Adding a Winch to Your Self-Recovery Kit

Not to Mention Your Jeep

By Jerry Smith

Your new (or new to you) Jeep is out in the driveway calling you to take it out Jeeping.  Even in stock condition a Jeep Wrangler is a very capable wheeling machine.

But all machines have their limitations. If you have never had a 4-wheel drive stuck, count your lucky stars.  Self-Recovery can be a serious situation… or if you are properly equipped, not such a big deal.

You’ll likely be going out before a lift kit and tires are installed.  So what would be a great addition to your Jeep that would make sense?

         Well… you aren’t going to have a lot of ground clearance until the suspension and larger tires are in place.  What does that tell you?

         Do you think you might get stuck more than the guys who have their rigs lifted and shod with the big rubber?  That would be a “Yes”!

         Taking that thought to the next level, where do you think you might go when you get the lift and big tires?

         Did you just see yourself on a class 6 or 7 trail?  How many times do you think you’ll have an opportunity to get into a jam on a class 7 trail? 

         Let me tell you… “A Whole bunch of times”!  You are going to be high centered on large rocks or off the side of the road many times if that is where you wish to go. 

And you will find some obstacles just plain won’t allow you over without some assistance.  Here your Self-recovery kit can be used simply for forward progress.

In 40+ years of wheeling, the learning curve has not curved downward yet.  I get into “circumstances” and have “issues” all the time.  Half the fun is pressing the envelope. I know of nobody who has “done-it-all”.

         In fact, if you don’t occasionally push the limits, you are just a “looky-lou”.  Enjoy the view!

So where would that assistance come from?

         Well, you should have a brand new shiny Hi-Lift Jack that will “assist”.  That would do it, BUT!

         Come on… let’s get real!  That jack is for emergency use… Got that?

         In every Self-Recovery kit, what we really need is a good winch.  What do I mean by that you ask?

         Well I could tell you some stories about winches and winch wanta-bes.  (I hate wanta-bes, don’t you)  Let’s leave those stories for another day.

Let us begin with a “good” winch.

Recovering from a roll-over almost always requires a winch.

         A “good” winch will work whenever called upon.  After all, when you need a winch, it’s almost a given that you are in some kind of a bind.

         Now you have to take into account that the perfect piece of machinery has yet to be built, but we are looking for “reliable”.

There are a number of cheap winches out there.  Unless they are from a known brand name winch company, my advice is to stay away from the cheapest winch you can find.  Having watched the super cheap winches in the field, it is easy to say that they will often let you down when you need them the most.

Bottom line; buy the best winch you can afford. Don’t waste your money on something that is likely to fail and need replacing anyway. (and you are still needing to be extricated)

Look at it like this.  Wheeling is more fun than you can measure.  You should have fun when you go out and you can challenge yourself and your rig while doing it.

But you must always remember that there are dangers lurking out there too.  If you do any kind of serious wheeling, you will eventually become a victim of those dangers.  Often, a winch is the only way out of the situation.  A burned out electrical motor or switch on a cheap winch is just dead weight.  You absolutely need a reliable winch!

Do your research before buying a winch.  Your life could actually depend on that decision.

Happy Trails to you.

Remember this, when you come to a fork in the road, take it!

Environmentalists Burn Millions of Acres of National Forest

  

Environmentalists Burn Millions of Acres of National Forest

By Jerry Smith

9/11/2012

According to the National Climatic Data Center between January and July of this year, 4,088,349 acres burned in the US in wildfires.

Wildfires claimed 2.01 million acres in July 2012 alone, the 4th most on record.

Don’t Blame the Beetles!

While most of these fires have been blamed on drought and beetle kill, there is a much deeper reason for all this costly devastation.  Drought and beetles are only a symptom of the underlying reason.

The substantive reason we are witnessing increasing numbers of extreme wildfires goes back to 1964.  Forty-eight years ago Congress passed the Wilderness Act and unleashed the “Environmental” movement.

With the advent of the Wilderness Act, the “Environmentalists” began a systematic closing of more and more areas, roads and trails of public land under the guise of “Preserving” these areas for future generations.

Because the “Environmentalists” were unsatisfied with the total number of acres included in the first “Roadless Area” study (RARE I), they insisted that the study be done again under new, relaxed rules more favorable to their agenda, (RARE II).

The two Roadless Area studies identified all areas of 5000 acres or greater with little or no evidence of man.  The primary focus was whether there were roads within the area as they represent the “easiest to distinguish” evidence of man’s having “trammeled” the land.

Congress Failed

One of the Congresses failings (which exists to this day) is that they pass a wide sweeping law and leave the details for others to hammer out.  Before you send someone out to determine whether roads exist wouldn’t it make sense to define what a road is?

Preservation Consequences

The first of these consequences is that a whole new culture of public land management has evolved.  The foremost focus of present day public land management is to promote, support, and advance any effort that will increase “Preservation” of public lands.

“Preservation” equates to disallowing any and all motorized or mechanized use of public lands.  “Multiple Use” is a term that hasn’t been used in over 25-years.

Over the last 48-years “Preservationists” have come up with many names for “preserving” large tracts of public land.  They call them “Administrative Designations”.  They include:

Ø Wilderness Study Areas

Ø Roadless Areas

Ø ACEC (area of critical environmental concern)

Ø And other lesser known names

Every once in a while they adopt a new designation.  The last one was Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar’s “Wild Lands” designation, which was temporarily squelched after his attempt to implement it surreptitiously.

Relating to Wildfire

How does this relate to wildfires you might be wondering?  Here is how.

Much of the public land resides in western states.  Forests in the west require approximately 50 to 70 years to mature. 

As a tree matures, it becomes easily stressed.  Droughts are especially significant as they stress the tree allowing diseases and beetles to invade them much easier.

When you have an entire forest mature at the same time, the entire forest is at risk for disease and beetle kill, not just small areas of forest that have not been thinned by proper management.

The result is many more intensive extreme wildfires that cannot be controlled, wildfires that burn much larger areas because the entire area is ripe for such wildfires.  There are no healthy areas of growth within the forest to resist disease, beetles, and wildfire so the entire area is affected in one extreme incident.

Wildfires are More Intense

The wildfires of today are much more intense and destructive than the majority of wildfires only 20 years ago.  Wildfires now burn EVERYTHING where 20 years ago, they would burn primarily in the mature areas leaving islands still green and growing.

These islands are a major source of seeds from the remaining brush and trees that seed the blackened areas much quicker than can happen from the burned area alone.

This leaves the watershed barren and exposed to a greater rate of erosion for a longer period of time (years).  With the wrong circumstances of a spring thaw, moisture that would otherwise soak into the ground rushes down the mountainside carrying anything in its path into the streams below.

The erosion done from this level of devastation is multiplied by a much higher factor than all the motorized use done for many years could ever do.

A Plea to “Preservationists”

For these reasons, we of the motorized recreational communities ask the Preservationist community to consider their position of “saving it for future generations” as not the proper way of managing our public lands.

With “Preservation” as the primary focus of Public Land Management, we ALL lose. 

With a “Balanced” management of our RENEWABLE RESOURCES, we ALL win.