Reverse Winching

[baskiboat]

I got stuck yesterday in snow. I made a series of bad choices in trying to extract myself. I needed to go backwards but my winch was up front.

Who has used the reverse winch tequnique? How much line do you suggest I carry? Will soft shackles perform as well as pulleys with winch rope.

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[stumblinhorse]

Winching backwards takes a lot of gear. I have only seen it practiced not needed it. And it takes so much gear seems as if you have to borrow the gear to make it work! And if someone else is there, there is no point. I think the best thing for snow is a receiver mount rear winch. i think you can get away with a small winch and have the whole set up for about $800.

thing is with a reverse winch set up, you have to get lucky to have all the attachment points around you to get it set up. Then like 4 snatch block and 4 tree saves…. No way…. Simple rear small winch setup with jumper cables and you are way better.

 

[BDinTX]

I did it once on a muddy trail on my dad’s property. Small depression where water collected, slightly off camber, mud like grease, and trees all around including the downhill side next to the Jeep. Any attempt to drive under my own power slid me closer to the trees.

I went out to help him hoist a storm siren control box up a power pole so I only had what I thought I’d need for the job. I wasn’t planning on going “off-road”. Technically I wasn’t and he offered several times to go get his tractor to pull me out. I was like - I’ll be damned if I let him take a picture of his tractor pulling me out! My family is pretty hardcore picking on each other…

Anyway, what I had was a tree saver, a tow strap, two pulleys, and an assortment of bow shackles.
I used a pulley on the tree saver at the front to redirect the rope to the rear.
The other pulley at the rear with a tow strap to redirect to the back bumper.
I didn’t have a third pulley with me so the tow hook acted as the third pulley to go back to the rear redirect tree.

It worked but another pulley that I’d left at home would have been better. Or the traction boards I’d also left at home, or cutting off some branches and putting them under my tires like my wife suggested but I didn’t hear because I was too excited to do a reverse winch…

 

[BDinTX]

To @stumblinhorse point, you do have to get lucky and have all the anchors in the right place. Depending on where you wheel, that may not be likely. I am a gear whore though, (no offense to the actual @GearWhore) so I have everything required to reverse winch, just not with me this time. I did buy another factor 55 pulley and soft shackle after this little adventure, so I can keep the basics in each vehicle. Then a kitty liter bucket has the extra stuff I grab when I’m planning to get stuck. I need to add winch rope extension and x-lock to it.

 

[music293]

I think you will find this video short and quite informational, if you haven't seen it already.




The fact is this, if you want to winch a vehicle in reverse from a front-mounted winch, then you need a minimum of 3 snatchblocks or recovery rings.

And then from there you can kind of extrapolate what else you'd need. Something to attach the redirection device to the tree, so a strap of some sort. And ideally, you'd use a tree saver on each one.

Although, if you truly found yourself in a situation where you needed a reverse recovery like that, I'd look the other way if you didn't have a tree saver for each tree. In that situation, I suppose you do your best to mitigate any lasting damage and move on.

As for how much line you'll need, well I think you can see that it would add up quickly as you're going to have a minimum of 4 runs of cable, or segments. And depending on what's around you and how close your recovery points are, that might be a little, or it might be a lot. So bring...enough. :P

 

[Shibadog]

I used to carry a cheap o winch on a plate that fit a hitch receiver. Carried it a lot of miles. Only needed it one time, but it paid for itself right there

 

[Speed331]

This guy's channel has some of the best recovery information around. Not just the 'how' but also the 'why' it works.

 

[brewski]

This guy's channel has some of the best recovery information around. Not just the 'how' but also the 'why' it works.

It works because of simple pulley force balancing. Tension in the line is realtively equal in all lines, so you have more lines pulling you backwards than forwards and therefore the force balance means the vehicle is pulled backwards. In real life there is minute reduction in tension with each pulley, but we are talking on the order of 0.1% so for practical purposes it is negligible and can be ignored.
In closing, pulley systems are pretty cool.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I haven't done much winching. Maybe been in a vehicle a few times when it was needed.

Not a reverse winch, but sideways.

On a deer hunt in 1979, I had borrowed my brother's 74 shortbed 4x4 and was somewhere in northern Utah. We were driving on a 2 track that went around the side of a hill in the aspens, but the trail was off camber and wet from the melting snow. I was driving slowly and carefully, but the truck slipped sideways further and further downhill, with any movement. I stopped and pulled the winch cable out sideways around two trees and back to the rear bumper. We were able to get out of a serious situation. But it cost the lives of those two trees where the steel cable went around. In those days, tree savers and extra winch gear was rare or nonexistent. Most gear was improvised.

 

[smokeythecat]

Will soft shackles perform as well as pulleys with winch rope.

Don't use a soft shackle as a pulley, if that is what you meant. Or did you mean a soft shackle with a ring?

 

[baskiboat]

Don't use a soft shackle as a pulley, if that is what you meant. Or did you mean a soft shackle with a ring?

I have a sleeve on my winch line that I position in the soft shackle when I have to use a tree to change angles. Obviously I can't do this if using multiple trees though. The soft shackles came with a sleeve so I was just wondering if that would be enough to prevent rope damage.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I have a sleeve on my winch line that I position in the soft shackle when I have to use a tree to change angles. Obviously I can't do this if using multiple trees though. The soft shackles came with a sleeve so I was just wondering if that would be enough to prevent rope damage.

The sleeve is not intended to have a winch line run through it and slide under load. You need to use a pulley or one of the new style low friction winch rings.

The soft shackle goes thru the hole and anchors the ring to a tree saver or other connection and the winch line runs around the groove and back to another anchor. The ring will rotate on soft shackle.

 

[roaniecowpony]

The soft shackle sleeve is for protection of the shackle with a static load (no sliding)

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