Any Members in Arkansas?

Ya, Gateway got trashed. This morning was the first morning I went down Caraway, and that's crazy. There's a lot of power in those things.

 

Ok, I can now assume I'm not the only one not exercising their winch....

 

As of Friday you are. Unspooled, inspected/cleaned, dried, respooled.

 

Mine says exercise monthly, and use 1000lbs to respool....that hasn't happened.

 

I definitely did not respool with 1,000 lbs. Just whatever my fat rear end leaning away from it is. I usually respool it by hooking to a tree and putting the truck in neutral but my yard has been soaked.

 

At least it's not doubling as a veggie garden anymore, but winch grown tomatoes may have a special flavor, who knows.

 

LOL. My winch hasn't been activated since I swapped the steel cable for synthetic rope. In fact, it's not even connected to the battery right now. I believe it was causing interference with my battery terminal because my truck has been having random episodes of not wanting to start. No such issues after disconnecting it, so I plan to fix up a fancy switch for it like @Dave_M did.

 

I’ve got my bumper pretty much wrapped up. Hopefully I’ll be free to venture out to the Ozarks and test it out this weekend or next. Is that still a thing or do they have the trails shut down?

 

I went out Wednesday with dad but this time in my truck. Spent the whole day pretty much off of paved roads.

This is where we stopped to eat our lunch we packed that day.

 

Trolling Heepers in the NSO FB page Sorry, not Sorry

 

Flashback April ‘19, better times ...

 

The best social distancing is backwoods social distancing...long before, during & after CV19. Hadnt heard anything about closings except Nat'l Parks.

 

Also I forgot to add moments after that picture was taken I fell into the creek trying to walk back to the truck.

 

If anyone has solid experience using winches for recovery, I'd like to connect sometime over the coming weeks for some training. I was hoping to have the winch installed by now, but it was delayed. Once I get it installed, I'd like to head out and test it. I opted for the Warn M8000-S. Going synthetic will save 20 lbs and all the research seems to point toward synthetic (although it comes down to preference). I also went ahead and ordered a Factor 55 Hawse Fairlead and Flatlink E.

 

Maybe we can get out soon and discuss recovery techniques. I have several pieces, like snatch block, tree saver, etc we can use to build our skills. It's really all about straight pulls in non-linear situations, and minimizing components.

 

Once I have it installed, I'll reply here. I will gladly take you up on the offer, @TerraNerva, if you are willing to teach me.

 

Well, it's been 15 days and the Doggo is still napping and not washing her paws

 

Yup...airing out the Dog House

 

Did you get the Warn recovery bag too? It’s got some goodies in it like a tree saver, snatch block, 30’ of chain, and one or two D-shackles. I’ve got the kit, it stays in my back seat most of the time. I also opted to ditch the 130’ of steel cable in favor of 100’ of synthetic rope on my winch. I also have the Factor 55 Flatlink and hawser fairlead. All powered with a Warn XD9000i. Sounds like we have nearly identical setups. I’d recommend wiring it up to a fancy switch like @Dave_M did. I’m planning on doing the same to mine.