I know a little piece of track which hates me and has caught me out
before.
This time it seemed in good condition and I figured I could make it up
the entire 20 meters with a bit of momentum even though my tyres were at 22psi.
Its only about a 20 degree upslope, off chambered, and was a bit damp but
otherwise flatish across.
We were to host a group of government trail-bikers in a couple of days so I needed to check for downed trees and was in a bit of a hurry, so to be sure I locked front and rears and put the 4800 Patrol into charge mode.
Momentum carried us up over the steeper part but the rear
wheels then slid out as I backed off slightly when a Wallaby shot out.
Lost traction instantly and slewed to a stop.
I knew this was going to be a pain so rather than mess around I immediately
grabbed the plasma winch rope and attached it to a tree 10m away.
I only needed to winch 1 car length to be clear.
Long ago I fitted the winch activation switches inside the car so they could
only be used by the driver with a return to centre off position switch
so that winch would stop if not held on.
I also only use 1 battery in the car to save weight and this usually means we run the engine to ensure the winch has enough current to pull strongly.
The cars in neutral and I'm watching the scenary go passing slowly by as the
winch pulls me upwards about 3m, then all of a sudden Wack! and I'm going backwards.
If you have never been chewing the cud winching up a
hill and the rope snaps then I can say with confidence its an instant wake up call.
Afterwards I thought, you have about 3 seconds here till the cars over the edge and will need a lot of panel beating.
At the time though, all I remember was instantly applying the brakes as I routinely have my foot hovering over the pedal just in case.
The brakes locked instantly and we slid , but only about 2m before the car
stops on some rocks.
In that instant, I did not actually know what had happened and instinct
saw me also grab the steering wheel, which meant my hand moved off the
"dead man" Winch switch, de-activating it and making it safe.
Get gingerly out of the car, noting the back wheel is over
the rock on the edge
and sure enough the winch rope has snapped about a foot below the hook.
Nothing appears wrong with the rope - its a clean straight out strain type break, there are no abrasive sand particles etc in it , and I cannot think of why it broke.
It should have been under less than 1/2 its breaking strain.
Maybe its 5 years on the winch has allowed Ultra Violet to weaken it,
it has broken on a section likely to be exposed, any thoughts ?
The rope is Masterpull 8mm .
Ok , so I still have to rescue myself, for not the first time this year.
Begin by doing what would have prevented the situation in the first place.
Lowered the tyres to 12 psi.
Then wrap end of rope twice around the tree and tie the rope back to itself loosely.
This is because most of the force pulling on the rope is taken by the friction around the tree.
If it didn't hold,
well that would not matter much because this time I would be ready and the lightweight rope with no hook on its end poses no danger.
Back in the car I winch in the slack and just as the winch begins to pull hard I let the clutch out.
The tyres spin , grab , rip a chunk out of the already poor condition Cooper ST
tyres and up we go quite easily.
All is calm , except I will need a decent amount of Shoo Goo to cover the exposed steel belt in one tyre.
About 50m up the track is this Wallaby looking up me, probably wondering about the strange things these humans get up to.
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