If you’ve invested in a winch for the front of your 4×4, then you’ve added the cheapest insurance you can ever buy for protecting yourself against getting stuck when you’re out in the bush. It doesn’t really matter if you’re the type of 4WDer who actively seeks out the biggest, nastiest hill climbs and bog holes, or you’ve bought a winch as a bit of protection against being stuck by yourself on your way to your favourite campsite or fishing hole. An electric winch is a fantastic bit of gear that’ll pay for itself the first time you need to use it, when it will change what could have been a scenario where you were stuck for days, into a quick recovery that will be a good story to tell around the campfire.

Along with a winch, you should be carrying a recovery kit in your 4WD. A recovery kit has all the gear you need to effect a safe winch or snatch recovery, including a snatch strap, rated bow shackles, a winch extension strap and a tree trunk protector. Whenever you are using your electric winch and anchoring it to a tree, you should use a tree trunk protector to prevent damage to the tree by ring-barking it. However another crucial bit of gear that features in the Hercules Complete Recovery Kit and the Hercules essential recovery kit is a snatch block, and it’s your winch’s best mate!

A snatch block has a number of different functions. You use it by passing the synthetic winch rope through it to do one of a couple of things. In some recovery situations, even the toughest winch will struggle against a massive mud hole. You should never winch to the point where you’ve got your thumb on the ‘winch in’ button but the winch isn’t pulling the vehicle any further forward. What happens in this scenario is all the power from your alternator and battery are being jammed through one or two points on the winch motor, which can burn the contact points out. This constitutes user error and can quickly kill your winch.

If you ever find that the winch is struggling to move the vehicle forward, first assess why it’s not moving forward. Maybe it’s because one of the wheels is trying to climb a large step. If that’s the case then let the winch out, back the vehicle back and use rocks to build a makeshift ramp that’ll let the vehicle climb up easier when you winch in again. However if it’s a nasty bog-hole then use your snatch block to pass the synthetic rope through, anchor the snatch block to the tree trunk protector and bring the winch hook back to the vehicle. You’ll effectively double the pulling power of the winch, although it will winch at half the speed. This will often give your winch the power it needs to pull you free.

The other use for a snatch block is in changing the direction of the winch pull. Sometimes you won’t be able to line up directly with a vehicle you’re trying to winch free of a boghole, or winch up a hill, due to the way the track turns. In this case, you can use your snatch block to change the direction of the winch pull. Anchor the snatch block to a tree directly in front of both your 4×4 and the one that’s stuck, and pass the synthetic winch rope through it. You’re now winching at a 90° angle, and you’ll be able to winch that stuck vehicle free without having to position your own vehicle in a tricky or dangerous situation.

You can even, in an extreme scenario, use two snatch blocks in one recovery to triple a line pull and give your winch three times the pulling power. In that situation you’d likely need to use a winch extension strap to position at least one of the snatch blocks near to the vehicle, but if you’ve got either the Hercules Recovery Kit or the Adventure Kings Complete Recovery Kit you’ll have everything you need to complete a proper winch recovery. Your snatch block is your winch’s best friend when you’re out in the bush!