How To Use A Winch To Recover A Vehicle (A Detailed Guide)

Are you stuck in the mud with your vehicle? In an area that’s remote and rural? Well, getting enough people to help you will be difficult but don’t despair.

A winch can show you the light of hope to recover your vehicle.

Even if you haven’t been in this situation yourself, having a winch in your vehicle at all times can save you from this embarrassing situation.

It may be an electric or a hand winch. The winch is a device provides mechanical work by winding up and winding out.

A hand winch consists of a reel and a hand crank. On the contrary, an electric winch has motorized crank.

Again, you can use the self-recovery winch that will provide you with additional facilities. It can mount the vehicle as an anchor so that the truck doesn’t fail to recover.

Remember, retrieving a vehicle is a very sensitive task with high possibilities of risk. So it’s vital to know the safety, precautions, and proper uses of the winch.

Things You Need to Consider Before Purchasing A Winch

Before getting a winch, it’s important to consider certain factors. Here are the most important:

After sticking into a ditch, the vehicle feels heavier. So, you should choose a winch with a greater weight rate than your vehicles.
In this case, choose a winch with one and a half times more weight capacity than a similar vehicle.
Heavyweights may cause failure of ropes, wires or cables. So, be careful while purchasing.
Don’t forget to buy an anchor. In fact, you should spool up the cables to avoid failure.
Further, you should check the material of the winch before you have one. A preferable material is an anti-rust material like stainless steel and others.
Additionally, an operator is also needed for handling, if you are willing to pick a hand winch.
Always bear in mind that, your safety is the first concern. Ensure you have enough safety equipment and first aid for primary treatment in an accident.

Additional Equipment for Your Winch

Here is some additional equipment you can stock along with your winch:

A pair of leather gloves
Hook strap
D-shackles
Snatch block
A shovel
A small-sized chain

Try to have all these equipment in safe, efficient operation.

Safety Issues and Precautions

It’s enough to be stuck in the mud with your vehicle but’s another to have the strength to pull out. Add to it the safety hazards that you may face while trying to pull out your vehicle and you have a toxic combination.

Here are a few guidelines to help you reduce or eliminate safety hazards:

Of course, the vehicle weights should not exceed the winch’s limit. A winch can’t take the loads same as its weights rate. So, always buy a winch of 1.5 times greater rate than the vehicle.
Before using, double check if the spools and the wire are okay. If it’s not, replace the ropes with the new one.
Hence, you should use a double line and don’t anchor to the winch for this layout. You should attach the winch wire to the chassis, not to the frame.
Also, you need to use a hook strap for pulling. That will save your hands from injury.
D-shackles should be used to ensure more safety while joining the winch and the vehicle.
Don’t forget to wear the gloves. Again, take the help of the chain for hooking the wire to the winch.
Place the snatch block after the winch. That will increase the ropes strength.
Again, a bag or blanket should be placed in the tighten lines to cover the failure. Besides, you need to keep the angles about 90 degrees between anchor and winch.

The operator must be trained enough to operate the winch. He must follow the safety steps and practice the task to master the process.

Using A winch To Recover A Vehicle

The winch is mainly used for improving any stuck vehicle or moving a vehicle on another. The winch operator must have the training to operate that carefully and correctly. Here are some steps for this purpose:

Step 1: If you are using an electric winch, engage the cord correctly with the port of remote control. Then you need to wind the hook for the winch to roll on. It will ensure that the connections aren’t interrupted.

Step 2: You just need to select a secure anchor point for your vehicle. The anchor point should have a straight path towards the car or truck. A tree could be the safer and potential anchor point.
If there is not enough, you can work with another larger vehicle than the trapped one. Even you can use the electric pole as a secure point for anchoring.

Step 3: For single lined pull-out, you don’t need any other types of equipment. If you are using the double line, you should attach a snatch block at anchor point to get increased tension.
Then you need to connect the remote and keep the pulling tension right. Further, by locking the clutch, you got to pull the line towards the anchor in straight.

Step 4: To keep the anchor point safe, you can bind it with a chain. For saving the shackles anchor bolt, you can use a D-Shackle. Furthermore, you always need to use the screwdriver to tighten the bolt manually.

Step 5: The pulling line should hook with the winch, and you should slide the D-shackle slightly. After starting the winching, you need to change the pulling. Further, you got to re-check all the connections whether it’s alright. Again, everyone should leave the place of the wire and spool to avoid the accident.

Step 6: This is the final step. Now you can start to winch. By controlling with remote or manually, you can turn on the winch. To recover a vehicle, the vehicle engine must be running with an existing driver.

Even you have to pull it regarding the line is straight, and the vehicle is in a stationary position. So you can continue the process until your vehicle is free.