Winching Techniques
Let's say you have become stuck fast in a very boggy area. In this situation you are undoubtedly going to ask your winch to do a lot more heavy work. Again, remember the gearing principle. You must get most of the wire rope off the drum. The nominal pulling capacity of all winches is based on the bare drum, but be sure to keep the first six wraps on it. Walk the wire rope out to the farthest away ground anchor you can find. If you don't have a tree you could use the dead weight of two vehicles chained together.
Make sure you run your wire rope in the centre of the track that you are winching up
Time to break open the T-Stake ground anchors and set them in line to the load at the end of the wire rope. Using T-Stakes is very simple. Drop on the ground a large bow shackle already attached to the wire rope and knock in the first T-Stake through the bow shackle as far as you think necessary, with the stake leaning backwards about 15 degrees from upright. Place the second T-Stake about one metre behind the first, in line with the load, and hammer it into the ground at a similar angle with a sledge hammer. Do the same again with the third stake.
A set of three T-stakes are linked with rope to act as ground anchors for the winch cable |
When winching is in progress, keep steering your vehicle towards the ground anchor so that the cable lies neatly on the drum |
(c)Goodwinch Limited 2006
