How To Winch Backward
Thread Starter
JK Jedi Master
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 14,800
Likes: 374
From: Midwest City, OK
How To Winch Backward
So, you've gone out by yourself and gotten into a fine mess. Now you're stuck, and the only realistic way out is to go back the way you came. But, your winch is on the front of the Jeep, not on the back. So what do you do?
Well, if you have the right gear and anchors in the right place, you can use a front-mounted winch to pull yourself backward. it takes lots of gear and pretty much ideally spaced anchors, so this is really more, "Gee whiz, it really works!" than practical. But, in case you want to bet a beer with your friends, here's how it's done ...
You'll want three snatch blocks, and tree savers to run the line correctly. And it takes a lot of line--if you opted for that 12K winch with the shorter, thicker line, you may rue that decision.
And here's a demonstration of it. Bear in mind that the vehicles in front and back are just anchors, and the engine was off in my Jeep for demo purposes (normally you want your engine running when winching so you'll have power steering and brakes).
https://www.facebook.com/4WPTulsa/vi...9126208499419/
Well, if you have the right gear and anchors in the right place, you can use a front-mounted winch to pull yourself backward. it takes lots of gear and pretty much ideally spaced anchors, so this is really more, "Gee whiz, it really works!" than practical. But, in case you want to bet a beer with your friends, here's how it's done ...
You'll want three snatch blocks, and tree savers to run the line correctly. And it takes a lot of line--if you opted for that 12K winch with the shorter, thicker line, you may rue that decision.
And here's a demonstration of it. Bear in mind that the vehicles in front and back are just anchors, and the engine was off in my Jeep for demo purposes (normally you want your engine running when winching so you'll have power steering and brakes).
https://www.facebook.com/4WPTulsa/vi...9126208499419/
Thread Starter
JK Jedi Master
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 14,800
Likes: 374
From: Midwest City, OK
The reason this works is actually a great demo of the use of a snatch block to increase pulling power. Basically, since you have a snatch block on the rear with the line doubled-back to an anchor point, it has twice the pulling power of the single line out of the winch. So there is force to pull you backward. And, since the line on the back of the Jeep is unspooling twice as fast as the line on the front is being reeled in, you have line to spool in while actually rolling the opposite direction you'd think. If that doesn't make sense, then magic. :-)
JK Newbie
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 55
Likes: 0
From: Denver, CO
JK Junkie
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 3,068
Likes: 116
From: Bunnlevel, NC
The reason this works is actually a great demo of the use of a snatch block to increase pulling power. Basically, since you have a snatch block on the rear with the line doubled-back to an anchor point, it has twice the pulling power of the single line out of the winch. So there is force to pull you backward. And, since the line on the back of the Jeep is unspooling twice as fast as the line on the front is being reeled in, you have line to spool in while actually rolling the opposite direction you'd think. If that doesn't make sense, then magic. :-)
Yep, this is cool... and I'll have to go with magic...
