Winch ground anchors

I guess that's sort of where I was coming from with this. Now I personally stay well away from mud as much as possible. Hate the stuff, but occasionally I have found that it's a matter of hopefully crossing that little stretch, finding another way, or abandoning the trip all together.
I too have seen demos of these anchor systems but of course the "demonstrators" have a vested interest in showing the successful outcomes.
I have never owned or used one, and of course extra weight and bulk to lug around. The bloke (my son) who was the guy who used his spare wheel, could have saved himself a lot easier if he had had one.

Cheers
Pop

John,

As per my previous follow up, my young bloke in his youthful exuberance, managed to bog himself below the high water mark in an area famous for it's very high tidal movements. He was solo, but fortunately had a winch. He reckons he could have given an excavator a run for it's money digging holes (twice) to bury the spare ahead of an incoming tide. So in that particular instance, speed was definitely of the essence.
He did learn his lesson however and avoids those sort of situations nowadays...lol.
I do take your point however. Usually, for most situations, speed is not a factor. The only reason I was even considering getting hold of one was that they appear to be a hell of a lot easier to deploy, so to speak, than digging a hole big enough for the spare, and some sort of trench for the cable so it doesn't just pull out of the hole.

Pop, yep, time was of the essence for your son, would be for us all in that situation.

My Patrol is heavy when touring, so any way I can prevent more weight is used. Cheers.

Hehe Pop, I can well imagine!

I was going to suggest the same thing.. A few star pickets can be strapped onto the roof-rack somewhere.... Good rope will do the trick for top to bottom if you don't have a couple of short chains.

You'd be amazed at how much load 3 star pickets will take when installed at a good angle & deep enough to suit the ground conditions.

Also, when putting them in, make sure that the "wide side" of the star is facing towards the vehicle. Then you'll get maximum loading onto the ground. Facing the other way & it will be like a shark fin cutting through water....

Cheers, Bryan

Star droppers and hand winch.
Patience required...lots of it....

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

I tried the whole dig a hole and bury the spare trick once. The ground was sandy and it resulted in the tyre and the vehicle moving towards each other. It was less than efficient, but got me the 5 foot so that I could hook two 10m snatch straps, a 20m winch extension strap, tree trunk protector, 5m of drag chain and 10m of wire rope to a tree and pull my Sierra out of a wet sandy creek bed.
Winching with a hand winch and snatch straps is not recommended, they stretch like a rubber band, but it worked.

Star pickets, driven in and wired up in a saw tooth pattern works well though. Pulled a troopie out of a bog using that method. The only tree we could reach started coming out of the ground.

WOW, I didn't realise that particular brand of store bought ground anchor was that expensive. Not saying they don't cost that much, I haven't even priced one yet.
I could knock up one myself, but why go to that trouble if they aren't quite what the advertising claims them to be. Hence my question.

I have heard of people using a number of star pickets hooked together. I was wondering how a standard picket would stand up to having 10,000 lbs applied to the primary dropper. The one the winch line is hooked up to without some sort of additional bracing.
Then of course you need to extract them from whatever depth after use.
I have only personally been in a situation once where some sort of anchor system would have come in very handy. Would have saved me about 4 hours of shovelling and hi lift jacking and packing whatever was handy under the wheels. I remember thinking at the time how appropriate the name "Lake Disappointment" was. About 3" of crust and bottomless chocolate pudding underneath. 2 spare wheels and tyres did see some action as jack bases. My blocks of wood just vanished into the "pudding".

If you do a google search on the ARB anchor, you will find some videos that indicate that they work very well and they are certainly quicker than star droppers which can be hard to retrieve after use.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Someone went to a lot of effort in this one on Lake Dissapointment pop...

After you pull a couple out of the hole, you learn to bury them deep and to dig the "T" hole.
Especially, as in this example, the winch was a Turfor pulling an F350 and slide-on!

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

If I am doing a recovery operation, especially if it involves winching, nobody, repeat NOBODY, will be allowed within cooee.