Winch

[Steve Mc]

Hi All,

Can anybody suggest a winch that would be suitable for connecting to the 'recovery towing eye' of a VW Bora, with sufficient power/cable strength to pull the car with a caravan attached out of a wet field, combined weight of 2878Kgs, worst case scenario. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Steve

 

[Rod_5041370]

Steve,

Is this a one off situation?

Power winches to handle this are expensive.

How far away in front of the rig is hard ground?

In the past I have recovered complete rigs with the 4x4 in low range and where the ground has been really sodden I have left the 4x4 on firm ground and attached a long rope to the rig.

I used this method in France to recover a car with a large mobile cafe attached that had been on site all season and sunk into the ground.

 

[Steve Mc]

Hi Rod,

My concern is getting stuck in a field, as I intend to use my caravan during the winter months, but don't have a 4WD vehicle, so I'm just looking for information and advice on the use of a suitable winch, and whether it would be practical. Hopefully I wouldn't have to use it, but I want to be prepared if the situation arises.

 

[Rod_5041370]

It depends on the type of site you intend to use.

Many have tractors for this occurence.

I would recommend that you carry a long, strong tow rope, the sort you can buy by the metre from marine chandlers.

I have even known a mini tractor to get bogged down when trying to pull my van off pitch. I had to attach my rope to the front of the tractor, attach it to my 4x4 which I left on the roadway and pull both off.

This was a CC site and I thought that even the Landcruiser might get stuck as the groung was so bad, hence asking the warden to pull me off.

On most sites there are usually helping hands.

 

[Damian]

Taking this topic a little further, whilst thinking about the weight in question, the towing eyes on cars are not built to withstand that kind of force being applied to them.

You would probably just pull the eye and its mounting bracket straight out of the car.

 

[Rod_5041370]

Most towing eyes/hooks are fixed directly to the chassis with high tensile M14 fine thread bolts, I've never shifted one yet!

 

[Adrian_5085967]

The other major problem that you would need to deal with is supplying enough current to the winch. It is not unusal for one to draw 100A under full load.

I would go for the long rope and some boards to put under the jockey wheel. Get your car on to solid ground and pull the caravan out. Easier if you reduce the nose weight

 

[MikeP]

Many car handbooks state that the "towing eye" is actually a lashing eye for when the car is on a transporter. They should be fine if the AA/RAC is towing you with a rigid pole. Any sort of snatching from a towrope or from pulling a heavy car/caravan through sticky mud could bend the eye and/or whatever it is mounted to.