Some of the synthetic ropes are a little bit thinner than steel cable of the same strength and you can use a longer rope on the same winch.

 

I wonder who this is?

 

I have learned when it comes to winching its all about lift .
With trucks I have strategically placed a spare tire, vertically. Then run the tow strap over it.
Most of us dont bring a full size spare but they seem pretty common on the trail side. Anything you can drag the cable over will help.
This is my worst winching experience... It 15 deg out. The guys I ride with decided to stay home. I went solo and got stuck on a seldom used trail. My winch was not able to pull me out.
I called my bud. He loaded his quad and hauled it across 2 towns, unloaded and made the 1 hr trip out to save my dumb ***.

 

I plead the 5th.

Going up the hill on the left side of the picture is a 2' deep ditch. Tried going up that. Didn't work. Tried the other side that was too narrow for my machine and got sucked into the ditch again. Jgar on his narrower sport quad fit between the brush and where the trail fell off into the ditch.

 

At least you had a way to start a fire and keep warm until help arrived.

 

I got stuck in the snow like that once and just stuck the key in my pocket and walked away. Luckily some other riders came along and helped get me out. I don't ride alone anymore but I'd sure like to get out more than my friends.

 

I don't winter ride alone. To easy to get sucked off the packed trail. Takes a lot more work to winch out too.

 

Pulling out of snow like that is killer on the winch. Last time i was that stuck a 30 second pull took my battery down enough to set the efi light on my quad and also broke the rope. 2 hours to get out and turned around

 

So basically what everyone is saying is that if you're really stuck, a winch really won't get you out. Its just too much stress on the winch motor and your battery. A winch assists you in getting out of a tough spot, it won't bail you out if you get really buried in mud or snow.

 

No, it really does work for the most part. We have gone off the packed snowmobile trails on winter rides where we are allowed to go probably around a dozen times. A few times we were pulled back out the way we got in by either a couple quads or a snowmobile. Most other times it was just pulling with a winch using a ****** block pulley. If it seems like the winch is barely pulling the stuck quad out it's best to see if using the ****** block pulley will do the trick. It does take twice as long though.