Land Anchor

[grease monkey]

Haven't really seen it talked about on the site but when I was first thinking about getting an argo one of my concerns was what will I do if i'm stuck in the middle of a bog and can't get my winch line to a solid tree?

Well I got looking around youtube and I came across a product call the pull pal. It was mainly used by guys with their 4x4's stuck out in the sand dunes. Figured the principal would work pretty well in the bog so I built my own.

Does anyone carry anything similar when running solo? What tips/tricks do you keep tucked away to get yourself out of trouble?

[john swenson]

hey buddy, it looks good. should give you a good solid anchor for winching. j.b.

[needcoffee]

I carry a small danforth anchor. Works great. Pull pal is good for a buggy. But overkill for my argo.

[oldstreetracer]

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I made my own. A pull pal cost lots. I built mine for less than $50.

[Coast2Coast]

Some nice looking fabbed anchors here. I just have a sand anchor I got locally. I haven't used it yet as have always had a second machine to do the pulling/anchoring when in the skeg. Actually next week I should test it just to see if it will work.

[grease monkey]

I haven't used it yet as have always had a second machine to do the pulling/anchoring when in the skeg. Actually next week I should test it just to see if it will work.

I would definitely recommend testing your anchor before you end up in a situation where you would rely on it only to find out it may not be enough. My version is design number three in order to find something that works in the type of bog in my neck of the woods.

Cost wise I can pretty much call it free as it was made with scrap steel I had lying around from other projects (rattle can of paint included). It will be worth its weight in gold though when the day comes I can't get the winch out to a tree.

[onefunzr2]

I bought a 4 prong, collapsible boat anchor then welded a length of 1/2" rebar to each prong for added holding power. I only had need to use it once but it got me closer to a willow bush which pulled me out of the beaver swamp muck. The synthetic winch rope was a big improvement over the OEM wire rope.

[grease monkey]

Why do you prefer the synthetic winch rope? I understand that if it snaps it don't have the same recoil as wire, but it's much more susceptible to chafing on sharp edges. I would also be worried about letting it down in the mud and then having silt and sand work its way in.

[Canadian_Zuk]

I have 2 homemade Pull Pals, I'll snap pics this week and post them.

Why do you prefer the synthetic winch rope? I understand that if it snaps it don't have the same recoil as wire, but it's much more susceptible to chafing on sharp edges. I would also be worried about letting it down in the mud and then having silt and sand work its way in.

Synthetic rope is much much safer to use and just better all around. I use it on my ATVs and my rock crawlers. It's light, the whole spool can be held in one hand so it can be tossed across a bog or whatever. It's soft and does not have sharp broken wires to punchure your hands like cable does. As you touched on, the BIGGEST benefit is synthetic line has zero stretch, if it does break under full load it simply drops to the ground with no stored energy. Steel cable is nasty when it lets go or a hook comes loose.

The origin of this stuff is from trawling boats, they need zero stretch lines for when a net catches a reef or wreck. The offroad industy was slow to pick up on this, thankfully it's quite popular now. I feel it should be standard on all recovery winches. We've been using it for 20 years up here, I will never have steel cable again.

[grease monkey]

Synthetic rope is much much safer to use and just better all around. I use it on my ATVs and my rock crawlers. It's light, the whole spool can be held in one hand so it can be tossed across a bog or whatever. It's soft and does not have sharp broken wires to punchure your hands like cable does. As you touched on, the BIGGEST benefit is synthetic line has zero stretch, if it does break under full load it simply drops to the ground with no stored energy. Steel cable is nasty when it lets go or a hook comes loose.

I notice you use the synthetic rope on your rock crawlers. Again the biggest thing stopping me from converting is i'm worried about chafing on sharp rocks. How do you prevent this? I can never manage to get stuck in a sensible location lol! Also, what is the general life expectancy for the synthetic line?

[msafi65]

Get a lifting sling that's overrated weight wise and use that to secure to trees or rocks. They are just way handy for pulling when you can get close to 4wheeled buddy that's stuck.

[trevorakm1]

I went synthetic as soon as I got the winch never looked back. I keep the wire under the seat incase I need extra length. I always hated wire cable back in construction, can be unwieldy and those damn frays suck!

[Coast2Coast]

I have synthetic on my truck and a spool waiting to go on my argo once I get a fairlead for it. I keep a 100' length of 3/8" synthetic under the argo seat for a winch extension. I've winched my truck out hundreds of times in the past 3 years since I got that cable and it still looks great, I'd never go back to steel either. I've run mine up against some stuff you're definitely not supposed to, and done some sketchy 90 degree off angle pulls rubbing against my steel bumper but it held up fine. Most of them come with an abrasion sleeve you can velcro over the rope if you have to run your cable across a sharp rock. Or you can toss an old coat, floor mat, coveralls over the rock like if winching up out of a deep stream bed to a tree up over the bank for example. When you're winching out of something with a single line pull, the cable is just sitting there against the rock/tree whatever, it's not rubbing or moving across it, so it's not that big of a deal.

[scott8x8]

Where do you buy synthetic cable?

[Coast2Coast]

Here for the good stuff: UTV Winch Line | Synthetic Winch Rope | MP Classic 1/4"