British Vehicle New Guinea

[Lang]

Thanks for that Maurice I knew there had to be some sort of safety feature.

It is amazing how difficult it is to get a vehicle seriously bogged like this out of a hole. The winch may be able to lift the truck if you had a sky-hook but dragging it horizontally is often another matter. Finding something to hook the cable on to is also a common problem - I doubt a coconut tree would hold 7 tons. The back looks as full as a Catholic School bus so probably 14 tons might be more like it?

Great info on another fail-safe system.

Lang

[Phil Waterman]

Originally Posted by Lang

Thanks for that Maurice I knew there had to be some sort of safety feature.

It is amazing how difficult it is to get a vehicle seriously bogged like this out of a hole. The winch may be able to lift the truck if you had a sky-hook but dragging it horizontally is often another matter. Finding something to hook the cable on to is also a common problem - I doubt a coconut tree would hold 7 tons. The back looks as full as a Catholic School bus so probably 14 tons might be more like it?

Great info on another fail-safe system.

Lang

Hi Lang

I'll look for a picture in a recovery manual, which shows using logs to lift a truck out a ditch with a winch. Basically it shows standing the log on end with winch cable over the top. If remember the photos/drawings correct it shows it being done the a single log straight line pull essential or two logs as trypod which makes more sense.

As to safety point on winches like found on CMPs I think the primary safety factor on over loading the winch is between the operators ears. Having used the winch on my C60L Pat 13 a lot I'm convinced the winch is quite capable of folding the truck into horseshoe, or at least bending it to the point where the winch drive shaft pops out.

Had the occasion to use the winch on my truck in with some current duty service men and they were quite impressed with the fact that the cable could be run out front or rear, but when the winch started pulling a heavy tree snag wit the engine ticking over at idle.

Cheers Phil

[Mike Cecil]

That film was a nice find, Mike, thanks for posting the link.

I liked the various views of the Sperry S/L and S/L generator set. The AWM has an excellent example of the four wheel generator set, but I was never able to locate a descent enough example of the searchlight, its external controller, and the interlinking cables.

As to winching, I managed to get a SWB Landcruiser bogged in a coastal creek in a remote part of Wilsons Prom many years ago, with the tide coming in. No big trees, so I ran the cable out and double-backed through the scrub and hooked onto the winch cable to make a loop. When it wound in, it gathered the scrub into the middle of the loop, like a wheat sheaf, till eventually there was enough strength in all those little bushes to haul the Landcruiser free. Made quite a mess! Never told my National Parks contact.

Mike

[Maurice Donckers]

In the tool boxes under the body are a load of ground anchors , which should be capable to hold more then 15tons in good ground , so a coconut tree is not always needed

[Mike Cecil]

Lang,

I just had a look at the AEC Matador manual, and the winch overload mechanism is quite interesting. It works on the strain exerted on the winch cable rollers, rather than the winch itself, and as Maurice said, a rod mechanism connects the mechanism attached to the rollers to the engine injector pump, moving it to the engine stop position when the strain gets close to the maximum winch capacity.

There were two capacity winches: early model Matadors had a 3 ton (straight pull) winch, which was soon superseded by a 7 ton (straight pull) winch.

Mike

[Lang]

Phil

Using the logs as an "A" frame to get the truck out is standard practice and as you say very effective.

Most heavy vehicle courses in the Australian army included this trick. Cut two logs about 6" thick and 10' long and tie them strongly together with a tourniquet about a foot down from the top.

Lean them at about 30 degrees vertically on the back canvas bow or top of windshield or radiator for long nose vehicles(depending if you are pulling forward or back) spread them apart at the bottom- making the tie-rope go very tight and producing a small "V" above the rope joint.

Run the winch rope out up over the "V" and on to the anchor point. As you wind in the A-frame rises to vertical, lifting the vehicle to either pack under the wheels or continue pulling with the more advantageous upward rope angle until the frame falls over.

Winching sounds easy but a winch is not a fix-all solution as anchor point angles are seldom perfect, a badly bogged vehicle requires digging and slithering around in the mud to run ropes - if it is sitting on its belly or in deep water it may be impossible to run the rope to the front or back as required for centrally mounted winches.

The forces to drag a deeply bogged vehicle bodily out are tremendous and the creation of a decent anchor point such as burying a log in a trench takes a huge amount of work. Those dinky recovery anchors might look good in photos but unless you have perfect ground to put the pins in, Murphy's Law says there will rock, soft sand or just more of the swamp you are already stuck in. More than likely for serious stuff you will need supplementary anchors (two or more kits from other vehicles, parked vehicles, smaller nearby trees or rocks etc)

I have done years of off-road stuff with light 4x4's and had many boggings and recovery. Twice in my life I have been involved in mass boggings. Once when as a kid in an artillery regiment where it took 3 days to pull the GMC's and Studebakers with the guns out of a swamp and once where we had two 6x6 and one 4x4 International plus a farmer's huge 4x4 tractor rescue machine sunk for days in the Markham Valley in New Guinea with just swamp and no trees - they were down over the top of the wheels.

The point is, a winch is not a magic wand. Great for lightly stuck vehicles but for serious jobs a tool requiring intelligence, innovation and usually a lot of hard dirty work. And they are bloody dangerous!

Lang