Cars for anchors

[AHPP]

We've all used a car, van etc for a quick anchor point, driving it to pull something over or just static. A car weighs a tonne so that'll be fine, right. Not necessarily.

 

I and an esteemed fellow member were winching stuff the other day, measuring with a crane scale. Volvo V50, 1445kg kerb weight, handbrake on, compacted gravel road. It moved with a 350kg pull at the same height as the towing eye, not even an upwards pull as if rope up tree. Surprisingly little.

[Mick Dempsey]

Wheels locked when it moved? (Skidding)

 

[peds]

Have you tried a sling through each wheel, equalised, sideways on; instead of through the towing eye or the ball hitch?

[Bob The Dog]

I used my L200 as an anchor for winching over a not too big conifer a while ago. Whilst it managed it, the truck was moving more than I was happy with. Even though there’s a good bit of weight in the vehicle, the 4 tyres on the ground don’t provide a massive contact area (probably a sheet of A4 size on each corner), and once that initial friction breaks, the vehicle will continue to slide. Unless it’s quite small stuff, I tend not to use the truck as an anchor these days. 

[AHPP]

28 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Wheels locked when it moved? (Skidding)

 

 

Front (drive) wheels turning, back wheels (handbrake) skidding. Should have tried it in gear. Load cell arriving in the post today.

[AHPP]

27 minutes ago, peds said:

Have you tried a sling through each wheel, equalised, sideways on; instead of through the towing eye or the ball hitch?

 

No. Faff, mechanically unsympathetic, unrealistic.

[peds]

1 minute ago, AHPP said:

 

No. Faff, mechanically unsympathetic, unrealistic.

 

Not so. It is an approved technique, especially among circles where redundancy is favoured. Your wheels will be fine.

 

 

At the risk of offending some people... leave your fattest groundie in the vehicle when using it as an anchor. 

 

It works for stakes, pickets, hedgehogs, ice axes etc... a nice reliable "meat anchor". Every little helps.

 

[AHPP]

OK. Partial backpedal. Slings basketed through a wheel spoke/hole won't break them and low enough down, you shouldn't parallelogram the wheels/hubs/axles. You're still grovelling under a car though.

Edited Wednesday at 12:52 by AHPP

[tree-fancier123]

not exactly the same, but was talking with greygit on here a while ago about using vehicle mounted winches and anchoring the vehicle to a tree to stop it being pulled forward, he said you have to be very careful not to twist the chassis, and to take the rope/ wire under the wheels to the winch

[htb]

When winching off L/R110 PTO Superwinch,  Operated whilst sitting in seat handbrake on, foot on brake, Tied back to a tree or ground anchor via strops right under vehicle to shackles on the winch bumper, don't particularly want to twist or stretch chassis. This way can pull some fair trees or loads