First 'stuck' with my series III

[xychix]

Driving down a tractorlane in France I found a place where the tractors had dug a little deeper than was good for me. Front end of the car is lying on its spring hangars on the mud.

In the end a cheap ass chinese hand winch helped me out.... Although that was scary as hell, never know when the bugger breaks.

Now I'm considering:

- a decent winch on front bumper (wouldn't have helped me on this occasion as I would have had to pull the whole car trough the 'issue' instead of backing up)

- a highlift + winch kit to use the high jack as winch

any other idea's? are there good mobile electric winches?

[discomikey]

having personally had to winch my truck 30ft through a bog with a hi-lift jack. i would say unless you love a challenge don't bother. as you need to use tree strops (which stretch) you don't even get the full distance of the travel of the jack

a nice period capstan winch would look lovely on the series but they aren't too cheap

[David Sparkes]

... In the end a cheap ass chinese hand winch helped me out.... Although that was scary as hell, never know when the bugger breaks.

Now I'm considering:...are there good mobile electric winches?

I've been in a similar situation, of using a 2000lb rated hand winch to free the vehicle.

What was your hand winch rated at?

Because you now know that a small electric winch of that rating is all that is required.

I suspect that you will find a 12v winch of that rating is small enough to carry around and to strap to either end of the vehicle as required. They are sold for hauling boats, etc, on to trailers.

Obviously, a spade to prepare a gentler slope, and perhaps a couple of pieces of wood the spread the load and provide a trackway for the wheels to roll up, will help get the maximum performance from the winch.

A long set of jump leads, to reach from battery to the rear of the vehicle, may also be required.

A long length of rope that is also matched to the power of the hand winch will give greater flexibility when it comes to connecting to the strong point you are pulling towards.

I emphasise again, you have shown you don't need a 12,000 lb pull to recover your vehicle, so use that knowledge and only buy what you need.

HTH

[steve b]

Have a look on Dave Bowyer's www.goodwinch.com I'm pretty sure he does a base that will hook on to your towball, so a tow ball on the front bumper and front

and rear Anderson sockets and you have all bases covered , as for choice of winch , a TDS goldfish with plasma rope is good or if you don't want anything so big

the ATV winches spec'd at 2500lb are light and will definitely help getting mildly un-stuck

....or there is always a Tirfor ....a bit like the Beetle in the background of TG road trips , always there , reliable but slow and who really wants to use one ?

Cheers

Steveb