Yeah I'm going nowhere fast here this is a perfect example of why a winch is one of the best bits of
gear you can add to any four wheel drive doesn't matter how big your ease or how experienced you
are behind the wheel if you do enough for driving you're probably going to get stuck at some stage
it's just part of the fun now whether you're like me and you can't help but throw yourself up every
big tough hill or deep bog hole that you come across or if you're just out searching for that
elusive perfect campsite you can never know when you're gonna get stuck and having a winch on hand
means the difference in those scenarios between a funny story to tell around the campfire and an
ordeal that you'd want to forget quickly but here's the thing you can't just bottle weeks
to the front of your vehicle and hope for the best when you get stuck a winch is a tool that needs to
be used properly and treated with respect if it's used in the wrong way at best you can burn your
winch out and at worse you can damage your vehicle or even hurt yourself but don't sweat it because
in this video I'm gonna show you how to make any weeks recovery safer and easier regardless of the
terrain you're bogged in or how badly you're stuck so let's get into it okay so in a situation like
this the very first thing to do before you even look at your winch is assess why you're stuck
and not going anywhere if you've got your bull by wedged into a rock then no amount of winching is
gonna pull you free and if you've got a wheel 4 foot in the air then winching forwards could put
you on your side an old feller I've spent a lot of time without will she used to have a saying
there's no situation so bad that you can't make it worse and that is absolutely spot on when it comes
to four-wheel drive recoveries so first let's have a look at why we're not going anywhere here it was
pretty obvious why I'm not going anywhere it's a combination of tires trying to climb these rock
steps and then overall lack of traction so we'll start the recovery process with the winch now on
this side of the vehicle is the perfect example of why you always want to look underneath before
you hook your winch up as you can see here there's a big old hole and even if I do hook the winch up
that ties just gonna drop deeper into it I'm gonna jam the slider straight into that rock and that's
just not gonna be any good now track building isn't just for driving it's great for recovery
situations too so I'm gonna fill that hole with rocks and that way when I'm winching forwards
the winch fighting against the terrain now which is just about useless without recovery gear so
let's have a quick look at what you need to pull off a winch recovery so the things that you need
for an effective winch recovery are as follows for a basic winch recovery at an absolute minimum you
need a tree trunk protector and you'll need a winch damper this big orange fellow here now if
the anchor point the tree that you want a winch off isn't close enough to the vehicle that's when
you add a winch extension strap this purple fellow here now if you're seriously violet you may need
to do a double line pull and I'll show you how to do that in a minute but for that you'll need
a snatch block and a shackle so with the track building done and the recovery gear ready it's
time to choose an anchor point to connect the winch to now I'm gonna winch off this trailer
right here it's perfect for a number of reasons first of all it's big and strong and healthy
and second of all it's directly in front of the vehicle you should avoid winching more than about
15 degrees of dead straight ahead to prevent the winch from twisting the bullbar cradle to roughly
estimate how far 15 degrees off dead straight is draw a line from your rear view mirror to each of
your front blinkers no more than that angle so bear with me for a second while I have a
little rant because this one's important anytime you connect your winch to a tree don't just wrap
the winch rope around the tree use a tree trunk protector it stops the tree from being damaged
in the worst-case scenario to stop the tree from being ringed bucked and killed greenies don't need
more ammunition against 4-wheel drivers get a tree tray protector they're cheap they're
affordable that cost about the same as a 6-pack of beer there is no excuse for not using one
so here's something I've seen people do more than once when you're winding out your winch
rope don't want it out so far that you can actually see the drum on the winch
you need to leave at least one full wrap of rope completely covering the drum can
maximum strength if you haven't got a tree that's close enough to you use a winch extension strap
now with most of the tension taken up on the rope you can adjust the tree trunk protector
to the perfect height what you want is a height that stops the rope from dragging on the ground
potentially being frayed and damaged also allows you to winch up and over the obstacle you're stuck
on instead of being pulled down into it when you winch in however you don't want to go too
high because the majority of the strength in the tree is right here at its base good rule of thumb
don't go any higher than about the trees width now the final piece of the puzzle is a winch
dampener in the unlikely scenario that something breaks while you're at full tension while you're
winching in this will catch it before it connects with a car or a bystander or anything like that
it's a vital bit of safety gear pop it over the winch hook if you can if you're on a hill
like this you'll stop it from sliding down the winch cable and make sure to keep any bystanders
well away behind a big tree and at least double the distance of the length of the witch cable
all right so now time for the witch recovery so you're in first gear low range or drive if you've
got an automatic as you're winching in gently feed the accelerator on you want to be able to
assist the winch by driving at the same time but you've got to be careful not to overrun the winch
if you feel the vehicle gaining traction and the winch cable going slack just back off and let the
witch catch up keep the revs up at all times your winch will be using heaps of electrical power so
hold the revs at about 1500 rpm to ensure the alternator is supplying as much charge to your
battery as possible the heat generated under operation is the biggest killer of winches so
if you have to winch in at 60 second intervals with five minute cooling-off periods in between
that'll keep your winch motor and your gear box internal temperatures down and prolong its life
most importantly when you're winching don't let me let your winch stall out that's when you get
to a point where you're winching in you're if I'm on the controller but the vehicles not moving if
that happens in the winch stalls that'll risk burning any which motor out now if that happens
what you should do is back off the winch slowly and carefully until the vehicle can be secured
in park with a handbrake on or in first gear and once it's safe to pop out and have a look
at what's stopping you from moving forwards may be that you need to do a bit more track
building or you might need to do what's known as a double line pool now I don't actually need to
do one on this hill but I'll show you how it works just so you can see so I back the back
down the hill so I can set this demonstration up the first step to setting up a double line
pool is to unspool the winch rope to double the length you need to reach the anchor point
so back up to the anchor point and what we're going to use is this fellow right here the
snatch block now what this does is it adds a mechanical advantage to the weak recovery by
doubling the rope through this and back to the vehicle you double the pulling power of
the winch so the way to set this up is to open it up like that offer up your rope through it
like that and close it back up again now to connect it to the anchor point there
is a right and wrong way to use a bow shackle you've got the curved part of the bow shackle
and you've got to part the body here where the pin goes through what you should do to
prevent damage to your tree trunk protector is make sure the tree trunk protector is on the
bow part of the shackle and that the pin for the shackle goes through the island like this
final part of the equation connect the winch hook back to a recovery point on your vehicle this is
how it should look when it's set up properly note that the rope doesn't cross back over itself and
of course don't forget your winch dampener put it over both lines of the rope just in case anything
does let go and that's the double line pool setup done doubling your which is pulling power
like this won't only make it easier to recover your vehicle but it'll stress your winch less to
once you pull off a successful winch recovery here's a little trick to make sure your winch
is in perfect nick and ready to go next time if you haven't been able to winch
directly straight forwards you might find that your winch rope is bunched up to one
side or the other of the drum if that's the case just unspool it and then spool it back
in neatly guiding it backwards and forwards across the drum put a bit of tension on it as
you go and of course keep your fingers away from it if you're like having all of them
and there you go tips to make any winch recovery safer easier and more effective
what do you reckon have I missed any or have you got an idea for the next video
I should do chuck them in the comments below and don't forget to hit that subscribe button
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