A 4×4 winch is one of the BEST bits of gear you can add to any 4WD. It doesn’t matter how big your rig is, or how experienced you are behind the wheel – do enough 4WDing, and at some stage you’re going to get stuck – it’s just part of the fun!

Whether you’re the kind of 4WDer who goes out looking for the biggest hills and deepest bogholes to throw yourself at, or you’re a camper searching for the best campsites, a 4WD winch is a great investment. Having a 12000lb winch on hand for a quick and easy self-recovery if you get stuck on the way means the difference between a good story to tell around the campfire, and an ordeal that you’ll want to forget.

But here’s the thing. You can’t just bolt a 12000 winch to the front of your vehicle and hope for the best – because they’re a tool that needs to be used properly and treated with respect. If you don’t use your 4WD winch properly, at best you’ll end up burning it out prematurely, and at worse you may end up damaging your vehicle or hurting yourself. 

Don’t sweat it though – I’ll show you how to make any 4×4 winch recovery safer and easier, regardless of the terrain or how badly you’re stuck. Let’s get into it!

THE FIRST STEPS IN ANY 4WD WINCH RECOVERY

Okay, so you’re stuck – no big deal! It happens to all of us. Let’s go through a few steps to execute an effective and safe 4×4 winch recovery that works every time.

The first thing to do is figure out WHY you’re stuck. If you’ve got your bullbar wedged into a rock, no amount of winching with your 12,000lb winch forwards is going to free you up. And if you’ve got a wheel hanging four foot in the air, there’s the risk that winching forwards could tip you right over. An old bloke I’ve spent a lot of time with out bush used to have a saying – “There’s no situation so bad, that you can’t make it worse” – and that’s spot on with winch recoveries.

Sometimes you’ll need to get the shovel out of your 4WD recovery kit and do a bit of track building to fill in a hole, or build a ramp with rocks. Anything you can do to make life easier on your 4×4 winch, should be done before it’s ever spooled out. With this scenario I’m just sitting on my chassis rails high-centred, so there’s not a lot that can be done except recover myself with the winch.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT 4X4 WINCH ANCHOR POINT

So you’ve figured out why you’re stuck, and the solution is a winch recovery. The next step is to figure out WHERE you’re going to connect your 4WD winch to. A tree’s the obvious choice, but it’s got to be big, healthy and strong – it should be at least two foot across its base. It should also be as straight as possible – you should avoid winching more than about 15 degrees off dead straight to prevent the winch twisting the bullbar cradle. To roughly estimate how far 15 degrees is, draw a line from your centre console to each of your front blinkers – no more than that angle.

When you’ve selected the perfect tree, connect your 4WD winch by wrapping a tree-trunk protector around it. This spreads the load and prevents damaging the Domin8r winch. Don’t ever spool your winch out so much that you can see the drum – if the anchor point is too far away, use a winch extension strap.

Generally speaking, you want to be able to winch UP and out of what you’re bogged in, so take up most of the tension on the winch line and then adjust the 4WD winch extension strap’s position. As a general rule, the 4×4 winch extension strap should never be higher up the tree, than the tree’s diameter – but you need to balance this with the need to keep the synthetic winch cable up out of the dirt and away from the rocks where it can be damaged. If it looks likely to contact anything, use something like a floormat to protect it from fraying.

A winch damper is a vital bit of safety gear that will arrest a broken winch cable if it breaks under tension. Don’t winch without one – either a purpose made one like you get with Adventure Kings Recovery Kits – or in a pinch a heavy tarp or a Drizabone will work as well. Position it up near the 4×4 winch hook as that has the most potential for damage if it lets go – and please keep all bystanders at least double the length of the winch line back for safety’s sake.

NEXT TIME IN THIS SERIES

Now that we’ve gone through the very first steps in any 4WD winch recovery, next time in part 2 of this series we’ll talk about how to safely and effectively perform the 4×4 winch recovery. Like I mentioned earlier, you absolutely must treat your offroad winch with respect, because the forces involved in a 4WD recovery are immense. Things can and do go wrong, and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could hurt yourself or someone else. No worries though, the truth is 4WD recoveries are easy, when you’ve got the right quality 4×4 winch and have the right knowledge to go along with it! In the meantime, do yourself a favour and check out the range of incredible Domn8r winches that we sell here at Adventure Kings, along with our extremely strong and dependable 4WD recovery gear. They make light work of any 4WD recovery and will get you unbogged in no time flat – plus they’re incredible value too when you buy them from Australia’s favourite camping store!