Vehicle recovery without a winch

[Suck My Glock]

Came across this product. I thought it was brilliant because it also works with regular 2wd vehicles as well as 4wd. And it looks like it likely costs less than a winch as well.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhtApZfQ4Ow

 

[AZ_Five56]

That looks awesome. A nice compact alternative to traction boards... assuming you can find something to anchor to when you get stuck.

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

I think my brother invented that over 50 years ago.

When I was a kid my brother always carried a white spoke rim in his truck.
When he got stuck he would take off a tire and put on the white spoke rim.
He would then hook a cable to it and wrap it around the rim and tie it off to a tree , rock or whatever and then drive his truck out.

The problem with this method is that if you were stuck real bad and were using the front axle , it was very easy to break a hub.
It worked rather well on the rear axle though.

Also if you don't have positract or limited slip , it won't work.

 

[knockonit]

lol, yip, old school tech meeting modern information machine, been four wheeling in az for over 50 plus years tried everything in a pinch, some worked well some not, issue in the desert is taint too many trees, and if wet, you'll pull tree outta the dirt, and i never seemed to have a strap big enough or long enough to reach that dang big arse rock, which taught me to never wheel alone, unless hunting

Rj

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

Another trick my brother would do if there was nothing to tie too.
He would dig a hole.
Fasten his tow rope or cable to his spare tire and bury it.
Then use that as an anchor point.
This worked best in a sand wash.
It kind of sucked in the hard packed.

My brother got stuck a lot and tried everything at one time or another.
But there was no road or trail out there he couldn't get through , one way or another.

There have been times when he or someone else would be stuck for several days , but eventually they always made it home.

 

[knockonit]

yeah, an old boy i knew from WW2 shared same trick, he made like a wedge, that you'd dig a small starter hole and as you pulled on it would bury itself, worked great, except for retrieval, trying to pull out bent the snot out of it, so a little digging did the trick
old ingenuity wins the day
Rj

 

[Suck My Glock]

issue in the desert is taint too many trees, and if wet, you'll pull tree outta the dirt, and i never seemed to have a strap big enough or long enough to reach that dang big arse rock, which taught me to never wheel alone, unless hunting

Rj

I saw this product about 2 decades ago and have always wondered why more people aren't aware of it. Seems like it is perfect for beach roaming or dunes or river bottoms here in the desert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wPCF9LePdU

 

[knockonit]

yip, someone patented the ole boys idea i guess, he said they used it in the south pacific and phillipines to get vehichles out, hehe, helluva idea

 

[brandyspaw]

I think I'd rather have these and a set of traction boards than a winch along. Its not just the expense of a winch but also the weight of the winch and a heavy steel bumper added to my rig. Of course, I'm also not as adventurous in my old age as I was in my youth. So, I'm not going to try to take the kind of chances by getting into every place I would have tried to go in the past.

 

[smithers599]

Very clever!