with test data on how much potential force the 'recovering' vehicle can provide.
It was basically a test of if 'chocks' really did much to help.
Note the fairly low forces required to slide all 4 tires of the vehicle.


It is worth keeping in mind that there may be many cases where you just can't generate 'enough' force when trying to be the recovering vehicle.
I definitely always have a shovel to dig some holes which seem to help a lot ( and even small ones as in the video above can make a pretty decent difference )

I personally won't rule out adding a fixed anchor point for the recovering vehicle into the mix. I think you have to be fairly smart about it, but even just having that additional fixed point can make the recovery 'feel' a lot better when things are technical and exposed.

It is also very much worth the extra time to rig up a redirection point to change the pull orientation for the recovering vehicle in certain cases. I've done this more than one time so that the recovering vehicle is being pulled 'uphill' instead of towards more exposure. This can also help generate more available winch force as you are trying to pull the vehicle uphill or against a cut bank.

 

[Wendell-R]

Need better chocks for sure:





It has a compact design for easy storage; folds to 14.5" X 12.75" X 4.5" with 1 pin making it very easy to use. The Scotch & Snatch has corrosion resistant zinc plating and doubles as a wheel chock. It's made in the USA, start to finish. It was developed for the towing industry and is easily adapted for personal and recreational recoveries. Manufactured by Bailey's Towing Accessories, Inc. Patent Pending

https://baileystowinginc.com/Baileys-Scotch-Block-BSS1.htm

Pricey, probably heavy and never in stock though.

 

[Howard70]

...It is also very much worth the extra time to rig up a redirection point to change the pull orientation for the recovering vehicle in certain cases. I've done this more than one time so that the recovering vehicle is being pulled 'uphill' instead of towards more exposure. This can also help generate more available winch force as you are trying to pull the vehicle uphill or against a cut bank.

This really helps when trying to recover a vehicle from "above". About the only disadvantage is the occasional difficulty in finding an anchor for the redirect point. Until the vehicle to be recovered or the winching vehicle moves, the force on the redirect anchor can be considerably higher than the force on the winch or the vehicle to be recovered, but once motion starts that's not an issue.

Howard