Have you ever heard of wrapping a rope around your axle and tie it to a tree than put it in reverse and go, it winches you out of the mud!!

 

Yeah, I've heard of it--even saw it attempted once on a 6X6 WWII surplus Army truck, but without a locker, the roped tire held fast and the others spun . . .

As an emergency "there's no tomorrow" expedient, the trick oughta work with a quad, because all (except Bayou 300 2WD) have spooled rear ends.

Flies in the ointment include: tabs, lines, brackets, cables, hoses, etc., around the rear axle (if you have a "closed" axle) that might interfere with the wrap-up, and the possibility of the line tightening up on itself as it wraps around the axle. With an open axle, you shouldn't have this type of problem.

Maybe you could build a hub you could bolt to the outside of the wheel with the lug nuts and use this hub to spool up your rope.

In the oil field, I've watched rig-builders erect an entire derrick, using a passenger car with one wheel jacked up and a hub like this to lift the angle irons one by one overhead for bolting. The guy controlling the "winch" used the hub like a "cat line," with only one or two loops around the continuously-rotating spool, he controlled the tension, lifting and release by manipulating the tag end of the line.

Bottom line, if you're desperate and all you have is a rope, the trick you mention appears worth a try. Otherwise, a comealong gives better control of extraction and offers much greater pull angle versatility.

Tree Farmer

 

Wonder why this post didn't get deleted by bbs,for not using e-mail to ask questions of a member.

 

Probaly because it's not a personal question, and a lot of forum readers can benefit from it.

If his question was, "Tree Farmer, want to meet up and discuss winches?" That would be different.