Code of Practice For Using of Off-road Winches

An off-road vehicle winch is a tool that uses its own power to rotate the engine and pull the car out of trouble by means of a fixed or traction steel rope or special rope at the other end and is one of the necessary tools for off-road vehicles. The electric winch is powered by the car battery to drive the motor that drives the winch rope. This type of winch is very easy to use, as it can be operated from anywhere by standing and using the knob on the remote control. One advantage of this type of winch is that even if the engine does not start up, the winch can be operated as long as there is still power in the battery.

There are many kinds of car winches, mainly electric winches, mechanical PTO winches, hydraulic PTO winches, oil hydraulic winches, etc., of which electric winches are the most popular and most familiar. As the saying goes, ten locks are better than a bad winch, but also many hardcore off-road vehicles "fifth leg" can be said to be the essential off-road rescue and self-help tools, most people can do whether the correct and safe use, the following here to teach you the most common use of an electric winch.

Winch's Tension Force

The higher the pulling power, the better, from 12,000 lbs.

Winch Tow Ropes

Winch is generally divided into 2 kinds of traction rope

   1. steel wire rope, see the most is the road rescue vehicle trailer above with all the steel wire rope, the advantage of this rope is the motor remote control to collect the rope when not reversed stuck existence reversal, the disadvantage is that the weight is too heavy, must be with gloves is easy to pull the hand in the field infection, if the ageing break is very dangerous, must put on a towel or clothes hanging on the rope.

   2. DSM's nylon rope, at present many off-road vehicles with this Dyneema rope, do not underestimate this rope pulling force amazing, I now use it also. The advantage is that the rope is light, the safety factor is high, the disadvantage is that the wind and the sun are easy to ageing wear general regular 2-3 years to replace once.

Winch Operation

Remember to wear gloves before starting the operation to avoid hand injuries during the operation. Plug the end of the winch control cable into the winch control port (this step is not necessary for the wireless remote control). Use the remote control to release the cable a little and pull out the winch hook at the same time.  Release the clutch, and then drag the rope out, such as encounter stuck pull can not be pulled, the remote control back and forth to close the pull again, pay attention to put the rope, observe whether the end of the general winch rope pulled out of the limit when the rope colour will have another mark, you can stop, must ensure that the cable in the drum there are more than 3-5 turns, otherwise when the heavy load, will lead to the cable from the drum lose.

In the event of a vehicle being trapped look for a reference, firstly to the vehicle, generally, connect the rescue vehicle to the rescued vehicle and tow it out directly. Put the bolts of the U-shaped lugs through the tow hook of the vehicle being rescued, tighten the bolts and twist them back 1/2 turn to prevent over-tightening making it extremely difficult to remove them after the rescue. Then hook the winch hook onto the bowed part of the U-lug. There is another is to find a large tree or fixed things for self-rescue, this time we need to use the report tree bag, first, the reference U tied and then use the winch hook to pull the 2 heads, put the tree-hugging belt as far as possible to prevent the reference to the nearest place to the ground, so that there is force.

Pre-towing Preparation

We have already turned off the winch clutch, now we want to tighten it we must make sure it is locked, otherwise, the winch drum will be idle but no tension will be generated. Using the winch remote control, slowly tighten the cable until it is taut and place a cable flag in the middle of the taut cable. The flag will act as a buffer in case of a sudden break in the cable to avoid injury to people and vehicles. Evacuate all persons concerned to a safe area (an area outside the circle drawn with twice the length of the cable between the vehicle and the tree as a radius and the centre of the cable as the centre of the circle) and then loudly inform those present to start towing.

Start the Rescue

Use the remote control to slowly and steadily reel in the winch rope. During this time it is important to ensure that the cable is balanced and tightly wound around the winch drum wheel. Also, when using the electric winch, start the rescue vehicle engine at the same time and apply the throttle gently so as not to deplete the battery of the owner of the rescue vehicle. Keep towing until the vehicle is on a stable surface and if the vehicle can walk normally, you can stop the winch towing operation.

Stop and Collect Line

After the vehicle has been released pull the handbrake quite steadily and make sure the gear is in the park, then get out and pack up. Pull-on the cable to maintain some preload and retrieve it slowly with the winch controller, keeping the cable neatly lined up on the wheel drum. After all the cables are retrieved, the tow hook is fixed, if it is a wired controller, the plug is taken off from the winch control box, while the waterproof cap on the control box socket is covered, so that the winch operation is all complete. If you get the cable, rope guide or winch components dirty in the field, always remember to clean them when you get home.