The moral of this story is important, and because i didn't listen to that little voice in the back of my head, i'm paying for it.

I'll try and keep it short,

After a nice day of kayaking today with my buddies, we decide to do a little offroading before the day is done. My friend Josh in his blue CJ-7 and i in my JK hit up some ATV trails that were recently opened to 4x4 trucks. as soon as we get up the first hill, there is a group of 5 dudes stranded with a Ford F150 in mud ruts. So i offer to winch him out.

My mistake was (and i'm sure we all know not to do this) was that I gave the drive of the pickup the winch hook and told him to hook it on a towing point or the frame. I didn't see how he hooked it on because of all the tall grass and by ignoring the little voice in my head that told me "go check how he hooked it on" i began to winch him out.

after successfully pulling him out, i notice the wire near the crimp was unthread. I ask the driver how he attached it to his truck, and to my horror he responded he looped it around the bumper and hooked it to the cable.

After explaining to the guys how that was one of the big NO NO'S of winching i told him that it was now damaged and couldn't be used until repaired.

the guy immediately when into his truck and gave me 40$, i shook his hand and we went on our ways.

so ladies and gentleman TRUST NO ONE with your equipment, and ALWAYS check people's work. i'm just glad it didn't snap and hurt someone because i would have felt personally responsible for not making sure my equipment was being used safely.

the 1st and 2nd pics are of where the cable is ripping, the 3rd and 4th are of the CJ stuck and my jk with muddy tires. i'm sorry for no pics of the pickup-i was too concentrated on getting him unstuck so we could go offroading.

 

Ouch.....glad it didn't snap. Gonna go w/ a synthetic now?

 

well no it broke very close to the hook, so in hopes of saving money, i'm bringing it tomorrow to my local 4x4 shop to see if they can just cut it, and re-crimp it.

 

That sucks, but it could have been really bad it it snapped.

 

oof, that is scary! there are a few guys that i'd trust to hook it up without second guessing, but this thread sure makes you double check who you are (potentially) trusting lives/equipment with.

 

well i hope everyone thinks twice about who they let handle their stuff, alot of folks don;t know the little do's and don't of trailing.....

 

Well. Hopefully the cable can be salvaged.

It was nice of the guy to give you $40 cash in hopes of repairing the cable.

Very nice of you to help the guy out as well.

 

well as you said it could have been a lot worse

 

A good resource IMO:

http://www.warn.com/corporate/images...PN62885-A2.pdf

Sorry to hear of the mishap. That cable appears entirely salvagable though.

 

Thank You for the link, i received a copy of this document with my winch but it seems to have gone missing, i'll print it out