HAND WINCH WHEN BOGGED

Hi all,
My vehicle is an old small 1 ton Toyota van which I use when I go bush. I know that its inevitable that one day I will end up being bogged and I am thinking that maybe a Hand Winch might be the go. I go out alone so there is nobody to give a hand if I get stuck. Would anyone know whether a Hand Winch would be suitable or have any other ideas.
Cheers

After the cable broke on on our hand winch and injured my mate, I am loath to ever use one again. I reckon they are bloody dangerous, unless you use a dampener on the cable (which we had never heard of at the time !). They are also very bulky and heavy to have in the back of the car all the time.

I have had a 9000lb winch on the front of my last two cars, but I used to go to some very way out places then. On my latest 4wd and just detecting I have not put one on - I think I would just walk out and get help if I got badly bogged, rather than have that weight swinging off my front bumper for years without being used.

Jig.

.

Also remember to recovery the vehicle from a proper recovery point when winching, not a tie down point. A young 14 yr old was killed recently during a recovery from mud.
Paul.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/12/3091225.htm

hi
i carry a 1½ ton lever hoist with about 30 ft of chain on it and about 100 or so feet of rope. i`ve not had to use it yet but i recon a 1½ ton hoist would pull the troopy out of most bogs. another thing i carry is a hi lift jack,they are not dear , about 120 bucks, but they are a versatile bit of gear. don`t use one to change a flat , they are very unstable, but i have seen them push a vehicle sideways (the tree was just in the right spot to connect the jack to the bull bar) , and if you have something to hook the jack to , like a bull bar, or a rear tow bar,you can lift the entire front or rear of a vehicle off the ground. at a 4wd training course they showed us that you could turn a troopy around in its own length. the toopy was lifted up to the full height of the jack,then the guy got to the side of the truck and pushed it sideways off the jack. the front of the troopy moved about 5 ft sideways.
cheers
dave

Hi MacRob
I used a Turfor TU16 for a number of years.It is a large hand winch.At the time I had a SWB Toyota. It worked wonders when bogged or stuck in a creek. It would lay flat on the floor in the back until needed. Remember to use a dampener over the wire for safety. Also a good idea is to purchase some recovery gear with rated bow shackles.

Productive Prospecting.
Pedro

Thanks everyone. Sounds like you have to be very careful when using winches. Cheers

Thanks everyone. Sounds like you have to be very careful when using winches. Cheers

Thanks everyone. Sounds like you have to be very careful when using winches. Cheers

Gday


Its well and good to have a winch fitted to your car, but being proficient in its operation is another thing, they are a dangerous item in the wrong hands, most of the experience I have had with winch recovery has been while in the army and mainly with trucks, the winches used were 20,000lb capacity and the cable could very easily cut you in half if it broke while you were in the way, the only person who was anywhere nearby was the operator who was in the cab of the truck, everyone else had to be at least (one and a half the times of the rope paid out) away from the vehicle, thats how much they said that the rope would stretch and whip out to in the event it broke under load.

Even with full training in recovery and winching teqniques I have seen blokes still have trouble operating the things and working out how best go about it in the field, what to attach it to etc etc, I have even seen one clown try and winch a badly bogged 5 ton truck out by attaching it to a lonely fence post and wonder why it didnt work , that got me wondering if he was trained in the same place I was?

For the few times I have been bogged over the years a winch would have not been of any use unless I was prepared to use a deadman (buried log or spare wheel) as there was nothing close enough by to attach it to anyway, once on the edge of the salt lake, I was too busy following someone elses tracks and looking up to the hills near by and not reading the ground as I should have been, by the time I had realised that it had changed I was in it, 4 hours of digging and lying in stinking slippery mud later I was out, with 200 pounds of mud stuck to the car and me, I think the camper trailer acted like an anchor when I hit the wet spot.

The best advice I could give is to better read the ground conditions and dont take unneccesary chances, carry a long handled shovel and if you have the room some of those traction boards that can be put under the wheels, a snatch strap is good too but of little use if you are on your own, you can even use your high lift jack to pull the car forward, it will get the wheels on to something solid anyway, let your tyres down a bit too, have a good look at the situation you are in as very often it is a better option to try and reverse out than try to go further forward and further in , your reverse gear is the lowest ratio gear in the box also and you will derive more traction if you try and not spin the wheels, before you start to try and move it also scrape mud off the tyres and expose the rubber and tread as the tyre coated in slimy mud is more likely to spin.

If I had been carrying a winch over the last 15 years or so I would have been able to use it maybe one time, for me it would be a waste of money and would add extra weight to the vehicle so I personally think that money spent on the other recovery gear I mentioned is better spent, but I would say this if you get a winch fitted to your vehicle then if you are not experienced in using one do some sort of training course in its use as you could possibly find yourself injured if something goes wrong.

cheers

stayyerAU

Thanks Stayyer for your informed comments about winches and also the other tips about overcoming being bogged, they are very helpful. Regards

Stayer wrote,"The best advice I could give is to better read the ground conditions and dont take unneccesary chances"

This is great advice and will save you many hours of grief. Always look well ahead and get out and check the ground conditions before proceeding.

More tips from the experts;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOa20qJoB8Y&NR=1

Hey Mac, In the old days I often got bogged and didn't have much gear. However I did have skid chains and many times they got me out of some very bad bogs. Takes a bit to learn them but they are very helpful. If you were on a salt lake or other bottomless bogs they can be fairly useless but even on some such they can get you out. (Except salt lakes maybe) but most bogs surrender to chains and they don't cost much. Actually skid chains are rather unappreciated in our technological age. I guess there isn't much money in it for those that promote off roading.
Sparrowfart

A new product for winches is plasmarope. Much safer than wire rope, lighter, easier to handle and rewind and STRONGER.
Not cheap, but well worth it, and less likely to take your head off IF it ever breaks.

http://www.plasmarope.com.au/?gclid=CLz7s4Sl1qMCFQZBbgod3lpZ1A

Panther

.

Actually Goldstalker, I saw that show. I think more damage is done if the hook stays on the end of the rope. Then again, even snatchem straps can be dangerous and all care should be taken at all times.

Panther

I agree with stayyerAU and the others, I don't like winches much. I own a Jackaroo now, an old Landcruiser before that and a few 'sedans' that should never of been where I took them. One thing that I did learn (in a VC Commodore) is that you can 'jack' a vehicle up with a normal, everyday car jack as long as you can provide a stable platform in the mud (a large flat river-stone in this case) and then proceed to 'chock' the ruts that the vehicle is sitting in with small rocks, sticks and anything that will hold your vehicle up enough to get it out of where it is, forward or backwards.

I will stress that this is a last ditch effort that may save you a hell of a long walk. It can be dangerous if you are not careful as the mud is slippery and the base can move with increased pressure. I re-adjusted the jack position twice during that event (to find the true centre) before allowing the full weight of the car to be placed on it. It got me out of the back waters of the Blue Mountains and I wouldn't take a 2 wheel drive anywhere there again, but it also saved me a hell of a walk.

Just something to keep in the back of your mind,

Nature Pete.

Great post Nature Pete for anyone who only drives a two wheel drive. Getting bogged is something that I try to be careful about however things happen sometimes. I will store your info.
Happy days, MacRob

Interesting thread. I have yet to be caught but given time ....('') I suppose depending on where you are caught (eg steep hill, bog, river etc) you may need to consider alternatives for the best way out. A front fixed winch may help you go forward. A hand winch may help you go any direction but has its disadvantages too (weight and size in the 4by as well as taking ages and lots of hard work to pull you any distance). If you have a raised 4wd your normal jack may not extend far enough anyway. An xjack (blow up pillow basically) could lift the part of car stuck so you can put more firm things under the tyre/s (but becareful not to put it under a hot exhaust). Then there is the Max Trax that you put under the bogged tyre/s. Having a mate nearby with a snatchstrap (and dampener) is also a possibilty.

Many years ago there was an add on telly where two young ladies had their transit van roll over a cliff and become stuck on the ledge. Mr King Gee just happen to be there, wrapped a chain around the bumper and to the center of a child's merry-go-round that also happen to be there. He then stuck a length of pipe or timber into the bars (cant remember which) and started walking round which winched the vehicle back up onto terra-firma.

I thought it pretty clever, so i tried it on my property in Mudgee using a short star picket, small bit of water pipe slipped over the star picket once hammered into the ground,,using a rope with an old towel set as a dampener and started winding it up using another small length of pipe.....it worked well dragging an old paddock basher i had with flat tyres.
Keeping the rope as low to the ground when winding kept the picket from bending. I would not use this idea on a slope tho, unless there was someone working the vehicles breaks.
Iv seen this system in 4wd books now and they use a stay pole wired to the main pole.

Another way is the See-saw system...a long length of timber/tree, place smallish rock/brick under cill of car, place one end of the timber between the rock and the cill and lever the other end to the ground, up she comes.
The longer the limb the more leverage you have.
Not much good if your on your own tho, unless you can use a peg of some sort under the end, and use a truckies hitch to pull it down.
But all equipment needed is supplied by the bush, so its cheap and fast.

I now use a portable electric boat winch to 6000Lbs, cost bugger all and has a handle in case your battery go's flat.

If you are new or relatively inexperienced at 4wding, Join a 4wd club and do their course or do a professional course. Take you wife, G/F,partner also.
There are many types of 4wding techniques. Beach, mud, outback, water crossing etc. It can take many trips to learn the ropes. There are also many 4wd parks around Oz that you can pay to use and gain some experience. Go and watch some of the 4wd competitions around Oz and talk to the people there. Subscribe to 4wd magazines and join their websites. Look around places like ARB and other 4wd specialist shops.

Good luck and enjoy

Robert

My mate used to carry a small block and tackle around with him to pull his LWB Landrover out of bogs. You can buy one of these now for less than $100. He also carried 2 star posts about 3-4 foot long. These he hammered into the ground in line. The hook went around the first one, close to the ground. The top of first one was tied back with a short rope, to the base of the second one. That is close to the ground, this gave a lot better anchor. Always have good tyres with plenty of tread.

When I was in the bush, I carried some bits of handy hard wood to make a good base for the jack in soft conditions.

mate you can always use a chain and highlift jack to get you out , setup properly we have used this method before , and I stress setup properly , go down to local 4x4 store and they will set you right , now we have pto winch to on front of bundera swb cruiser plus winch cradle on back with 6000lb winch that fits into hayman reece ,will not get stuck again cheers Mick

I have a MWB Bundera, diesel. Still going strong.