I have a bed mounted winch that i use for recovoring heavy vehicles. Recently I ran across one that was stuck where i couln't anchor the front of the truck to a tree or anything. Anyone have any ideas of a way to mount something on the rear of the truck to keep from sliding while winching.. I was thinking of fabbing up something that would slide in the reese hitch with a donward slant. Mabe something that i can back up to force it into the ground. Anyone build anything like this that has had success with heavier vehicles.

 

I saw a wrecker us a ****** block setup that used a roller to get the cable pulling just a few inches off the ground. Hopefully you can imagine what I'm talking about with words only. Maybe you can fab a stinger that will dig in and a way to route your cable down low. I would think you'd have to look into beefing up your hitch and bolts that hold it on. I don't think it was intended to do anything like that.

 

I can picture what you are saying. I am looking at like for example they make that pull pal. You put it in the ground for something to winch to. I am winching things forward from the bed of my truck. I winch things heavier than my truck so when faced with a tree bare place i need something off the back of the truck to keep it from winching into the mired vehicle. I am thinking of something off the back like spade shaped to dig into the ground to stay stationary. I'm gonna see if i can find some wrecker pics because someone has to of had encountered this before. Otherwise I might have to get a peterbilt lol.

 

Pirate 4x4 had a review of the Smittybuilt and the Pull Pal. I can't post the link because of the language on Pirate's site but the Pull Pal won hands down.

 

Anchoring the front of a truck to something and winching from the other end is a good way to tear a truck apart. I've had a few hard core 4X4 people's trucks in my shop that have done the worst damage I've ever seen using that technique. The worst was a frame torn in half.

What I recommend is scotch blocks. They're like big chock blocks with chains attached that y ou anchor to the rear of the truck doing the winching. See the pics below.





In use:

 

The answer is in the question. go to a marine supply and buy a large anchor, dig a hole open it up and fill in the hole. really not hard and you will be suprised what a small dansforth will hold. Used this recovering in the desert a lot(no trees)
Clark

 

A relative of mine has a dock building business, and didn't always have the right equipment available. He had a big old crane that floated and usually didn't have (or want to get to) the loading ramp to pull it out, so he used two big oak wedges split from firewood. There was a 4x6 P.T. lagged to the back of them, away from the tires when in places. Then he just drove a spike through and eye bolt in the end of the 4x6 into the ground to keep it from moving. Moved a lot of weight with that set up, just glorified chock blocks.

 

Bury your spare.....pull pal works well also.

 

The way I used to do it with the Jeep if the brakes wouldn't hold it I just put it in gear and spun the wheel's until they buried. Then before you run out of cable pull yourself out.

 

Yep, that's the old skool way.

MikeyB

 

Pullpal

http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/pullpal.htm

 

Thiw is what I'm talking about. Do you have any idea the name for them or scotch blocks it? I will search the net a little but if you know a starting place to look let me know. I was in the army and the 6X6 wreckers used a curved plate that went ino the ground. Was thinking something like that or some kind of spikes. Using a 17k winch on some heavy trucks so I'm not anchoring with a pull pal or from the front of the truck.

 

Yep saw the dansforth recommend years ago and that is what I carry. The harder you pull against it the deeper it digs.

 

I would Google wrecker companies. It seemed like most medium to large records have plates like that. They usually have a chain whole in what goes to be there back bumper. What actually takes place is that the wrecker rolls up onto the wedge and then a sharp edge of the wedge digs in as a chain will not allow the wrecker to go any further. If you look closely at the wedges in the picture of the wrecker you will notice that the bottom edge has teeth, also the bottom edge has a slight angle to it.

By the way I am old school. It just seems that it would be quicker and easier to spin the wheels in and then wench yourself out. I assume you have a micro lock on your truck, if not I would consider one.

Good luck, Mike

 

Here ya go;

http://www.truckntow.com/p-10552-ste...-set-of-2.aspx

OR:

http://www.awdirect.com/steel-scotch.../wheel-chocks/

Both companies offer other scotch block models, so you might want to poke around their sites a bit.