Cars for anchors

[woody paul]

Pulling on gravel drive is a waist of time, like trying to stand on marbles. 

Have never anchored truck to tree but always chock front wheels, got a couple of bits of big gate post I use, but have just used lumps of wood laying around. 

A couple of months ago forgot lump of wood and couldn't find anything big enough on site but had digger on site with a couple of spare buckets so used them upside down, worked a treat but needed digger to pull them out after truck had pushed them into ground. 

[htb]

7 minutes ago, woody paul said:

Pulling on gravel drive is a waist of time, like trying to stand on marbles. 

Have never anchored truck to tree but always chock front wheels, got a couple of bits of big gate post I use, but have just used lumps of wood laying around. 

A couple of months ago forgot lump of wood and couldn't find anything big enough on site but had digger on site with a couple of spare buckets so used them upside down, worked a treat but needed digger to pull them out after truck had pushed them into ground. 

Ah forgot to mention the blocks of wood, helps a lot.

[Rob_the_Sparky]

On 19/02/2025 at 12:33, AHPP said:

 

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

That may be a significant contributor.  A front wheel drive car (most are) has a lot of the weight over the front wheels as relatively little over the back so if the fronts are not locked it will move relatively easily.

Edited yesterday at 12:39 by Rob_the_Sparky

[AHPP]

But it's a car. It's a tonne.

[Retired Climber]

15 minutes ago, AHPP said:

But it's a car. It's a tonne.

The weight will make very little difference if pulled horizontally. The coefficient of static friction is your friend / enemy, depending on whether you want something to move or not. As soon as the load isn't being pulled horizontally, the calculations get a lot more complex due to the triangulation of forces. 

[sime42]

Hypothetically. The only way to realise the true "value" of the car is to use redirects so that the anchor line is pulling it straight up.

Edited yesterday at 13:07 by sime42

[GarethM]

Park it side on, thread straps from the wheels on the other side of the car.

 

All force is then on the side where it's almost impossible to roll it over without grinding the tyres into the ground and flipping it.

 

Whilst tyres are big it's surface area on the floor is less than a sheet of A4 and never rely on a gearbox or engine to stop as it's an expensive.

 

Okay if you're parked on a hill as a backup to a handbrake, knew a guy that did that daily to start a tractor when the battery died on a fergy.

[Retired Climber]

2 hours ago, sime42 said:

Hypothetically. The only way to realise the true "value" of the car is to use redirects so that the anchor line is pulling it straight up.

That's the only direction in which you can actually take advantage of it's full mass. 

[Spruce Pirate]

19 hours ago, htb said:

Ah forgot to mention the blocks of wood, helps a lot.

 

I've got one of those I inherited in a Land-Rover from SSE, it has a large nail in the bottom of it bent over.  I think it adds a significant amount of grip if used on a forest road.

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, AHPP said:

But it's a car. It's a tonne.

 

I weigh a lot less than a tonne but I can still push a car, albeit not with the brake on, but a chunk of wood weighs a lot more than me and with a bit of dynamic force applied and a lose gravel surface I'm not really surprised.  A tonne isn't really that much.....?

[Mark Bolam]

Look at strongmen competitions.

They pull 40t trucks.8