I suspect my upcoming trip will involve getting stuck so have invested in a winch for the landy.

But to avoid the classic mistake of only using it for the first time when stuck, can anybody suggest a course or something where I can learn to use it and winching techniques etc?

A day trip from London or close to Derbyshire would be great.

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

Only help I can give is always imagine the winch cable snapping and the resulting, whipping cable-keep out of range! Set it up with minimal slack to speed up the action if it's a manual winch-saves a lot of extra effort. Linzi.

You could do worse than read this: http://warn.com/corporate/images/90/...US.readers.pdf

I just went to a pay and play with a mate (after 1st line in/out on the drive) got stuck and we pulled each other around all day... knackering stuff!

All i can say is, live in fear of the cable! Its the safest way! from wearing gloves when you handle it to standing at an oblique angle when your making a recovery. Throw something heavy over the line to dampen the kenetic energy should it fail, An old coat, blanket, sheet or buy a proper winch sail.

I dont know anybody who has been on a course, but i know the guys down at Goodwinch in Devon do one. Im sure they know what they are doing too.

HTH

G

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Land Rover D90
www.Siroccoverland.com | Follow us on Facebook

Hi Darrin, haven't done the winch training day, but have done the off road training day with land rover adventure, near your way at Rockingham Castle. they do the group training for £55, which was easily as good as the solo training we got for £300 elsewhere.

Check it out here

Calendar

We also joined our local land rover club, The Shire (Hampshire) and will inundated with people happy to give us a two hour demonstration.

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Ollie

www.jollyfollies.com

Land's End to Sydney 2009

One of the Land Rover magazines did a series of teaching articles on this a few years back.If u can access these they would be useful anyway.

Some golden rules:

Make sure your jate points are up to it(fit them back and front).
Make sure others attachment points are up to it(seen lots of scrap left behind)
Only use RATED shackles.
Use tag lines attached to the car/cable to partly stop throw of cable in case of failure.
Use blanket etc over mid cable
Wear gloves.
Do not allow anyone to sit in cars(in line of flying cable)whilst winching.
Stand well away.

All hairy stuff coz u won't do it often and therefore each time will be a first so to speak!

I imagine the Land Rover magazines are full of ads for training - I'd recommend LRM as a good read...

As Griffdowg says, David Bowyer's (Goodwinch) place down in Devon was one of the first off-road schools, and will do specific winching/recovery courses; or you could also try Vince Cobley at ProTrax who are a little closer to home in Northants...

xxx

Darrin, I have never done a winch course, but maybe a LANTRA course run for telecom/local authority type drivers might be cheaper and better than the recreational type LR experience/Vince something type courses?

And yes I suppose it would be best to remove tie down points if fitting recovery points... but otherwise leave them be (gentle winching/towing will likely be fine). To be honest I have subjected Toyota and Nissan "non rated" points or "pig tails" to some pretty large forces. LR ones too - a CAT D7 can pull pretty hard. Okay serious jerking or snatching I would not want to be near. I have also narrowly avoided serious injury while spooling wire back onto the drum - gloves and a hook holder are needed, which I learned the hard way a few times. The winch installation also needs some care and it is generally also recomended to fit a manual disconnect switch between the winch and batteries in case of solenoids sticking while winching resulting in the winch not stopping! I have never seen this with a winch but I have with an overhead electric crane (think BIG winch) and it was interesting...

The best thing about vehicle recovery I have learned (and subsequently read) is to sit back (tea, fag whatever) and calmy think and plan all your intentions as logically as possible. The natural reaction is to hurry and get out of the situation as fast as possible - don't! Plan and anticipate what can go wrong... Then start. I learn't this from 13 years improvising recovery of dozers etc. I am no professional or military tank recovery type but I have learnt a bit from trial and error - 3 days to get a disabled 30 ton Dozer out of a river was a memorable one. There is a very good, tiny book with some very good 4x4 recovery techniques but for the life of me I cannot remember it's name!

BTW this Vince chap can't be all bad if he did CD's UJ for FOC!

Definitely good advice re. the LANTRA, utility type training. A friend and I ran exactly those types of courses a few years back and the principle was to do things in a controlled and safe manner. START philosophy was used “stop, think, action plan, record(ok don’t need to write things down) and talk. I’m not saying that recreational training is completely yah hoo but you may well find that in some UK off road clubs.

Lets attach a kinetic rope to the tie down eyes as talked about above and see what speed we can get the recovery vehicle up to before the other vehicle either flys through the air or the entire front end detaches itself does happen

Either my ARB bumper is stuck against a bank or my axles are standing on mud before the winch gets deployed. Either way, I know im in trouble if the winch is needed especially on our own.

G

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Land Rover D90
www.Siroccoverland.com | Follow us on Facebook

FWIW - gentle winching - okay maybe I should clarify... my definition of gentle winching:

lets say soft mud and you have lost traction - you would use your winch then no? As opposed to completely absolutely bogged and you need a double line pull with literally tons of force to get you out. My point is that most overlanding really does not need uprated recovery points.

For the sake of £20 i would rather purchase a pair of jate rings (in the case of a LR) than take my chances on the lashing eyes.

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Land Rover D90
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I think that is a little naive Gilghana? Who's to say just 'how stuck' you are going to get? - if you could chose that you probably wouldn't be getting stuck in the first place?!

I would say any vehicle that is going to be used on road/trail conditions that might need recovery (either self, or by another vehicle) ought to have secure recovery points - as Griffdawg says, they are not expensive, and could prevent more serious damage or injury?

Yes you can often make do in a situation (just last weekend I saw some guys in a 2WD Ford explorer wrapping a tow-strop around their front suspension A-arm for goodness sake?!) - just like you can drive/ride round the world on crappy tyres if you want... but surely a few sensible precautions (which is what vehicle preparation is all about) makes such a situation far safer?

xxx