It may be later March - but still got stuck in snow...

[AndyCook]

Another reason for an 80 Andy.....

Well better I say it than anyone else, eh? I can see you on your travels in a nice big 80.

C

nae chance - next one will be a 120 or 100

 

[Shayne]

Its usually a bugger to get it to bite and a long way from ideal but i was just thinking what if Andy was on his own 10 miles from anywhere . 3 wonky turns of a rope around the wheel (even if he couldn't get the rope under it) would likely let the spinning wheel tighten the rope up on itself and pull him the few inches he needed to escape .

 

[AndyCook]

aha it was user stupidity with handwinch - i was pushing the locking lever the wrong way... did as Jon suggested and put my boot on the lever and it locked in correct place and works fine... oh well next time

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

shouldn't need to put the boot in Andy, should work by hand just using gravity to give a bit of assistance but if it works it works

 

[clivehorridge]

Its usually a bugger to get it to bite and a long way from ideal but i was just thinking what if Andy was on his own 10 miles from anywhere . 3 wonky turns of a rope around the wheel (even if he couldn't get the rope under it) would likely let the spinning wheel tighten the rope up on itself and pull him the few inches he needed to escape .

I'm with you there Shayne, when in the sh!t, anything and everything is worth trying.

On my travels through utoob I found a bolt on winch rim, I don't know what to call it really. It was like a small 9" sort of wheel rim that bolted onto the wheel using the same wheel nuts. The idea was to use it as a capstain on a spinning wheel, running the rope around it as you would on deck!

On demo it worked, and no reason why not. Would certainly be better than nothing in an emergency.

 

[Shayne]

Plenty of old gypsy and landrover jeeps used to have a permanent capstan , "drum end" as I usually call them , mounted somewhere on the rear quarter permanently so they could throw a belt over it and run farm machinery . What you describe is probably just a 10" mini wheel with a couple of extra holes drilled in it . It's easy to assume a perfectly smooth drum end or even a tyre will offer no grip to a rope wrapped around it but in reality the first turn of rope tightens on the second turn which is where the grip comes from . 2 turns will lift a tonne - 3 turns maybe 3 tonne - if you need 4 turns your lifes very much in danger !

 

[clivehorridge]

Well I guess you could make one from a 10" mini wheel, but what I saw was a branded kit which stowed very nicely in a plastic case. It looked quite cheap, but it was effective. Very low-tech so no reason for it to be expensive, and you could buy the specific fit for your vehicle (different wheel stud configurations). I can't find it on utoob anymore.... Otherwise I'd copy it in...

 

[clivehorridge]

http://youtu.be/FDKY1MwDCWE

bush winch

 

[silvercruiser]

Not Bad, i like his comment at the end of the clip "now how easy was that"

I think id rather carry my electric/hydraulic winch and pull myself up that hill.

 

[Chas]

Simple ground anchor would be quicker.

 

[Shayne]

Well i've searched and searched but i can't find a vid showing what i said about wrapping a rope around the tyre . I watched an old fella do it when i was very young and was so impressed it stuck in my mind . When i got a bit older i did it a few times myself usually to pull ford cortina's and the like "borrowed" from the scrapyard out of drainage ditches that run alongside country lanes .


I know the old fella (who died maybe 30 years ago) was once a soldier in a warzone so maybe it's a forgotten old army trick ?

 

[Chris]

Well I don't doubt the science behind that product in the video - as clearly it worked. But what a palava. There are so many weaknesses in the deployment etc that I can't see many people bothering. Why wouldn't you just have a proper winch? You can't pull someone else with it, You need to run twin lines, it's very exposed to sharp rocks, you'd have to dig down to your wheels, no good in anything other than a straight line - it's a long list. And you have to carry the damn things with you. Looks like it may not work in reverse due to the locking capstans too. I think that perhaps passing a strap around a wheel in a real tight spot is something I would try if all else failed as is being suggested. But the bush winch looks like an epic fail to me. Not something I'd rely on as a first resort.

C

 

[Chris Green90]

I suppose its not too bad an idea in a nice warm place where you are stuck in a bit of easy to move sand. But could you imagine trying to deploy that set up in the persisting rain, up to your knees in mud and gunk. You would end up wet through, freezing cold (not so bad for us lot but can you imagine if you had a LR with the asthmatic heater) and then have to go through the palaver of stripping it all down again afterwards. I think I will stick with my electric winch thank you very much.

 

[Chris]

..and of course, it relies on your engine running. Which it may not. Or your diff might be busted. At least with a winch you have options. Not least unbolting it and transferring it to another vehicle. Chaining it to a tree and running via jump leads from a battery maybe. There is some versatility with a winch. I have to say that in my expereience you'd be quite lucky to find two nice anchor points to run a bridle from. They didn't really focus on the line that you need to run across the front of the vehicle. Finding one anchor point can be a trial at times never mind two.
Interesting that he never mentioned its advantages over more conventional means of rescue.

Nice application of thinking to a problem that had already been solved - I feel.


Chris