Just Jeeps of Jacksonville - Jeep Club Winching Safety

Winching Use & Safety

A few tips and pointers for getting the most out of your winch. Next to the winch itself, the most important item to have on board is a pulley block. Pulley blocks can be used for doubling the power of your winch, and can be used for self recovery, direct pulling, and indirect pulling.

Single Line Pull
This is just attaching the winch's hook to an anchor (tree, rock or vehicle) with either a D-ring shackle, tree saver strap, choker chain, snatch block or a combination of these and then using the winch to pull the vehicle free:

Double Line Pull
A double line pull, is a little advanced type of winch rigging where the cable is run through a snatch block and back to the winching vehicle. The snatch block doubles the pulling power of the winch while halving the line speed of the winch. A double line pull is most often used when your winch does not have sufficient power to get your rig unstuck or when the rig you are trying to free is bigger than yours:

Safety to others
Take care that everyone keeps away from any winching activity. It is a good practice to use a heavy blanket or jacket over the wire rope. The blanket serve as a visual warning so that the by-standers do not trip over it and in case a rope failure, act as a damper because of its weight and helps to prevent the broken rope from whipping.