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If you live in snow or mud country, in desert sand, go 4-wheeling for fun, or just have a lot of tree trunks and heavy rocks to move around your place, a winch is just what can solve some major headaches for you. A winch is basically a motorized spool with heavy-duty cable wrapped around it, and can be used to recover other vehicles or your own vehicle in snow/mud/sand. It is mounted on the front or rear of your truck, and powered by the truck's battery (so you need a strong one with plenty of power).
Winching can be as simple as a straight-line pull, or as complex a rigging job as you can figure. The simpler, the better, but sometimes two vehicles will double-winch together, or a tree can be used for directional leverage. Common truck winches can pull 8,000 to 12,000 pounds, have cables of 100 to 125' long, and connect to the truck with a bumper mount.
Accessory gear is a real necessity: tree strap (never wrap the winch cable around a tree), D-ring shackle and bolt, a snatch block, extra hooks, a spare remote, safety gear such as gloves, cable dampers/blankets (at the very least, throw your jacket over the line). Keep a 'no-person' zone around the cable line, in case it snaps. That line can cause serious injury or death if it snaps, so you'll want to limit its path. If you are winching by yourself, it's better to get into the cab and operate the remote from there.
Here's an intro video to get you thinking about what a winch could do for you:
Don't let the picture fool you, this is a great clip from one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Gods Must be Crazy" and actually does deal with winches not just wenches.
Winches come in many forms and have been of great service forever. Even the cranes used to build medieval castles used a form of the winch.
They were man powered, but worked in the same way. Winches, cranes, windlasses, block and tackle all serve to move heavy loads with a minimum of power required by the operator to do a job.
Last edited by MTSilvertip; 02-11-2016 at 08:01 AM..
I didn't watch the videos so I don't know if these points/considerations were covered.
Get the right size - In general (but varying based on your terrain/conditions), a winch should have double the pulling capacity of the vehicle it's attached to. Extreme mud or steep terrain may require more.
Amsteel (or similar) rope - Instead of cable, there's rope that can be used. It's easier to handle, floats and doesn't retain any energy so if it snaps, it just falls to the ground (as opposed to steel cable which will go flying).
Mounting location - Consider your conditions and mount the winch in an appropriate location. E.g. if you expect to get stuck in mud, a higher location is better so you can actually get to the winch. Hard to work with the winch if it's 2' under the mud.
Remotes - Unless you expect to only need the winch control from the drivers seat, remotes are handy. There's wireless which free you from being near the machine/winch as well as wired which normally have about 15-20' of cord so you don't need to be at the drivers seat but can still operate the winch.
Brake systems - There's a few options here. Some brake systems will physically lock the winch in position (these are better but more expensive). Other winches don't have a mechanical brake so if the winch is left under stress, it may slowly spool out.
Power vs. Speed - Select an appropriate gear ratio for your expected needs. The gear ratio differences allow either faster or more powerful pulls.
As far as the mounting location. Make sure it can be removed from the front and mounted on the rear. Good winches have quick disconnects so that in a matter of a few mins it can be moved.
I have been stuck with a winch and I couldn't use it because it was on the front and I just drove into 2 feet of mud and for 1/4 mile ahead it was mud and nothing the anchor to. But within 100 feet to my rear I had a tree I could use.
We use a 4 to 1 block and tackle for a lot of different purposes. It was a boat mainsheet at one time, but works great for hauling things up trees or pulling things from one place to another. Also various shackles, ring bolts, accessory ropes and the knowledge to tie knots that will stay knotted up to 100% of the strength of the line and then still come undone afterwards.
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Originally Posted by Garthur
As far as the mounting location. Make sure it can be removed from the front and mounted on the rear. Good winches have quick disconnects so that in a matter of a few mins it can be moved.
I have been stuck with a winch and I couldn't use it because it was on the front and I just drove into 2 feet of mud and for 1/4 mile ahead it was mud and nothing the anchor to. But within 100 feet to my rear I had a tree I could use.
I'm a fan of a PTO winch in front and a portable one that hooks to the trailer hitch in back. I live in the desert with a lot of soft sand and nothing to anchor too. Even an actual anchor (if you have one - I've got a Danforth boat anchor that can be buried) will pull out if there's too much pressure. But usually it's enough to drag you out backwards.
And there there was the time as a kid we slid my friends Bronco into a dry stream bed in NV and rolled onto our side. We got the truck righted by using a block and tackle to a tree - then drove down the stream a couple hundred feet to where a TREE blocked our way. We ended up using shotguns to blow about an 8 inch branch off the tree so we could get past. Had just enough shells. LOL I've carried a hatchet in my vehicle ever since - and never once needed it. Oh well...
Right, and how did the frontiersmen and Indians survive all those centuries wihtout this "vital" tool, eh?
They had it. Called a capstan it could be powered by a steam donkey engine for pulling logs or other heavy loads, or by humans for raising an anchor or other load using the wheel to reduce the amount of force necessary to lift heavy loads.
Or the block and tackle, Aristotle came up with the concept of using wheels to decrease the force needed to move a load.
If by Frontiersmen you mean Mountain Men, they didn't do a lot of large structures, but the trading posts and cabins they built were made using materials they could move by hand, or by throwing a rope over a frame to lift using manpower or horsepower for the energy.
In it's most basic form, just running a rope around a tree and using your horse to pull a load like a deer up a hill.
Most American Indians didn't do any heavy construction so they really didn't need it, however, the Mississippian culture as well as the Anasazi, Aztec, Maya and Inca did quite well using levers and log rollers or greased channels or paths instead as they never invented the wheel.
Where there's a will there's a way if you have imagination.
A winch can allow you to do things you can't otherwise. I moved a 21 inch diameter by 17 foot log about 100 yards uphill on my woodlot recently with a simple hand winch and some rollers (from tree limbs). Easy work with the winch and rollers. No room in dense woods to use an ATV or truck and it would be pretty hard work doing it without some mechanical advantage.
A winch can allow you to do things you can't otherwise. I moved a 21 inch diameter by 17 foot log about 100 yards uphill on my woodlot recently with a simple hand winch and some rollers (from tree limbs). Easy work with the winch and rollers. No room in dense woods to use an ATV or truck and it would be pretty hard work doing it without some mechanical advantage.
Good point! I've only used a hand winch once, many years ago, and it wasn't mine. I used it to stretch some fencing across a public bridge (short one!) that my trucking company had contracted to repair. It worked well, and I had considered buying one, back then.
But I never got around to it, and turns out I never needed one again. I have plenty of tools around here, as it is, that I've only used once, and never needed again....
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