I figured it would be a good idea to share some winch tips from all the experienced riders we have here. Sharing the wealth of information makes us all better riders!!!Please add to this stuff or correct anything I've posted mistakenly.

Here are some thing's I've come up with from my own experiences:

Proper set up is the key, learn as much as you can from an experienced winch user before setting out on your own.

When winching keep everyone back a distance at least the length of the cable you have out. If available put a coat or blanket or something on the cable, I've seen alot break when they have something on them they scatter across the ground. When there's nothing on them they can fly in any direction, even back at you causing alot of injury. Beleive me you dont want to be on the receivign end of a cable that just snapped with 2000lbs + tension on it.

Some good rigging tips are, when your really bogged down in a mud hole, try to attach the cable high up on a big tree/solid object to pull the bike up and out. If you attach it too low, it will be pulling the bike into the wall of the mud hole bogging your winch (its not an issue if the wall of the hole is inclined). Granted, if there are only small trees around you have to hook onto whats available!!!

Also when your hooking onto an object, you should use a tree save style strap. Basically its a very strong 3-4 foot long strap with loops on either end. You wrap the strap around the tree, or chassis of another bike and hook your winch hook to both of the loops. Set up #2 is to wrap the strap around the object, feed one end through the opposite loop "choking" the object and connect the winch hook to the free end.

What this does is prevent you from wrapping the cable around an object and hooking back onto your own cable, this creates alot of stress on one point of the cable, can cause a kink; both of which can lead to a premature failure of the cable- very dangerous.

If you find that your often maxing out the power of your winch, you can buy a ****** block kit from warn (also comes with a tree saver strap). It has many uses such as redirecting the cable around something, but most commonly you can attach the block/pully to the tree, run the winch cable through it, and attach the hook back onto your bike (on a solid location). When you winch, you will double your winch's pulling power. Make sure your cable is rated for this additional load though. Too small of a cable, or an old cable could break under the additional strain.

 

Great tips thanks!

 

How well do the plastic ropes work, for safety, etc.?

 

Really depend on the diameter, it would have to be pretty thick to equal a 20 or 30 thousand pound strap. Regular ropes usually arent meant for having alot of tension on them for long. If you use a long rope (20' or greater) you will be getting alot of stretch in the rope which wastes alot of winding in of the winch.

 

what about if there is nothing in front of you but there is tree or somethicg else behind you,can you run the winch cable under the atv back to the tree behind you and pull yourself backward, and also do these winches pull allot of power from the battery? thanks for all the info