High Mountain Driving – part 1

High Mountain Driving – part 1 

By Jerry Smith

Director of Environmental Affairs for the United Four Wheel Drive Associations

Most 4-wheelers think that high mountain driving is the same as wheeling other terrains. 

While there are many similarities, there are many differences. We will try to explain some of those little things that you may or may not have heard of.

Yep, the Colorado high country can turn white with deep snow ANY time of year. Yes, it can be that cold over about 9000 feet.  

You can start in the morning to a blue-sky day and sometime during the day, a dark cloud will appear coming over the mountain. Some of these storms are surprisingly violent.  

Many of us like to run with the top down or off and the doors off our vehicles. Where are you going to ride out the storm?? Will you have some warm clothes that will keep you dry??

This is why the United Four Wheel Drive Association and the Colorado Four Wheel Drive Association both preach; "Go prepared to spend at least one overnight out in the country EVERY TIME YOU VENTURE into the Colorado high country. I live this no matter where I go.

You never know about a calamity that will strand you for a day or two in the mountains. Landslides, rockfalls, washouts, wildfires, and blown down trees are some of the possibilities. Has anyone ever had a breakdown?? These things can happen before or after you pass by and then you cannot return to your camp or hotel. Be ready to survive a cold night on the mountain. 

Can you build a fire?? Do you have at least warm clothes to wear?? Blankets or a sleeping bag are even better. A small tent or tarp will be like a palace. Food and water are other necessities.  If it rains, will you be wet and cold or at least semi-dry??  You’re going to be cold.  One other thing, you need to drink plenty when in the high country.  The air is usually drier than most people understand and will dry you out.  This will eventually cause altitude sickness to more easily invade your self, and it is often too late when you notice the effects.

How about a flashlight and spare batteries you can find?  These seem like such a hassle and will take up a lot of room.  One cold dark night without all this stuff while you're stuck under a tree high up in the mountains and you'll think of this warning long and hard.  Some of us speak from experience.

I was out with two others one day reopening a trail that Nature had closed a long-time ago (maybe 25+years).  We had made good progress and were near the end of the loop when it got dark and we were stuck behind obstacles in both directions.  Crossing, either way, would have been dangerous in the dark, so we set up “camp”.  One of my companions had awakened late and had zero with him (no coat, food, or other warm clothes). 

Between all the gear I pack and the third guy, we were able to feed and outfit the second with enough to keep warm that very cool night and feed him again the next day.  People have always told me I carry too much, but the second man had no such thoughts.

Your first gear purchases

The first thing I bought when I purchased my ’73 CJ5 was a Hi-Lift Jack.  It was a few months before I could afford a winch and that jack saved me a few long nights out digging my way out of deep snow I insisted I could drive through.  In the years I owned that first jack, I literally wore out the pins and springs and rebuilt it once. 

With the attachments they have for the Hi-Lift Jack now, you are a fool not to have one with the attachments you may need (IMHO).  Learn how to safely use that Hi-Lift before you’re out in the bush in bad conditions.  You will thank me for that advice.

Your second gear purchases

The same advice applies to your new winch.  Learn the proper use of the winch and the recovery gear you’ll need to use it. 

You’ll need some stout recovery anchor points on both ends of your rig.  Those are NOT a maybe thing, those are mandatory.  You don’t want a recovery point being jerked off the vehicle flying around looking for someone to hurt.

You will want to KNOW how to rig a winch in differing configurations to do what needs doing when the time comes.  Not all pulls will be straight ahead.  There are plenty of videos on the internet to learn from.

Next will be another piece of recovery gear… the kinetic snatch rope.  This will be called to duty many times if you wheel often.  Hopefully, it will be to pull others out of a predicament, but the first time YOU need it, the cost to own one will no longer mean much. 

Get to KNOW the difference between a tow strap and a kinetic snatch strap if that is the way you choose to go.  The snatch strap can be used to tow, but except in dire emergencies, never try snatching with a tow strap. 

**** One note of interest about snatch straps you seldom hear.  Snatch straps have a very limited use cycle.  Each time you make a pull/snatch with it will make it less stretchy.  After about 10 of these hard pulls, most will have no stretch left and should be retired. ***  This is why I recommend using a kinetic ROPE rather than the kinetic strap.  If not abused and taken proper care of, the kinetic rope will last for 200+ hard pulls.

MOUNTAIN DRIVING

Okay, let’s talk about the business of mountain driving and why it is different from other wheeling you may have done. 

High mountains and their thin air will make your rig labor more than usual.  That is one small thing to remember.  Overheating can and will happen easier even though the air may be cooler.  Be extra watchful of your temperature.

High mountain roads and trails are often steeper than lower elevation roads.  It is often best to stay in a lower gear to keep from overheating or slipping the transmission on the uphill climbs and to use the engine as a braking force rather than riding the brakes for long distances going down.  DO NOT overheat your brakes by riding them for long distances. 

Those with drum brakes will notice brake fade before the ones with disc brakes, but either will “fade” or diminish as they heat.  You want brakes that will stop you without fail on mountain roads.

Using your low range and turning off the overdrive at times will help the engine hold your speed on most hills.  Try to never use your brakes to learn this technique on a steep downhill.  It can take a bit of experimenting to find the right gears to keep your speed down.

One more thing about the brakes.  Whenever you drive through water, slush, or runny mud, apply the brakes for a short distance to dry them every time you exit the water.  Watch the guy ahead of you.  If his brake lights aren’t coming on after a water crossing, tell him you’re watching.  Make a game out of catching each other forgetting.

Rules of Thumb

Rule of thumb number one.  Uphill traffic has the right-of-way.  In Colorado, it is a LAW, but the law states there are exceptions that should be made.

 You’ll hear all kinds of reasons for this law/rule, but here is the right one. 

Have you ever had to back down a hill on gravel?  What happened when you tried to stop??  The vehicle may or may not stop and it may change direction which can be more than dangerous on a narrow road. 

That is the “rule”, but there are going to be exceptions to that rule.  Common sense must overcome the “rule” if necessary or circumstances make sense.  Just be VERY careful if you are the one backing downhill.  Do not hurry for any reason!!

Rule of thumb number two.  Unless otherwise marked, the legal speed limit on most mountain roads is 25 mph.  Although you will seldom see this enforced, this is one of the rules. County road speed limits will vary.

Be Courteous

You will be sharing the backcountry with others.  We ask that you treat any others like you would want them to treat you.  A smile and wave should be the minimum you offer.  If someone is broken down, ALWAYS offer assistance if you can.  There may come a day when it will be you will be the one needing help.

This subject is a loaded one.  When someone in a faster rig pulls up in back of you, please move over at the first opportunity and allow them to pass.  Here is where the “loaded” part comes in. 

When passing another rig on the road, do it in a safe and sane manner.  Don’t speed by at full-throttle spraying rocks, gravel, and dust all over the guy who was polite enough to move over for you. 

The same thing applies when passing a pedestrian or bicyclist.  Don’t go by and leave them injured from flying debris and/or choking on dust.  SLOW DOWN!!  Show some class.  Share the trails with others graciously.  We are all out there for the same reasons and showing a little courtesy won’t hurt you.  

We’ll pick this up again in part 2.                                          

               

WINCHING - Choosing the Right Winch and Accessories - Part 2

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.

Winching -- Choosing the Right Winch and Accessories

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 at least 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 tow rope 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 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 the 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.

Winching -- Purchasing, Setting Up

Winching

Purchasing, Setting Up, and Using

By Jerry Smith

Part 1

Winches and winching are something that can be highly technical if you are into some intense 4-wheeling.  Choosing the right winch for your intended use can be easy or difficult.  Money is often the first obstacle you must overcome. 

Money to buy a winch is not always an easy find.  I remember buying my first winch.  Not long after spending a large pile of hard earned cash on my first new Jeep, a 1973 CJ5 with no top to save some initial money and to be able to later buy a new Bestop because I liked the features better than the stock top, I began looking at my options for buying and installing a winch.

I purchased the CJ5 in late October.  Living in western Montana that late in the year, riding around in an open top Jeep could be considered a bit insane.  I quickly determined that a top would be firmly on the top of my “accessory” list.

By mid-December, I had finally saved enough to order a new Bestop from our only 4-wheel drive shop.  When it finally arrived, I found out that the installation instructions had one caveat… install it on a warm, 70-degree plus day.  Those temps were still several months away and the 17-mile drive to work every morning was proving to be brutal.

I found that installing a new Bestop in 30-degree weather to be one great challenge, but it turned out that it could be done.

In 1973, there was no internet.  Information about winches for a Jeep was by word of mouth from mostly inexperienced people.  Just finding a source of winches was difficult, and finding good info on buying a quality winch, what size, and if and what accessories were available was quite a feat.

At the time, I worked as a heavy equipment mechanic for a Caterpillar dealer that sold cable and accessories, so sourcing the accessories was a no-brainer.  Having already installed new Hyster winches on log skidders and Caterpillar equipment gave me some background on the intricacies of that operation. 

When the money was available and the decision of which winch to buy were finally made, I ordered a new Ramsey 8000# electric winch.  That’s when I found that the Jeep was not set up with a platform to simply install the winch.

A friend who had an older CJ5 had a homemade PTO winch on the front.  His father, who owned a truck repair shop, had built the bumper from some old truck frame, which had proven to be substantial, so we copied some of that bumper, and created an integrated winch mount and bumper for the Ramsey.

That Ramsey winch proved to be a most reliable, very useful and often used Jeep accessory.  I could now go places that most of my club members would not follow.

Over the years, we moved many downed trees from trails.  More than once, we removed large rocks from the road and pulled others or me out of what we had gotten ourselves into.  We had pulled fence posts, tightened fences, and all sorts of odd jobs.  That winch proved to be one of the best investments I ever made.

One thing I found about the Ramsey electric winch that always bothered me was how slow it was.  It seemed like watching paint dry as the winch pulled in what seemed like inches of cable.  Rewinding the cable after use was something I came to dread and often just wrapped the cable around the bumper.

When the need for a new winch for a new Jeep came along many years later, knowledge of winching, how to choose a new winch, and the technology in winches had vastly improved.  Options were now available on the Internet that made the choices easier and more difficult. 

I knew what I wanted in a winch, but because the availability of installing a Power-Take-Off (PTO) on the transfer case was no longer an option, I looked for a winch capable of pulling all day if the need came along.  More than once I had the need to pull long distances… like 100+ feet.  Once I winched off a snowy, off-camber shelf road for nearly 1/4–mile.  I also wanted one with a higher speed of recovery if possible.

All those wants pointed the way to a hydraulically driven winch.  The power steering pump could supply the hydraulics, so the source of power already existed.  The heating problem an electrical winch created would be alleviated, and I found a winch with a two-speed retrieval capability.

The Mile Marker hydraulically driven winch was a military proven winch.  Being a military vet, I knew that the military can tear apart an anvil barehanded, so if the winch could stand up to them, I had little to worry about.  Over a ten-year period of fairly intense use, I can honestly say that I have zero complaints with the Mile Marker winch.

(Well… maybe one.  Remembering which lever belongs in which direction for high and low speed can be a long learning process.)

Over the years, I have found that there are some little things you can do to improve the operation of your electric winch.  Electrical winches are a heat-building machine.  Heat and electrical energy are the greatest of enemies.  As the temperature rises, the demand for more power is increased.  That demand causes the temperature to rise even more… and the process continues until something fails.  This is NOT a good system.

Many of the newer winches have sensors that will shut the winch down when the temperatures reach critical numbers.  Once that happens, you must wait until the winch cools down to continue.

There are two things you can do to help this problem. 

The first is to take the cables that come with a new winch and throw them away or recycle them.  Those are just extended battery cables to be able to reach from the battery to the winch.  The average battery cable is a stranded heavy copper wire with a non-conductive coating.

Battery cable is made for short, heavy electrical loads… such as starting an engine.  If you hold a battery cable in your bare hand under load, you can feel it building heat.  As it heats up, less amperage can flow through the wire.  This causes it to heat even more, which reduces the amperage the starting motor (or winch motor) is demanding.  In the case of the winch, heat reduces the pulling power, the opposite of what you want from a winch.

The easy fix for this problem is to replace the heavy battery cable with a length of welding cable.  Think about it this way… welding is a long-term heat process.  You are literally melting metal to join two surfaces together.  That welding cable is made to carry high amperage for long durations.  If you winch for any distance, your winch needs all the power that battery can supply.  Why not supply the maximum amperage while reducing the heat build up??

The next possible way to enhance the use of an electric winch is to shorten the length of steel cable or synthetic rope on the drum.  A shorter rope requires fewer layers of rope on the drum.  Fewer layers actually increase the pulling power of your winch. 

The majority of pulls with a vehicle winch are of short distances.  Sometimes, just a few inches or feet will get you back underway.  Most of the time, the anchor you pull from is not all that far away from the winch.  All that extra rope is dead weight and of little value.

For those instances where you need a longer winch line, carry a length of rope as an extension.  Learn how to use the extension to the length you need without tying it in permanent knots.  You can carry as much extension rope as you feel comfortable with or can afford.

Your battery and charging system will love you if you do both.  They will not need to produce as much energy to do the same job.

Your winch will love you also.  It will not heat nearly as much because it will be operating at a lower rate of pull. 

In part two of this series, we’ll talk about how to choose the right winch for your rig.