[victorymike]

I've never had to use a winch to pull out a vehicle before but I have rigged pipework and motors and cooler endbells and such. For my Jeep I started with el-cheap-o recovery points and homemade brackets and such but worried if I ever had to use them for anything more than flat towing (only 3 times have I used them to flat tow). So I finally went out and bought the proper gear to use with my el-cheap-o $145 8000# winch. Piecing it together cost me only slightly less than if I'd bought the winch accessory kits that are available (and I didn't get a bag). So here is my recommendation: Pay the big bucks and buy the correct gear if you are going to use a winch on your vehicle!

I really appreciate the tips G-Man. When I actually have to use my winch I will try to do things right. Looks like I need to put a blanket of some sort in the back of my rig. When I was in the navy my maneuvering watch station was "man in charge of line 2" for the USS Billfish. They showed us videos of the lines seperating and cutting people in half. And that was with nylon rope under tension. Imagine if you had a chunk of steel attached to the end...like a bad recovery point that removed itself from the vehicle.

 

[victorymike]

I bought the 4 Wheeler's Bible to read up on things exactly like this topic (and lucky for me it has TONS more good info). Thanks for this topic.

From the minor hijack of this thread: My CB has a built in SWR and you can tune the radio to the antenna (as opposed to tuning the antenna to the radio). And I am a ham (N1URQ) and have a mobile 2 meter radio. First I have heard of fellow Jeepers using their hams on the trails. If this is the way everybody is going I'll swap my 2 meter from my truck into my Jeep, like I did with my CB. Is there a thread on this?...couldn't find one via the search feature.