Winch Vandalism

? snopes??

www.snopes.com/

Its an Urban Legend website.

This is another of the "I've heard about it , never actually seen it" type legends

www.snopes.com - a maintained list of debunked urban legends

Just searched the forum Truckster, saw the post from 01. I've just bought a new car and it's the first time I've had a winch. I might fit the switch anyway. Small outlay for peace of mind.

Cheers

Is that similar to everyone knows someone who was talking to a bloke at the pub, whose bosses brother-in-laws mate had snatch straps let go that was joined by a shackle, and knocked off a blokes head, or went thru the windsreen, or 'ventilated' the radiator??

I by no means condone the practice of joing snatch straps with a shackle- but hey, can anyone step up and say- yes I have seen it happen??

Sorry to say I've seen the results of both 'urban myths' a Patrol nearly cut in two in a panelbeaters yard by the winch cable over the top.
The second occasion of 'winch' vandalism was in a carpark in Parramatta years ago where I used to park my car every day. A cruiser had its cable unwound and pulled down past three cars to a concrete pillar, paperclip acrosss the contacts in the control box and hey pretso the cruiser hung a hard left and proceeded to crush the three cars against the pillar.
That would take some sorting out by the insurance company.
I've also seen 1st hand what happens when a strap breaks and the shackle joining them goes through the rear window of a rangie, wipes out both front and rear headrests, the headlining and windscreen before severely denting the bonnet.
The driver actually moistened the drivers seat before getting out, especially as his passengers had got out to take photo's of the recovery.
I've also seen towpoints detach and trash the towing vehicle on several occasions over the years.

does anyone else think of the song "Ive been everywhere man...." at the moment?

Certainly seen the Snatch Strap issue before , and pics to go with it.

Never seen the winch one , first hand.

It "may" have been a myth a while back , but , given the amount of airtime this gets . . . its only a matter of time before someone actually does it.

Onya traveller2, you can now debunk snopes :)))))))))))))))))))))))))

Anyone who wants to operate my winch will have to overcome the lack of power to it...................

Yep seen a shackle spear through a mates rear door attached to a snatch strap. But even worse seen what happens to a mate who falls asleep with a sntch strap looped around him in his swag and attached to my car when I went for a drive too!

This might be a stoopid question, but I don't have a winch and have thus far in 4X4 life had very little experience with them, but on the few occassions I have, I noticed the following....

1) Most winches have a "duty" cycle in the instructions.... as I understand it this is too ensure that the wich motor doesn't get too hot and burn out. (??)

2) When under load, (The load that I witnessed was a Hilux being pulled up a slight incline) the winch groaned and grumbled it's way through the pull, and this was forward winching albeit slightly uphill.... it did the job but was arguing a bit..

I would think, given my "as-stated-above" limited knowledge, that if the cable was wound out over the roof of the truck and the cabling shorted to force operation, wouldn't the winch motor burn out or the battery flatten long before the vehicle is "cut-in-half"? Sure there'd be some damage, but I think the wich or battery would fail before anything too serious occurred.....

Or if the cable is wound out and down to a pillar three cars along, the force required to skull drag a fourby sideways, against 3 cars also meant to be dragged sideways would similarly result in a flat battery or a burnout winch motor.....

I'm of the belief that this is Urban Myth at work here, and snopes is a great place to research anything that sounds a bit weird... two others are Break The Chain and Urban Legends and Folklore

I reckon that if I find something on two outta those three, then it's Bovine Faeces!

Cheers

Brian

The two I saw caused plenty of damage before the winch stopped pulling for one reason or other. Panels are pretty soft, try walking around on the roof of your vehicle or standing on the bonnet, even a knee into the guard will do damage ;-))

Hairy,
"But even worse seen what happens to a mate who falls asleep with a sntch strap looped around him in his swag and attached to my car when I went for a drive too! "

What kind of a mate/person/mongrel does a stunt like that? Obviously (I hope) you DIDN'T do the hooking up and were unaware of it, but I'm guessing you knew who did..... If it was one of my friends, they wouldn't be a friend anymore I can tell ya! That is stupidity at it's worst I reckon!!

Nearly as bad as the family we were camping with years ago, one of the kids couldn't get the peg in the ground so tied the centre rope on the side wall of the tent to the towbar.
Kid forgot to tell dad who drove off to get firewood, ripped the whole side wall out of the tent exposing the wife in her birthday suit as she was about to put her swimming togs on!!!!

Brian,
Mmmm or just good harmless fun!!!

Hairy,
So what you're syaing is that the "snatch-round-the-mates-body-in-the-swag" didn't really happen... you were just winding us up......

Geez.... Don't I feel gullible now...

LOL.....

Dont.......because it did happen, but it was done very cautiously, slowly and in a soft creek bed.

Wasn't in the car park at Westfield Eastgardens was it?
One of the employees there, when my wife worked there, come out to find police and people everywhere around her truck and it too was nearly cut in half from the winch "myth". That was about 9 yrs ago though as her truck was an 80 series nearly new. It is definitely not a "myth".

Trevor.