Winch cable length?

Not sure what you mean about a hard/soft eye. One thing to remember is to use as little hardware (shackles, etc) as possible
 
The images explain better than I can....

The soft eye basically leaves the bare cable to pull against the straps....

soft-eye.jpg
hard-eye.jpg
 
Yeah, I'd go the hard eye. I would also put a rag around the cable side to protect the strap.

What soft shackles did you get?
 
One of these.... 14 ton breaking strain - quality seems pretty good, I'm going to pick up another one.... certainly bigger in 'person' than they look in picture!

from New Zealand, ebay - under 'Soft Shackle w/ sleeve Dyneema Winch Rope SK75 SYNTHETIC CAR TOW RECOVERY CABLE'
soft-shackle.JPG
 
No - same seller though - I might have got the last one of the others?
 
Same as mine - I still wouldn't like that dyneema knot flying at me though! :surprised:
 
yeh - don't use a 'soft' cable eye like that.. you'll reduce the breaking strength of the line dramatically and increase abrasion. Breaking strength is strongly related to bend radius.

You need a large hard eyelet with no sharp edges. Even that eyelet you have shown has some very small radius edges.


Something like this is better: https://treegear.com.au/collections/climbing/products/dmm-8mm-thimble

That green soft shackle you posted shows what you should put over the line where abrasion is a concern - a sacrificial chafe cover.
 
Thanks for the reply....
I will look at sourcing a large eyelet, in the meantime a fireman I know is going to get me some condemned firehose, will use as a sleeve over a strap/soft shackle.....
 
lee467 said:
I can't work out why I'd ever need 20m of cable, given it's weight, and the fact I would not have the energy to actually crank the vehicle over that distance!
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With a hand winch a lot of recovery effort is just getting set up for the pull. There's not always a tree in right spot and you can often loose 2-3 meters of pulling distance just getting tension on the rig particularly if you are double blocked. That leaves you 6-8 meters of recovery before you are setting up the winch again.

On Australia day I was winched about 70m back up a mountain by a Landcruiser. No-one could get near me so it took 4x9m snatch straps and 30 meters of winch rope to reach me. If I self recovered using a 10 meter winch rope that would have mean at least 10 times setting up for new pull.
 
Actually, I spent some time entertaining myself with learning about hand winches. I think the trick is to make sure that the setup is actually usable.

Say, ARB Magnum, but then also:
-100 ft of rated rope from a rigging outfit (or pricier winch extensions)
-Rated pulleys for the rope (not cheap coarse snatch blocks with poorly made sheaves good only for wire rope as synthetic will go through sheaves)
-Soft and/or hard shackles
-Minimum 1 tree strap
-Some sort of pickets (I cannot see how plowing anchors can work with hand winches)
-Ropes/straps/chain/metal plate as part of anchor system

So, if buying a new winch, the total would exceed what one needs to build a portable setup around an upper end ATV/UTV electrical winch (double line assumed to get the work load to 4-5t). But I think that double line would be necessary to make self-recovery workable with a hand winch as well.

Now, I also think that for pure emergency needs hand winch is better (terrific durability, reliability of brand name units) but it still needs to be practical (hence the need for good extension rope, pulleys, anchor).

Personally, I regard the anchor point as the biggest issue. A typical picket system is hard work, heavy, and somewhat bulky. A modified picket system around high-strength rated aluminum screw-in ground anchors is lightweight and more compact but pricey and you would need to carry your battery operated drill to make the system easy to setup because screwing those manually is probably not much better than hammering pickets....

Bottom line: I would either carry a powerful and practical setup that can work with dual or triple line or would not bother. Single line+hope for tree in the neighborhood=not much better than carrying nothing. Actually, it might be worse if it provides a false sense of security.
 
In terms of length, the setup described above would allow:

50ft reach in triple-line
80 ft reach in double line, easily expandable via tow (inelastic) straps
160 ft further expandable reach in single line (say, there is a natural anchor out there and one wants to give it a try before spending a while on setting a ground anchor).

The trick with those longer setups would be to make sure that the synthetic line does not run over anything that can damage it.

Anyway I can think of it, it still seems to me that shoveling, using air jack and traction aids should be a lot easier, faster, and cheaper.

A handwinch can provide a difference in kind but I am not sure how realistic and/or likely the scenario in which it helps when the above tools fail is.
 
Ratbag said:
Burying a spare wheel makes a good anchor ... ;).
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Try that in the U.S. Southwest...;):monkeydance::rotfl:

On a beach, the air jack plus traction devices should do the job: shovel, lift, fill in, place under wheels. I cannot lift the rear, as mentioned elsewhere, but I can easily lift the entire front via the air jack.

This is what I am talking about: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnOaL8WYijM"]picket anchors - YouTube[/ame]

Great fun when making educational videos as part of the job though!
 
The alternative would be either this or a self-made setup, which can use a more powerful winch.

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/Superwinch-1140232-Portable-Synthetic-D-Shackles/product-reviews/B0166H2V0C/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent[/ame]

8,000lb in double-line should suffice and the line can be tripled if it does not.

The challenge here would be 1/fixing the thing to the anchor point (not that of a challenge), 2/providing power. If a good quality portable power source can power it for long enough, then this would be better than a hand winch. If a dedicated battery is needed, then it becomes a lot harder (more items, more weight, higher cost).

Note that this can be purchased for a lot less than an ARB Magnum (280 vs 410 in the US). And if a portable power would work, as I read someone claim in a review, then the additional setup would be cheaper than that required for the ARB Magnum.

It could also be used on a mounting plate that connects to a 2" hitch receiver with the hook going to the eye bolt to spread the load on the vehicle as well. In this setup, a set of longer than the supplied cables can connect to the vehicle's own battery.

Sure, this is not what one would want for regular winching (but why having a Subaru then in the first place?) but it is food for thought as far as emergency setups go.

Basically, hand-winch wins on durability and long-term reliability, but the electrical winch removes much tedious manual work, works faster, and allows operation from distance and even assisting the winch from the driver's seat when alone (with hitch mounted winch). Also, no wire rope to carry/deal with.
 
MiddleAgeSubie said:
Try that in the U.S. Southwest...;):monkeydance::rotfl:
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Haha. Getting bogged on ground as hard as that would appear to be quite an achievement ... :iconwink: :lol: :raspberry:

Some of the 'sand' we get out in the centre of Oz is as hard as that! I recall spending a couple of days with a pick and crowbar digging a shallow trench for an electricity cable about 15m long in just such 'sand' when I was about 20 y.o. Out just east of Cunnamulla. Almost as hard as rock!
 
Ratbag said:
Haha. Getting bogged on ground as hard as that would appear to be quite an achievement ... :iconwink: :lol: :raspberry:

Some of the 'sand' we get out in the centre of Oz is as hard as that! I recall spending a couple of days with a pick and crowbar digging a shallow trench for an electricity cable about 15m long in just such 'sand' when I was about 20 y.o. Out just east of Cunnamulla. Almost as hard as rock!
Click to expand...

Haha, right, but the point is the same: the place where you can be stuck is either a wash (and so your anchor is on dry ground, not in the wash) or on a dirt road that has sections that stay wet etc when the others are either dry or mildly wet. You are not burying a wheel in either case:raspberry:
 
Just joking, MAS :iconwink: :lildevil:.

However, with many, many years experience towing horse floats around some pretty ghastly 'roads' (with horses ... ) with various vehicles - the main one of which was my 1968 Landcruiser - I decided long ago that small amounts of grey matter and avoiding things was way better than trying to recover the unrecoverable ...

IOW, I always take the chicken run, and apply an excess of caution before I get in the **** up to the axles!

I did this even when driving my LC unencumbered with anything ;).

If even a little bit uncertain, walk it first!
 
I totally agree about walking, etc.

Still, it is good to have options when facing a little more mud than hoped for 90% through a long road.

Additional issue here is the "reputation" of Subaru for off-road capability. I never want to have to ask anybody for anything traction related.

That said, I have no winching options at present. If you already have an ARB Magnum, you can turn it into a really useful device without spending too much more.

Btw, I think that my portable power unit could run the superwinch 2 go for about 5 min at its highest rated capacity, which is about 12.5 feet in a dual line setup. Just a factoid.
 
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