Self Rescue?

Smaug

Guest
Following Scampa's adventure I just wondered . . .

Does any one carry their own winch (& land anchor?)

The reason I ask is that we had a "whoopsie" last year on Islay. We pulled off a mountain road for lunch after a rather soggy few days of rain & because all the scenic windows are on the driver's side I turned around & reversed down a very slight slope. It was a lovely lunch & a fine view, but in due course it was time to move on.

Now the van is a 3 tonne Ducato with front wheel drive & they are notorious for poor traction, despite the lovely smooth turf, it would not pull up the slightest incline. I tried towels, gravel (from the nearby stream) & even ropes around the wheel like snow chains. It would not move.

A passing motorist stopped to help & I carry a decent tow rope, but his wheels simply span on the tarmac & we stayed put. However, he did kindly call in at the adjacent farm after he left & the farmer came by with a Landy. It still took him several goes to get us back on the tarmac & he had to use his chain as we snapped our rope!

Since then I have several times considered getting a small hand or 12v winch to fasten to the tow ring under the van, but there was nothing to fasten a line to at that location (Islay does not have a great many trees) and even a land anchor would have needed to be on the far side of the road & could easily have pulled a few lumps of tarmac up.

So any one have one & what are the benefits/ weaknesses of it?
 
i considered all this years ago and decided that for what it all costs and weighs and the effort of setting it all up,and maybe killing your battery before you pull yourself out,compared to the cost of a really good quality rope,from a chandlers,was a no brainer for me.and i have used one many times over the years and even in pretty remote places there are people,and they know where to find a guy with a tractor,and if i have to wait a few hours or even longer,i usually have food water and a bed!no worries! my daughter dropped the front of her bedford mk into a hole,in the desert,no chance of getting out so went to sleep.woke up with a smiling moroccan in a mobile crane sat waiting! word got round,bit of dosh to be made!
 
hi tow straps etc all handy . i find even a cheap hand winch . can slowly get you out . even the 0ne ton versions . use straps and another vehicle as a anchor . slowly slowly its amazing what can be done .bread trays . etc i carry waffle boards . all handy .
can happen to all of us . cost me two hundred euro to get two break down trucks to get me out in spain once . got stuck in sand on a jacknife turn . we live and learn . would have been better reversing out . it looked solid but looked wrong . never felt so stupid in my life . laugh about it now .:lol-049::drive:
 
Watch out with nylon rope, it stretches a lot - which is good when towing as it reduces the shock loads, but when winching, that stretch absorbs & stores a LOT of energy which would be better applied to the stuck vehicle. It will also be released suddenly & violently if the rope breaks or chafes thro.

Chain, Wire & perhaps webbing may be better.

BTW, a 12v winch will not flatten the battery if you have the engine running.
 
A compressor is a handy thing to carry. Always amazes me how simply deflating tyres gets you out of a lot of situations. Has to be done with a bit of care though, easy on the throttle etc, or the tyre will come off the rim.
Saying that, wet grass has got to be one of the most difficult surfaces to get traction on. 4x4's with road tyres struggle on wet grass.
Good quality recovery rope, kettle on and wait. :)
 
Sparks said:
I carry a portable 12v winch (mainly for pulling the caravan out of sand), a Turfor winch, a pick axe/mattock (which I'm hoping will do as a ground anchor but haven't tried yet) A couple of 4 ton tow straps and D links (the Turfor has limited wire rope and I see it not being long enough, especially when used with a pulley). Besides you need extra rope/straps if you're lucky enough to have a suitable tree.
Click to expand...


+1 for the Tirfor hand winch, (Wire Rope Puller) - handy for many things. A high lift jack can also be used as an emergency winch - albeit slowley, but might just be able to edge you forward enough to find that grip.

I've also got one of these to pull heavy items into my truck and can recover things remotely with it on a trailing lead: Superwinch Winch In A Bag 2,000lb capacity, - Winches UK
 
12volt Winch

Bought one about 12 months ago, from Maplin, £50. Very neat unit with adaptor plate to slip over the standard 50mm towing ball. I extended the remote control cable so as to give me a better view of the recovery operation. Thankfully I`ve never had to use it but I`m a bit concerned now
whether it has put the van over the weight limit. Have I got false confidence because I haven`t got stuck yet?

Bish
 
cheap thing to carry and light weight is the bottoms of bread baskets, the plastic one cut up into lengths, two for each side, put one down drive onto it then add the other, supprising how good they can be.

tranivanman
 
Here's a useful tip.....

Whatever type of self-rescue gear you choose to carry, don't store it in the part of the van that you may later decide to hang over a cliff-edge!! :)
 
A turfer with just a bit of weight is enough for you to drive out, no need to winch it out all the way usualy
 
The Tirfor's I used in my working days were only 30 cwt (1.5 ton) and bulky. The 3 tonne version weighed a ton.

Although I have plenty of payload and storage space, there is no way I would personally carry one.

The trick is not getting bogged or stuck in the first place.
 
Tirfor winches may be suitable for a few wildcampers with larger and heavier vehicles, who travel in more extreme areas, but I would agree that for the majority of us they are just too heavy and bulky. Don't forget the heavy reel of winch-cable that you'll need to go with them.

If you can't get a straight pull (because of the angle between your vehicle and an anchor point), then you will need to carry extra pulleys, shackles and strops. And if there are no suitable anchor points such as trees etc., then you will also need heavy steel ground-anchor plates and pins, and hope that you can get a purchase in whatever ground type you're dealing with. Not forgetting the sledgehammer to knock in the anchor pins, and ideally kevlar or similar gloves for handling the cable safely.

There's a lot to be said for carrying a suitable tow-rope with fittings, and practising a sorrowful look for when a suitable tow-vehicle comes along! :)
 
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