Land Anchor

[Coast2Coast]

I tested my sand anchor through moose season and thought I'd update here. Here is the anchor I picked up:

No-Snag #5 Anchor | Canadian Tire

Works awesome! I quit using trees altogether. I was in muskeg the entire time except for one instance pulling the argo out of a stream with a steep bank. The nice thing about the anchor is that you can just pull out 10' of cable and pull from straight ahead of the machine rather than from the side. About half the time I had to stand on the anchor to keep it down in the ground. I imagined that using a piece of rebar like a giant tent peg, you could peg down the back of the anchor to keep it down by yourself.

The particular anchor I found was a bit light duty for the job but it lasted about 20 recoveries over september and october and has only bent a little. It fits right in the floor board indent under the driver/passengers feet for easy access without being in the way and only weighs 5 lbs.

[Cannibal]

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

New here, so please forgive any 'stupid', but why such heavy line for such a light vehicle? That thing is just a bundle of 1/4" Amsteel with some pretty hardware. I've pulled a Jeep that ran off the road in Colorado and into a 4.5' deep ditch filled with snow, with just 7/64" Amsteel. It had to come up and out too, so no easy pull. With these AATVs weighing so little, I'm just trying to figure-out why the Duke Nuke Em level of overkill. I'm sure there is a good reason, but it seems that $20 worth of Amsteel and a few minutes spent splicing-in hardware would work just as well and give you twice the length.

What is the newb missing?

[Canadian_Zuk]

7700 lb is far from over kill for a 3500lb winch and a vehicle that weighs close to 1000# when it isn't stuck in mud. You should always have at least a 2:1 safety factor between your winch's rated pulling power and your lines tensile strength. As soon as you get a knick or fray in your line it's tensile strength is diminished. If you use a snatch block at all the dynamics change, twisting reduces strength, chaffing. Even dirt emedded in the synthetic line takes its toll over time, it's important to wash synthetic line from time to time, something not many people do. 1/4" is also about the smallest diameter anything I would spool up on a winch, even the 1/4" stuff can get wound pretty tight into itself digging in between the coils.

The biggest pro to synthetic line is it has zero stretch unlike steel cable, no stored energy makes for an uneventful experience when the line does break. Secondary bennefits are no sharp wires to stick in your hands (no need for gloves), it's light a supple allowing it to easily be coiled in your hand and tossed across the swamp to your winch bitch.

[Cannibal]

OK, thanks. I think that makes sense to me. I'm not familiar with winches, just pulling people out with my vehicle. I suppose the line embedding itself within the spool is a factor I never considered.

The concern about breaking strength is much more relevant for the discussion about stored energy. If a line breaks, it just breaks. I pull another coil out of the bucket and go again. We aren't dangling these things over a cliff, just pulling them out of mud. I guess that is a matter of perspective though. I've got a few spools of Amsteel and a splicing addiction, so I don't tend to assign more value to it than I would twine.

[dad637]

i bought the 8000 or 12000 anchor, havent had to use it yet, but when you are the only machine around without trees it sure makes you feel better. mine weighs about 40-50lbs. its heavy. probably way more than i need. have it strapped to the back of my seat.