

Of course, if the anchor can't penetrate, you probably won't be able to dig through it anyway. Too hard, like rock or ground that's frozen solid and the anchor can't penetrate. The ground needs to be right to use them. There is a lot of product liability that goes along with designing something that will kill people if it breaks. They tend to be on the expensive side, probably because they're designed to hold thousands of pounds. Of course commercial winch anchors aren't perfect. This is useful for very heavy vehicles and could be helpful in certain conditions. If you and a wheeling buddy both have Pull-Pals, you can link them to create a double winch anchor that can take even more weight. You can also use more than one anchor at once. This can result in up to a 20% loss in strength. The more cable you have on the drum, the further the winch line is from the drum's turn axis. This means reeling the cable out until you have a single row of wraps on the drum - this is where the winch has the most power. You can also position the anchor so that the winch will be able to generate the most pulling force. With an anchor you can get a fairly centered pull since you'll get to choose the site. Lots of winch pulls end up off to the side or a little high or low. They fold up somewhat compactly.īesides easy deployment, you get to place the anchor exactly where you want it. While you may have to do a little digging to set it, it's nothing like the effort to set up a deadman anchor. The anchor will travel down into the ground and towards your rig until the spade bites and secures itself. You set the point of the plow into the ground, then reel in your winch line. Get a winch anchor if you wheel without other vehicles and getting stranded will be a serious problem.Ĭommercial winch anchors are great because of their ease of use. If you cruise Arizona desert trails with your family where there are few trees, a winch anchor will be another piece of insurance that you won't be stuck in the middle of nowhere without water. If you go muddin' in big, wide, open fields in Alabama, an anchor might come in handy. If you're tooling along in State or National Forest in Virginia, a winch line and winch extension strap will likely be all you ever need. Should you get one? It depends on where you wheel, how long you go out for, and what your recovery options are. They each use a somewhat similar design where there is a plow that is pulled down into the ground to make the anchor fast. There are only three companies making winch anchors in the US right now.


#NCH ANCHOR PORTABLE#
While you might be relying on trees and rocks as winch points, a portable ground anchor setup coupled with your winch setup will make your 4x4 like a self-contained recovery unit. Commercial Winch Anchorsįill out your recovery gear! If you have a Hi-Lift, a winch, and a winch recovery kit, you might want to turn your attention to a land anchor for your winch. Either can make a suitable land anchor in sand or mud, although there is a considerable amount of effort required with the deadman. You have two options to make a winch anchor: an easy-to-use commercial winch anchor or a deadman anchor, where you bury a tire or a log. How do we fix this? We make our own winch anchor. Even wooded areas can be devoid of winch anchors if the area has too much new growth or has been recently logged. Mud flats and sand dunes usually have no trees to hook up to. In the desert, trees and rocks can be too far for a winch cable or winch extension strap to reach. But though we bring winches, one thing we often don't always have is something to attach it to. We know what parts and tools we need and we can cobble something together to get us back to civilization if we break down. Even in the east, there are plenty of places where getting stuck would be a big, big problem. In remote areas in the United States, it's possible to go days at a time without seeing other people. You might be burying bodies for the mob in Las Vegas (we don't judge), the boss won't spring for larger tires, and you're sick of calling for help in sandy washes. Or maybe you're gradually exploring abandoned mining towns for a week at a time while living out of the back of your pickup.
