{"id":7826,"date":"2021-04-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.4wdsupacentre.com.au\/news\/?p=7826"},"modified":"2021-04-01T10:31:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T23:31:50","slug":"tips-for-towing-your-offroad-camper-trailer-in-any-terrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/tips-for-towing-your-offroad-camper-trailer-in-any-terrain\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert Tricks for Easier Winch Recoveries Pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A 4×4 winch<\/a><\/strong> is one of the BEST bits of gear you can add to any 4WD. It doesn\u2019t matter how big your rig is, or how experienced you are behind the wheel \u2013 do enough 4WDing, and at some stage you\u2019re going to get stuck \u2013 it\u2019s just part of the fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you\u2019re the kind of 4WDer who goes out looking for the biggest hills and deepest bogholes to throw yourself at, or you\u2019re a camper searching for the best campsites, a 4WD winch<\/a><\/strong> is a great investment. Having a 12000lb winch<\/a><\/strong> 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\u2019ll want to forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the thing. You can\u2019t just bolt a 12000 winch<\/a><\/strong> to the front of your vehicle and hope for the best \u2013 because they\u2019re a tool that needs to be used properly and treated with respect. If you don\u2019t use your 4WD winch<\/strong> <\/a>properly, at best you\u2019ll end up burning it out prematurely, and at worse you may end up damaging your vehicle or hurting yourself.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t sweat it though \u2013 I\u2019ll show you how to make any 4×4 winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery safer and easier, regardless of the terrain or how badly you\u2019re stuck. Let\u2019s get into it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE FIRST STEPS IN ANY 4WD WINCH RECOVERY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so you\u2019re stuck \u2013 no big deal! It happens to all of us. Let\u2019s go through a few steps to execute an effective and safe 4×4 winch<\/a> <\/strong>recovery that works every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing to do is figure out WHY you\u2019re stuck. If you\u2019ve got your bullbar wedged into a rock, no amount of winching with your 12,000lb winch<\/a> <\/strong>forwards is going to free you up. And if you\u2019ve got a wheel hanging four foot in the air, there\u2019s the risk that winching forwards could tip you right over. An old bloke I\u2019ve spent a lot of time with out bush used to have a saying \u2013 \u201cThere\u2019s no situation so bad, that you can\u2019t make it worse\u201d \u2013 and that\u2019s spot on with winch recoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you\u2019ll need to get the shovel out of your 4WD recovery kit<\/a><\/strong> 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<\/strong><\/a>, should be done before it\u2019s ever spooled out. With this scenario I\u2019m just sitting on my chassis rails high-centred, so there\u2019s not a lot that can be done except recover myself with the winch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHOOSING THE RIGHT 4X4 WINCH ANCHOR POINT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you\u2019ve figured out why you\u2019re stuck, and the solution is a winch recovery<\/a><\/strong>. The next step is to figure out WHERE you\u2019re going to connect your 4WD winch<\/a><\/strong> to. A tree\u2019s the obvious choice, but it\u2019s got to be big, healthy and strong \u2013 it should be at least two foot across its base. It should also be as straight as possible \u2013 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 \u2013 no more than that angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019ve selected the perfect tree, connect your 4WD winch<\/a><\/strong> by wrapping a tree-trunk protector around it. This spreads the load and prevents damaging the Domin8r winch<\/a><\/strong>. Don\u2019t ever spool your winch out so much that you can see the drum \u2013 if the anchor point is too far away, use a winch extension strap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally speaking, you want to be able to winch UP and out of what you\u2019re bogged in, so take up most of the tension on the winch line and then adjust the 4WD winch<\/a><\/strong> extension strap\u2019s position. As a general rule, the 4×4 winch<\/a><\/strong> extension strap should never be higher up the tree, than the tree\u2019s diameter \u2013 but you need to balance this with the need to keep the synthetic winch cable<\/a><\/strong> 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<\/a><\/strong> to protect it from fraying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A winch damper<\/a><\/strong> is a vital bit of safety gear that will arrest a broken winch cable if it breaks under tension. Don\u2019t winch without one \u2013 either a purpose made one like you get with Adventure Kings Recovery Kits<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 or in a pinch a heavy tarp or a Drizabone will work as well. Position it up near the 4×4 winch<\/strong><\/a> hook as that has the most potential for damage if it lets go \u2013 and please keep all bystanders at least double the length of the winch line back for safety\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEXT TIME IN THIS SERIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that we\u2019ve gone through the very first steps in any 4WD winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery, next time in part 2 of this series we\u2019ll talk about how to safely and effectively perform the 4×4 winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery. Like I mentioned earlier, you absolutely must treat your offroad winch<\/a><\/strong> with respect, because the forces involved in a 4WD recovery<\/a><\/strong> 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<\/a><\/strong> are easy, when you\u2019ve got the right quality 4×4 winch<\/a><\/strong> 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<\/a><\/strong> that we sell here at Adventure Kings, along with our extremely strong and dependable 4WD recovery gear<\/a><\/strong>. They make light work of any 4WD recovery <\/a><\/strong>and will get you unbogged in no time flat \u2013 plus they\u2019re incredible value too when you buy them from Australia\u2019s favourite camping store<\/strong>!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 4×4 winch is one of the BEST bits of gear you can add to any 4WD. It doesn\u2019t matter how big your rig is, or how experienced you are behind the wheel \u2013 do enough 4WDing, and at some stage you\u2019re going to get stuck \u2013 it\u2019s just part of the fun! Whether you\u2019re…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123456,"featured_media":7830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7831,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826\/revisions\/7831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}