Advanced winch recovery techniques

[TurboMinivan]

Background: I currently own a winch, and I've had one once before on a prior Jeep. So far, I've only actually done a few traditional, simple pulls--you know, just hooking up to something directly in front of me and pulling straight ahead. This is how winches seem to be used in the majority of situations.


By now most of us have seen Kevin's flop thread from yesterday. It is obviously a great reminder to never travel alone, no matter how simple or familiar the trail. As I was re-reading it this morning, one part in particular caught my eye:

After I decided a self rescue was out of the question, I threw what I could grab into the backpacks and Boogerface and I hoofed it down the mountain.

We've all been in spots where we got stuck or whatever and had to figure a way out of it on our own. That's just a natural part of 'wheeling. But I started to think about winching and how Kevin might have been able to right his vehicle by himself (assuming he had all the necessary equipment on hand). The reason I thought of that was because I recall a fascinating youtube video I watched not long ago.

Some people like to use those portable winch mounts that attach to a tow receiver. This way, they say, you can use the winch to pull your vehicle in either direction. After all, there is no way you could use a front-mounted winch to pull your vehicle backwards, right? Wrong. I didn't think it was possible until I saw it for myself, but here it is:

The trick is in the placement of the rope and pulleys, apparently. By having a "double" rope located in the direction you want the vehicle to move, it seems to work nicely.


So back to Kevin. Here was his predicament, for those who didn't see his thread:

If he had a winch on his front bumper and wanted to pull himself back onto his tires, I'm guessing he would need to set it up sorta like this (enjoy my hastily-created MS Paint diagram--the green circles are trees):

Is that how it would have worked?

 

[Kevin B.]

I should have had my comealong, or the tools necessary to winch with the hilift. I didn't, and I'm kicking myself for it. With those and the bushranger, I could have self-recovered.

If I'd had a winch on the front bumper, I think I'd have run it to the recovery point on the passenger side front (in other words, the high side), then to a snatch block on the tree and back to a strap around the b pillar (or roll bar, if I hadn't had my top on). If there wasn't a recovery point on the passenger side to route the winch line through, I think your setup might work too, but I wonder if having the winch pulling from the middle of the bumper instead of up high might not have just dragged the nose of the truck high up the slope, making it harder to right?

 

[TurboMinivan]

If there wasn't a recovery point on the passenger side to route the winch line through, I think your setup might work too, but I wonder if having the winch pulling from the middle of the bumper instead of up high might not have just dragged the nose of the truck high up the slope, making it harder to right?

Hmm, good question. Has anyone else tried a recovery like this?

For that matter, if anyone has other stories of so-called advanced winch recoveries they have done, please speak up. I'd love to hear about them.

 

[gijohn40]

I take it Kevins truck was on its side... in this case if you could to up high on a tree then come straight down that same tree and then out to the side of the truck this would have kept the truck from sliding sideways and pulled the vehicle back over onto its wheels. The trouble with this is that trees when you get high up on them start to bend more... so it would have to be a very big tree...

 

[gijohn40]

I did some big time classes on heavy recovery when I was in the army and some of the things they did I would never do but for some reason then worked... one was taking the winch line under the axles and attaching to a tree behind the vehicle and then winching... the pull downwards on your front end somewhat lifts the back end up and out of the muck... now with the new double hole winch mount that I saw on here the other day, this might actually work...

 

[ricsrx]

We had a runner on its top out at 5mp, i was amazed at how well the winch worked durring a side pull like posted in the pic above. our attach point was 10 feet higher than the truck and the angle was bad .it put it right back up on its tires.

 

[TurboMinivan]

I take it Kevins truck was on its side

It was. I added a picture in my original post above.

 

[Kevin B.]

We had a runner on its top out at 5mp, i was amazed at how well the winch worked durring a side pull like posted in the pic above. our attach point was 10 feet higher than the truck and the angle was bad .it put it right back up on its tires.

You did it exactly like Dempsey's pic?

 

[Greg]

I should have had my comealong, or the tools necessary to winch with the hilift. I didn't, and I'm kicking myself for it. With those and the bushranger, I could have self-recovered....

I have been in the same situation, years ago I flopped my old Toyota on it's side while snow wheeelin up AF Canyon. It was late, the snow was coming down and we were miles from anyone else. Fortunately we did have a Comealong and it wasn't 30 minutes before we righted the truck and were back on our way. Simple, inexpensive tools can save so much headache in situations like this, you just have to be prepared with those tools.

 

[UFAB]

Wow. Must of been going to fast.

High lift jack. First on the list. Shovel

Tow straps

Then winch.

Amazing what a push/pull jack can do.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Maverick]

Hmm, good question. Has anyone else tried a recovery like this?

For that matter, if anyone has other stories of so-called advanced winch recoveries they have done, please speak up. I'd love to hear about them.

That's how I pulled myself back up on the 'Con. There was a hefty tree so I didn't have to spread the load, as you have correctly shown in your sketch.

One important thing to consider is where you have the strap hooked on the vehicle to "roll" it back over vs drag it up the hill. Also, in my case, the force on the rear tire blew the bead. Not sure really what I could have done to avoid it. I knew it was going to happen, but didn't really see a way to avoid it.

 

[TurboMinivan]

That's how I pulled myself back up on the 'Con.

That is an awesome picture. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[bryson]

I should have had my comealong, or the tools necessary to winch with the hilift. I didn't, and I'm kicking myself for it. With those and the bushranger, I could have self-recovered.

Small derail, but with your truck on it's side, you obviously don't want to run the engine to inflate your exhaust jack... Do you have a compressed air source that you could have inflated it with?

 

[bryson]

Oh, and I need more snatch blocks.

 

[Kevin B.]

Small derail, but with your truck on it's side, you obviously don't want to run the engine to inflate your exhaust jack... Do you have a compressed air source that you could have inflated it with?

Yeah, it's got a schrader valve. Popping the hood to get at the battery and run my compressor would have been a hassle, but I could have done it.

Finished cleaning up my gear today, and came across my lift-mate in the bottom of my recovery stuff, and now I'm mad. I couldn't get the hilift under the truck, but I could have gotten the lift-mate hooks in the top of the window behind the B pillar and used my hilift that way. Judging by the pic THardy posted in the other thread of my truck back on four wheels but still at a 45* angle, I think I might have been able to get it to that point without winching at all. At that point I could have tied it off to the tree and maybe driven it out, or moved the hilift to the drivers side rear bumper and scooted it level.

I've thought of lots of little things I coulda-shoulda done since then. One more reminder to slow the hell down in an emergency and think stuff through.

 

[TurboMinivan]

Oh, and I need more snatch blocks.

Same here.

 

[gijohn40]

Oh, and I need more snatch blocks.

me 3

 

[Maverick]

Maverick, in your pic, is the strap wrapped around your cage?

Yes, it was hooked around my cage. The cage is tied into the frame in six locations.



I chose this location based on the position the jeep was in, the angle of the cable pulling it, and where it would end up.

 

[Maverick]

I've wondered about good practices/ approaches to tying off on the cage. I can't really see in the pic how you fastened it.

Make sure it's gonna stay put.

Go around multiple points of the cage, like at an intersection of tubes or braces. I went around the top section of the vertical where the diagonal brace joins. Can't see it in the pic, but knowing me, I would have done a second loop right there, but even if I didn't, the strap stayed exactly where I wanted it to. I would have also gone through the halo (in addition to the vertical) but I didn't want it to screw up the sound bar.

 

[rondo]

I have used a winch and a highlift jack (as a come along) to fix a bad situation many times. I like to think forward about what would happen once the vehicle is righted; they often want to "take off" or move so I prefer to get them anchored to something.

I can't say if the technique in the picture would work or not. It may very well. if it were my recovery i'd have anchored one end and using a snatch block pull the other from the side, keeping tension on both to slowly bring it upright. I know this works.

I'm not a trained expert by MOS military occupation specialty like John but I have 'at least' read the army manual on vehicle recovery and did practice recovery on tracked vehicles in training. Things you would never imagine are trained and practiced! Weird creative stuff that i'd have never thought of!