When you take your 4WD into the bush, no matter how good a driver you are it is inevitable that at one stage or another you will likely end up getting your 4WD stuck on an obstacle, that’s just part of the fun of heading into the bush.

Whether you are a pragmatic four wheel driver or someone who heads into the bush looking for trouble on the toughest tracks you can find, a reliable 4WD winch will make the difference between a great tale around the campfire, or an ordeal that you want to put behind you.


Whilst you may think just slapping a winch on the front of your 4WD might be the answer to all your problems, a winch has to be used properly and with respect, when a winch is used incorrectly the best case scenario is the winch motor cooking itself, where the worst case is damage to your vehicle or even serious injury in the middle of the bush.

Don’t sweat it, any winch recovery can be made safer and easier with our handy tips.


Always jump out and have a look!

Assessing the situation when you get yourself stuck is one of the best things you can do during a 4WD recovery. It will give you a clear idea of what exactly it is that you are up against, for example if you have your bull bar wedged against a rock, no amount of winching will get you free, and if you have a wheel floating 6 feet in the air, a winch pull might end up putting you on the side.

There is no situation that is so bad, that you cant make it worse.

Before you hook your winch up it’s a good idea to check under your vehicle as well, we are checking for obstructions or holes you might fall into, track building isn’t just for driving, by making sure the path your wheels are going to take will be as clear as possible and filled in where required will mean that when you are winching your winch isn’t fighting with the terrain.

Reliable recovery gear

When you are using a winch, it is basically useless unless you equip yourself with an effective recovery kit. The basic bits of kit you need for one of the most basic winch recoveries are at a minimum a tree trunk protector and a winch dampener for safety.

if your winching anchor isn’t close enough, then using a winch extension strap will give you an additional 10m of reach, and if you need to double the amount of pull because you are seriously bogged, or if you want to slow the winching recovery down, then you will be looking at a double line pull using a snatch block pulley and a rated shackle.

When you are stuck, you will need to select a winching anchor point, for this you want to look for a big strong healthy tree as close to straight on from the front of your vehicle, you should avoid winching from trees with a diameter smaller than about 15cm and outside of 15° from dead straight ahead.

To figure this angle draw an Imaginary line from your rear-view mirror to your front blinkers, no more than that angle and you should be safe.

Now you have solid tree selected, it is time to set up your anchor, despite what Hollywood would have you believe, setting up a winch anchor requires more than just wrapping your winch rope around the anchor and hooking to itself. This has many negative effects the first of which is damaging your winch rope through abrasion against the tree, and through the metal winch hook potentially having burrs which can cut your winch rope fibers.

The next negative that comes from not using a tree protector is the potential to ring-bark a tree. Ring-barking is when you completely destroy a ring around a trees circumference, this has the effect of damaging the phloem layer just below the outer bark. This layer is responsible for carrying food produced in the leaves by photosynthesis down to the roots. Without the tree’s ability to store energy, it will die within about 24-48 hours.

This may not be an immediate problem to you but if you want to ensure that the next time you happen to be driving up the track you are on, that you have a solid tree to winch off when you hit the same obstacle, additionally, 4WDers already battle a poor reputation with the parks and wildlife sorts, and by actively taking measures to prevent your winch from damaging the trees around the tracks, you will ensure your 4WDing days aren’t cut short by locked gates!

There are no excuses for not getting a tree trunk protector for your winch recoveries, they cost less than a 6 pack and are easy to use.

Spooling out

When unspooling your winch cable it is important to not overdo it and make sure that your 4WD winch cable has at least one wrap of cable on the drum as you spool out, this ensures it is locked onto the drum and wont slip free, if you don’t have enough length for the tree you are winching off, then get a winch extension strap they are strong enough to take the full load of the winch and provide 10m of extension to your anchor point, with minimal stretch and maximum safety.


Recovery

Once you have your winching setup established, you can get a small amount of tension in the winch rope and adjust your tree trunk protector to the perfect height, this means the rope is up and off the ground, but don’t set it too high because the majority of the strength of the tree is down low and near the root system.  A rule of thumb is to not set the tree trunk protector any higher than the width of the tree off the ground!


Safety is paramount!

the final piece of the recovery puzzle is to chuck your winch dampening blanket over the top of the winch hook  or in the case of using a snatch block the metal components away from the vehicle.

This dampener is designed to act as an air brake in the unlikely case of any catastrophic failure in your recovery setup and just like how a seatbelt isn’t needed everyday, a recovery dampener adds an increased safety factor when you are away from help.

Keep all bystanders well away, rule of thumb is behind a tree, or another vehicle and around double the distance of the length of the winch rope away.

Set your vehicle to low range , hit the trigger and as you are feeding in the winch this will allow you to help drive the winch, additionally by keeping the RPM at around 1500, you will be supplying enough amps to your battery to keep the winch cranking strong!

To see the full range of recovery gear from 4WD Supacentre head to www.4WDSupacentre.com.au or call our team on 1800 88 39 64 to get the best possible bargain on your next 4WD upgrade!