A anchor worth the money for winching out

As good of an idea as it is, they don't work very well in very hard or very soft soil. Hard clay soil tends to break away in chunks and soft just makes it act like a snow plow. Its not a bad thing to have in case of an emergency, but one that has a stake that drives into the ground or a tree or truck works leagues better.

Looks good Spot.  I've used deadmen before.  As some one said the soil has a lot to do with getting a bite.  Rocky soil tends to cause the anchor to twist and bend/break.  Clay also usually has more slide than bite.

The using looks good, some forged elements and some fabricated pieces.  You should check to see if the unit can have the bolts quickly removed and plow handle reversed.  You want to be able to pull across it and flip the plow handle so the rear trailer hitch can be used to pull it out backwards counter to its bite mode.  Those suckers can bury fast in light soil and who wants to dig a day with a trenching tool to retrieve it.

But, Spot, you seem to be fixated on getting stuck?????  defensive driving is a better answer than retrieve equipment.  I've been stuck really bad a few times....always my fault.  A moments thought would have saved my ass. Have you been reading any off-road driver ed books.  I had one (gave it away after I read it) lots of good info.  I've not gotten stuck lately, getting old too soon, smart too late.

BEAR

Independence of travel is always worth a few extra pounds.

BEAR

PS. it you have it with you........ you will probably never need it!

Heck growing up in the north - the land of muskeg, gumbo and beaver dams stuck was a permanent state for every boy old enough to own a rattletrap that would get to the woods. The "state of stuck" lasted from 14 to well into your 20's (30's if you were a slow learner). During this semi permanent hiatus from mobility, we learnt a whole pile about getting unstuck. I've probably ruined more 8,000 Warn winches and 4' jackalls than the local 4x4 store has in stock. I've seen 3 people knocked out when jackalls kicked (my brother twice). We built bridges, buried dead men, corduroyed roads and lost an old Ford to the muskeg by Athabasca. It broke through the frost in the springtime, and went down so fast we got our guns out but lost the 8-tracks on the dash. 

We learned how to drive. As time went on we were spending more time unstuck than stuck. It wasn't we were any smarter we just pushed the envelope further and further.

Then you have one of those innocent days when you weren’t looking for trouble. The day I shot my biggest bear, we got caught 20 some miles up the butt of the world and when the skies dumped 1” of rain and 6” wet snow in two hours we knew we were in trouble. That day (and a big chunk of the night), we worked our way out winching most of the way. Chained up on all four it was all we could do to stay on the gumbo road we had breezed in on in 2-wheel drive. There came a point after winching for at least a dozen times that I began to worry about the batteries lasting, after that the cable was just pile on top of the hood between winching, it wasn’t like it was going to have time to fall off! We labor our way from mud hole to mud hole, sometimes winning the coin toss, just as often pulling cable, the bottom had totally gone out of the road. The hill out of Jackfish creek was a very dark spot in what was already a nightmare. We couldn’t make the hill and had to winch, the hill is the better part of a mile long and the are spots on it where the truck would slide backwards when the winch was unhooked. That was a circus! Rick would try to stop the truck from moving with firewood blocks behind the wheels, I’d spool a little slack and my brother Russ would unhook from the tree and then sprint up hill with pulling winch cable and wearing 40 pounds of gumbo on each boot. If it went right, he’d make the next tree and get the cable hooked before Rick and I lost the battle with gravity. There were a couple of these skits that didn’t quite go as planned, but we made it up.

The clouds were scudding across the moon and fog was rising from the road when we finally made it to a gravel road. The winch that had drug us out almost 40 times gave up the ghost while trying to respool the last of the line. I used the back of my axe head and the ¼” bolt plate on the winch bumper to cut the line so we could head home.

Stuck, yep I’ve been there.

waksupi wrote: Lordy, Omega, you must be old! 8 tracks! I'll bet there are a fair amount of the board members that don't even know what they are, let alone ever seen one!

How about 17 in 1976? Still older than dirt?

If I'm going to be stupid enough to go somewhere I may get stuck,

Man, you totally miss what the outdoors is all about! It's an adventure - a walk on the wildside where the days schedule isn't predetermined.

I like a couple old truck axles, a ledge hammer, and a come along, plus some chain or cable.

Come alongs will get you out - eventually, far, far to slow if you're in rough country where you may have 6 or 7 extractions a day. I use a 60" x 1 1/8" pry bar for a deadman. On the flat end that I pound on to drive it in I weld a hook on the side so I can slip a chain on and pull it out after extraction. A chainsaw is a must have for bad country. 

Edited by Omega