Winch cable length?

[Ratbag]

Your Tirfor is very similar to my ARB Magnum ...

[idw]

Get the biggest diameter snatch block you can find, it won't damage the cable. Engineering manuals usually sat 18 times the diameter of the cable, not that I've seen any 4wd snatch blocks that big so don't know what's going on there.

Just remember with a block you'll double the line pull capacity, at the downside of you needing the crank the winch twice as much to cover the same distance. You also need to winch from an ancor pointstrong enough AND in line with the direction of pull, so the more length at your disposal the better. It's even more important with a tirfor style winch to be using a strong ancor point in the bush since you'll be winching from it, last thing to do is pull a tree down on yourself.

Self recovery gear is heavy stuff and I can see how its be nice to carry less of a it, last thing to find out though is you don't have what you need when you go to use it. Oh! And buy yourself some spar shear pins

[ateday]

A good long handled spade works wonders and does not weight much.
Won`t pull you out of a bog though but may stop you getting into one.

[lee467]

Originally Posted by idw

Self recovery gear is heavy stuff and I can see how its be nice to carry less of a it, last thing to find out though is you don't have what you need when you go to use it. Oh! And buy yourself some spar shear pins

Isn't it heavy..... and bulky..... given a lot of our drives will be sedate, you just never know when you might need this stuff, and with kids in the car, you can't be too careful.

Spar shear pins - not sure on that one - as far as I can tell, and handle is a length of gal pipe?

[lee467]

Originally Posted by ateday

A good long handled spade works wonders and does not weight much.
Won`t pull you out of a bog though but may stop you getting into one.

I have several post hole shovels here, but nowhere to stow them in/on the car as yet, grabbed a Cyclone 'camping and 4wd' shovel at Cunnings today, fits quite nicely in the boot, I was going to grab a folding shovel, but they all look pretty flimsy.....

[idw]

The great thing about a spade is you manage to extract the vehicle through the power of your own frustration and swearing...I've had to do this many times.

[Ratbag]

Originally Posted by lee467

Isn't is heavy..... and bulky..... given a lot of our drives will be sedate, you just never know when you might need this stuff, and with kids in the car, you can't be too careful.

Spar shear pins - not sure on that one - as far as I can tell, and handle is a length of gal pipe?

Lee, shear pins are part of the ratchet mechanism. If you put too much pressure on the handle, the shear pin will shear, rather than you breaking the winch. They are usually easy to replace in the field - IF you have a spare ...

[lee467]

I've just downloaded a manual for the winch, there are three shear pins in the handle hub mechanism, I must say they don't appear to be easily field replaceable... will have to look into it more, and make sure I have, or get some spares....

[ateday]

A long handled shovel, despite being a tad awkwardly shaped, is the best choice as it enables you to reach in further under the car and stay just a bit further away from the muck.

[lee467]

OK - I picked up the rope....
I have a concern now about the soft eye, when I was talking to the supplier, the hard eyes they had still seemed fairly small, so I went with a large soft eye. He mentioned the eye would provide abrasion resistance to the rope, given the low frequency of use, I thought we'll be fine (really hoping frequency of use is zero!)....
Now I look at it, and think about it, I worry a little about the abrasion to the polyester straps and soft shackles that will be looped through the eye....
What do people think? Should I re-investigate a hard eye?