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Yes, a hi-lift with the winching kit is cheaper than a power winch. I think I'll stop procrastinating and pick one up before too long. One thing I always think about when in the boonies is that if I do get stuck, at least I have a comfortable place to relax while I slowly starve to death.
There are two lengths of Hi-Lifts offered. The 48" long version carried by everyone that is mostly sold to Jeep owners, and the much more usable 60" version that is harder to find.
In cold country I keep in mind what a native in Freedonia, AZ told me as we were heading to Toroweep one February. "If you get stuck in the mud just wait until it freezes. Then you'll be able to drive right out." I don't know that this works, but given his obvious experience from living in that area I'm inclined to try it. Beats walking out.
I've been told by a guy who'd tried all types of limited slips that the light braking technique works the best with the all-gear type LSD's. Not that it doesn't work with the others, just that it's the most effective with those.
Commercial marine vendors have lines like the Samson's Amsteel and Amsteel Blue. 1/4" Amsteel Blue has an average breaking strength of 8,600 lbs and a minimum breaking strength of 7,700 lbs. Strength for size makes this type of line very appealing. 1/2" Blue has a minimum breaking strength of 30,600 lbs.!
Knots are tricky in this stuff, they tend to be stress concentrators which results in localized heat when loaded. Doesn't take much load thru a knot to part the line and the resulted parting looks like someone used a propane torch there. This I learned by intentionally repeatedly failing some 1/4" Amsteel line using a Warn 8274 winch to pull on it. A simple braiding works much, much better than a knot. These are a 12 strand braid rather than a laid line. They tend to behave a bit like a "chinese finger trap" and exploiting this is the key. On one end a spliced eyelet is a good idea, but to be able to rig at varying lengths without knots requires a fid or a pencil. Simply piercing the 'live' portion of the line between the strands horizontally several times while weaving the 'dead' end of the line in an 'S' shape thru those piercings worked a trick!
I've been seeing occasional mentions of using a tow ball as an attachment point to pull someone out. That is a very, very bad practice. Dynamic loads like that use are known to fail the balls which turns them into a projectile flying inline to the strap's direction. Think about what is along that line of action and then consider that such balls have completely penetrated sheet metal, like opened hoods. When the pull direction will allow it you can simply insert the strap into a receiver hitch and run the slider's pin thru the strap's loop. The problem with this is that any sort of angle between the strap and the hitch opening puts the strap at risk of being cut by the receiver's opening. For off-angle pulls a slider that accepts a shackle is a simple & very worthwhile piece of gear.
http://www.warn.com/truck/accessories/shackle.shtml Most buy theirs, I made mine and made it much more complicated than it needed to be just to take some weight out of it.
There are two lengths of Hi-Lifts offered. The 48" long version carried by everyone that is mostly sold to Jeep owners, and the much more usable 60" version that is harder to find.
In cold country I keep in mind what a native in Freedonia, AZ told me as we were heading to Toroweep one February. "If you get stuck in the mud just wait until it freezes. Then you'll be able to drive right out." I don't know that this works, but given his obvious experience from living in that area I'm inclined to try it. Beats walking out.
I've been told by a guy who'd tried all types of limited slips that the light braking technique works the best with the all-gear type LSD's. Not that it doesn't work with the others, just that it's the most effective with those.
Commercial marine vendors have lines like the Samson's Amsteel and Amsteel Blue. 1/4" Amsteel Blue has an average breaking strength of 8,600 lbs and a minimum breaking strength of 7,700 lbs. Strength for size makes this type of line very appealing. 1/2" Blue has a minimum breaking strength of 30,600 lbs.!
Knots are tricky in this stuff, they tend to be stress concentrators which results in localized heat when loaded. Doesn't take much load thru a knot to part the line and the resulted parting looks like someone used a propane torch there. This I learned by intentionally repeatedly failing some 1/4" Amsteel line using a Warn 8274 winch to pull on it. A simple braiding works much, much better than a knot. These are a 12 strand braid rather than a laid line. They tend to behave a bit like a "chinese finger trap" and exploiting this is the key. On one end a spliced eyelet is a good idea, but to be able to rig at varying lengths without knots requires a fid or a pencil. Simply piercing the 'live' portion of the line between the strands horizontally several times while weaving the 'dead' end of the line in an 'S' shape thru those piercings worked a trick!
I've been seeing occasional mentions of using a tow ball as an attachment point to pull someone out. That is a very, very bad practice. Dynamic loads like that use are known to fail the balls which turns them into a projectile flying inline to the strap's direction. Think about what is along that line of action and then consider that such balls have completely penetrated sheet metal, like opened hoods. When the pull direction will allow it you can simply insert the strap into a receiver hitch and run the slider's pin thru the strap's loop. The problem with this is that any sort of angle between the strap and the hitch opening puts the strap at risk of being cut by the receiver's opening. For off-angle pulls a slider that accepts a shackle is a simple & very worthwhile piece of gear.
http://www.warn.com/truck/accessories/shackle.shtml Most buy theirs, I made mine and made it much more complicated than it needed to be just to take some weight out of it.
