Hilux 4x4 Forum

I think these guys were crazy to even attempt a forward recovery (1st clip) ... should have done the reverse straight away (2nd clip). I support the use of using two winches with two snatch blocks in the way that they did it .... just should have used heavier blankets over the cables as a whiplash arrestor in the event of a snap, didn't open the bonnets and too many people milling about too close. The cameraman in the first clip was directly in line of a possible whiplash. Too many chiefs and too many indians.

Clip 1 ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfJPkedk ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Clip 2 ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SnqBNK9xU8&NR=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Eish...in a bit of a rut....

Besides the choice language, a good example of why one should have the bonnet open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1NnL83U ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EISH!!! This last one, spot 1000 things they did wrong... starting with they way they spell "Wench cable"!
OK, it'll be easier to spot 1 thing they did right...???

They were looking at all possible options to get the Xterra unstuck, and the forward attempt was to use gravity as an ally. I would have also first had a look to see if it could get unstuck forward. Could have been that the Xterra only needed a little tug forward to get it unstuck.

Their use of winches were quite clever, just a pity there is some gifted NASA rocket scientist in a red shirt and a drink in his hand just screaming out for a sex change. That guy is totally reckless, brainless and should be put down to prevent any further suffering. They were a little economical with the use of damping blankets, and they didnt have their bonnets open, but that is overshadowed by their total disregard for crowd-control. It was a very tricky situation to recover from.

ThysdJ wrote:They were looking at all possible options to get the Xterra unstuck, and the forward attempt was to use gravity as an ally. I would have also first had a look to see if it could get unstuck forward. Could have been that the Xterra only needed a little tug forward to get it unstuck.

Their use of winches were quite clever, just a pity there is some gifted NASA rocket scientist in a red shirt and a drink in his hand just screaming out for a sex change. That guy is totally reckless, brainless and should be put down to prevent any further suffering. They were a little economical with the use of damping blankets, and they didnt have their bonnets open, but that is overshadowed by their total disregard for crowd-control. It was a very tricky situation to recover from.

Thys,
I have yet to see a cable break by winching alone, save for a badly damaged cable. (Doesn't mean it does not happen though). A cable on a winch does not break and launch itself like in the video but rater does a strand by strand streaching/snapping in a sort of slow motion effect. When it finally lets go altogether there is no eleastic effect/kinetic energy left in the cable to go anywhere. I have absoloutly no ploblem in using a winch cable to winch a vehicle without the bonnet up and damping blankets and the like being used. I do notagree with using a cable to do a snatch, there a person is looking for trouble. I do realise that when a person is using a snatch strap (Kinetic strap/rope) one should be very careful due to the elastic effect. I agree 100% in that situation to do the whole damping blanket/limiting straps etc in that situation.

We used to winch poles out of the ground using a Warn 9000 and this used to tension the winching cable to a point where the back wheels of the vehicle are off the ground, when the pole came out the ground it hardly did anything besides simply land within about 1m diameter of where we pulled it. Then one day my boss decided this was just too slow for him and he used a strap, he drove of at a pace and on about the 3rd attempt the pole came out the ground. The result was the strap (A pull strap/tree strap. NOT a snatch strap) was stretched to such a degree that the pole launched itself towards the vehicle and impacted the canopy which caused quite a bit of damage.

It's not so much about cables snapping ... agreed, that doesn't happen too often ... it's more about anchor points coming adrift and bolts shearing (the cable in the clip didn't snap ... the recovery hook on the cable was embedded in the wind-shield). An awful amount of stress can be exerted with a winch.

Mud Dog wrote:It's not so much about cables snapping ... agreed, that doesn't happen too often ... it's more about anchor points coming adrift and bolts shearing (the cable in the clip didn't snap ... the recovery hook on the cable was embedded in the wind-shield). An awful amount of stress can be exerted with a winch.

In the video you are refering to, they used the front vehicle to do a snatch with the winch cable. As I said that is stupid as can be seen by the result. Had they used the winch cable to winch and NOT a snatch; (even if the anchor point had come adrift) it would not have shot back like it did. That is exactly what I was talking about in my post above so it really proves my point.

So what I was really getting to was winching versus snatching, winching correctly one does not need supression/damping blankets or whatever else people call them. BUT if you snatch kinetic strap/rope or you are stupid enough to use a tree strap/pull strap or even worse a steel cable or chain then one needs to be very careful and make certain that in the event of the strap/cable/rope snapping or somehow coming adrift of the anchor point or the anchor point coming adrift that it does not become a lethel missile.

A winch used correctly will never result in the cable becoming a projectile even if for some reason it comes loose of the anchor point. It just cannot happen. The winch is not strong enough to make that sort of kinetic energy.