Taubenreuther / Warn: Right Winchen

A right hand ATV is equipped with a winch. The operation seems trivial, but far from it: If you do little things wrong, you can endanger material and your own safety. To prevent this, Warn offers an accessory bag that contains two tree anchor straps, a pulley and two shackles. In addition, the winch manufacturer recommends always putting a protective blanket (or a jacket or backpack) over the rope when winching: If the rope breaks, this reduces life-threatening ‘whiplashes’. In addition, you should always handle the rope with gloves to prevent injuries from broken wires.

That’s right Winchen: self-rescue

To recover a stuck quad, a tree anchor strap is first attached to a tree or other solid object. An anchor point that is as far away as possible should be selected because the cable winch develops the most power in its first positions (= smallest rolling radius). Once the tree anchor strap is placed around the anchor point, a shackle is inserted through its two end loops. The shackle screw is tightened and then loosened half a turn so that it can be easily opened again later, even if the mechanism deforms slightly from the force of winching.

protection of the rope

Turn the shackle, then the winch hook can be attached. Never unwind the winch cable using the remote control! In order to save electricity and to protect the battery and the winch, there is a freewheel in which the rope is to be unwound. Also: The red pull loop on the hook is not there for decoration, but to pull the hook on it. In the case of plastic ropes in particular, it is important to ensure that a protective coating is attached to the rope over sharp-edged stones.

Motor and battery protection

If the winch hook is hooked to the shackle, the winch can be started with the ATV engine switched on (= charges the battery). Regardless of its strength, you should always allow the winch motor ‘recovery phases’ so that it doesn’t heat up too much, see below…

Important: Correct rolling up

When rewinding, it must always be ensured that a certain back pressure is used. The rope must be kept under tension. In any case, it should be avoided that the lower layers are wound up too loosely and loops form on the roll. This can damage the rope and affect the operation of the winch.
To do this, the shift lever of the ATV is set to ‘neutral’, the brakes are applied slightly to create a certain counter-pull, and the rope is tied to a fixed recovery point. Then the winch is operated; here, at a certain distance from the cable winch, you work by hand – with gloves! – intervened in a supportive manner so that the rope runs up cleanly. For the last meter you create the counter pressure by hand; To do this, you take the tension belt at the end of the rope in your hand so as not to pinch your fingers, and wink slowly.

cooling times

Basically, when winching, it should be noted that every cable winch on the market needs its cooling times so that the motor does not overheat. Cable winches have small electric motors that have a relatively high gear ratio and through which a lot of current runs during the work phases. The cooling phases are important so that the engines do not burn through. Refer to the user manual for details on the required cool down period.

No recovery belt

A winch is not an extended recovery belt. Winches are built for slow, large-ratio pulls, not for jerky pulls that later transfer to the winch. Despite their robustness, cable winches should not be used to tow or tear out a stuck vehicle. A normal tow cable must be used for this purpose.

No transport security

It would be very easy to use a cable winch to secure the ATV on the trailer or in the van for transport: hook the hook at the end of the cable into the fastening device, winch the vehicle onto the springs and you’re done. However, cable winches are not built for this either, after all they do not have a fixed lock and are therefore not a substitute for a lashing strap. The sheriffs know that too: If you don’t secure your ATV with at least three lashing straps during transport, it’s because of inadequate load securing.

Correct winching: recovery with deflection

A deflection pulley can also be used at the anchor point for self-rescue. The rope then runs from the winch on the vehicle over the pulley, its end is re-attached to the vehicle. Advantage of the deflection: More rope is unwound from the winch, so the winch radius is smaller, the more pulling power the winch can convert. In addition, the torque doubles because the path to be wound has to be covered twice by the winch due to the deflection. But that also means: The vehicle is now pulled with double the force, but only at half the speed.
In the case of self-rescue with deflection, it makes sense not to hook the rope hook to a point on the vehicle where the winch is also carried – this would put double the load on the suspension. Another anchor point on the vehicle frame is better.
To unwind, set the rope to freewheel again; insert into the idler pulley; see that nothing pinches; pull the rope to the anchor point (this could also be another vehicle) and attach it there. The screw in the shackle is tightened and then opened half a turn so that nothing gets stuck later when the winch is detached.
The freewheel is removed from the winch to put some traction on the rope. As with ‘normal’ self-rescue, a blanket, jacket or backpack is placed over the rope to prevent whiplashes in the event of a rope tear. Now the vehicle is started, the brake released, neutral or a slower gear engaged and the cable winch operated on train.
With a double rope, the winch has to roll up the distance covered twice. This pulls the vehicle with twice the force but at half the speed. You can only ride very slowly, because it has to be the cable winch that sets the speed; Otherwise, loops can form on the winch when it is rolled up, through which the rope can slip back, be damaged or even destroyed.

When the redirection makes sense

The biggest advantage of winching with the pulley is the doubling of the pulling power, which is especially desirable in precarious situations or when getting stuck deep. In addition, because the system works very slowly, you can also determine very precisely where the ATV should be steered. Steering is possible.

That’s right Winchen: the foreign rescue

To help a comrade who got stuck, it’s nifty to pick a turning point. The recovery vehicle is thus outside the dangerous situation and the rope can be unwound and wound up straight (and thus evenly).
The recovering vehicle is parked with the handbrake on and the gear selector in the park position so far away from the deflection point that the rope for the rescue has to be unwound as completely as possible. After all, the greatest torque always acts on the ’empty’ drum when it is being wound up.
To unroll the rope, the rope winch is released; the rope NOT unroll via the remote control, this unnecessarily burdens the cable winch and the battery. When handling the rope ALWAYS use gloves. Pull the rope to the deflection point and insert it into the deflection pulley without getting tangled. Insert the shackle into the tree anchor strap, turn the shackle fully closed first, and then open it half a turn again to make it easy to open after winching.
After setting up the deflection, the beginning of the rope is pulled to the vehicle that is to be recovered. If possible, select a frame part as the recording point; if there is no eyelet, but the vehicle is to be pulled by a frame tube, it is advisable not to use the rope hook directly, but to use a shackle into which the rope hook is inserted.
In the middle between the vehicle to be recovered and the deflection point and between the deflection point and the recovery vehicle, two protective rope blankets / jackets / backpacks are placed over the rope to prevent the rope from whipping out in the event of a rope tear.
Now the freewheel is taken out on the winch on the recovery vehicle. The recovery vehicle’s engine is started so that the alternator charges the battery when winching; Gear selector lever in park position, the brakes on the machine to be recovered are released and neutral is engaged. When winching, don’t sit on the ATV, stand by it, operate the winch with the remote control, and keep a close eye on the machine being towed at all times. x

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