Winching
Choosing the Right Winch and Accessories
By Jerry Smith
Part 2
In part one of this series, we talked about how to make your electric winch more efficient. In part 2, we’ll give you some tips on how to choose the right winch for your rig.
One of the first things you need to know about buying a new winch is the loaded weight of your rig as it will generally be out on the trail. This will include any passengers, a full tank of gas, any tools, camping gear, spare parts, coolers full of ice and food, and anything else you normally will carry.
If you’re really anal about this step, you can find a certified scale at a truck stop or local dump to weigh the vehicle. Estimating the added weight is not all that hard and you can find the gross vehicle weight in the owner’s manual or sometimes on the driver’s door.
Take the gross weight number you come up with and multiply it by 1.5. You want a winch that can pull a minimum of 1.5 times the gross vehicle weight or more on a single line pull.
Here is an alternative if your budget is and will be short of what you need for a full-size winch. Take the gross vehicle weight and divide it by two. Find a winch that can pull that weight plus a little. Then outfit it like we showed in part one with the welding cable hot wire and short rope to keep the layers to no more than two. But don’t stop there.
This winch will pull you out of many places just like you have it now. But if you’re bogged down in mud or on a hard pull of another kind, you’re going to need some winching know-how and some accessories. In this instance, at least one snatch block.
As responsible 4-wheelers, we always want to do things with safety being the first order of business. That requires some gear that did not come with your winch.
Gear like a good way to connect your winch line to a strap or other gear. That normally will be a D-ring or one of the newer Rope Shackles. You may get away with carrying only one of these for a while, but if you wheel in difficult situations long, you will require more than just the one. I have carried a minimum of 4 of these and usually more.
Next, you’ll want a quality snatch block. Why do I say quality? I have seen the cheap ones fail and they NEVER fail at a good time… only when you need them most. I like them rated for at least 4 to 6-times my gross vehicle weight.
That will put one at about 30,000# minimum. Also, the larger the diameter of the snatch block pulley, the better. There will be less drop in your line pull with larger pulleys.
For most of you, one snatch block will be enough. I carry two or three most of the time and have needed more a couple times. When you need to change directions of pull more than one direction, you’ll need two most of the time and a third in the odd time.
I have needed three-winches, six snatch blocks, and a bucket of D-rings on each of two recoveries of other vehicles. Another reason you don’t go wheeling alone. Being short one D-ring to do a pull is like not having a winch at all. Don’t be bashful about carrying extras.
Always carry at least a non-kinetic towrope or strap. You can use it as a tree strap if you don’t carry one, and it becomes a multi-use tool. I like to have at least a tree strap and one tow rope/strap for the odd time I need the extra length or need to attach to two trees.
Two trees are not out of the question. I’ve needed to tie the rear of my Jeep to a tree or another vehicle to hold it so I could pull another vehicle on ice or mud several times.
If you use a wire rope winch cable, you’ll want a dampening blanket or coat to place over the cable to absorb the energy it will have should it break. You do NOT want a winch cable breaking without a dampener. They have killed and severely hurt people.
Gloves are especially needed with wire rope, but even a synthetic rope will have little skin-snagging objects embedded. You’ll only want to learn about this once before you will ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES.
Those are some of the minimum accessories you’ll want/need. We will discuss others in the third part of this series.
Following with the “safety” line of doing things, here are some tips that you’ll want to practice.
Unless you upgrade to some of the more expensive winch accessories, you will have a hook on the end of your winch line. Do you know how to properly use it?? There IS a right and wrong way you know?
When hooking a winch line with a hook to any kind of anchor point, always, always have the hook pointing UP. The easy way to remember this is that you “hook up” the winch line. The hook is almost always your weakest point. Should it break off, you want to direct the energy down toward the ground. With the hook in the up position, any energy in that line is going to be directed down. With the hook down, it directs the energy upward and the line flies around.
When winching, try very hard to have the winching vehicle pointed directly at the anchor or vehicle being pulled. You do this so the winch line has a better chance of winding in level on the drum.
When you pull from other than a straight line, the winch line will tend to bunch on one side of the drum and eventually it will bind. You’ll only do this once. Pulling a bound up winch line back off a drum is not fun. In severe cases, you may need to hook to another vehicle and have it pull the line free.
Safety wise, you NEVER, EVER step over a winch line under tension.
If you must step over a slack winch line, put one foot over the line on the ground so it cannot suddenly be tensioned and whack you in the crotch. (Think about it)
Learn the correct winching hand signals. Using universal crane and rigging signals is the best practice.
Stay clear of the winch line when pulling. Keep others back farther than the line potentially could fly should it break. Raising the hood is also a good way to protect the windshield and driver.
Always wear gloves… preferably leather.
Walk around the entire problem before setting up for a winch pull. Study it from all angles. Think about how to hook all your accessories… exactly. Then think about how you expect the winched object to move. Will it have a driver? Will it roll freely once off the obstacle? What is going to stop it? Is it in park and/or the park brake set?
What will happen if things don’t go as planned? Plan for that!
What if the rope breaks? What if the anchor pulls free? What if the vehicle won’t budge? Anticipate every “what if” and a few you didn’t think of.
The owner/driver of the vehicle in trouble has the final decision… ALWAYS. That doesn’t mean others cannot veto the operation and walk away. The person with the most to lose must have the final say. Hold a short planning meeting. Ask for feedback from others and decide which procedure makes the most sense. Defer to someone with experience if you can trust them.
I’ve had many, many experiences, but by LISTENING in certain instances, a better plan than my own was used. Nobody knows it all and you may miss something another sees.
In part 3, we will discuss some accessories to allow your winch to do what it was made for and why you bought it.
