By Christopher Tracy
Overland Expo East occurred last month in October. Kamil wrote up a piece about the vehicles of the Expo. He saw many great overland and off-road rigs, but he didn’t see a UAZ-452. He did see numerous tents catering to off-road recovery equipment: traction boards, off-road jacks, recovery ropes (bungees on steroids), and winches.
There is no way that he saw anything like this.
These two have a static line between their UAZ and an immovable object. They are using basic lever science to utilize a fulcrum with a long enough lever to slowly but surely drag their stuck vehicle out. Each time the logs flip in any direction shortens the line. The UAZ’s engine and traction added to the tension of the line manually breaks the van free.
Here is another example of utilizing manual labor and a fulcrum to free a vehicle that was previously stuck.
After watching both of these, I have wondered about the strength of the rope that they are using. It’s pretty impressive the amount of weight that they slide up those boards on the frozen lake.
Either way, recovery is definitely a section of off-road that I need to be better educated about. I’ve seen too many videos about when operations like these above go catastrophically wrong in a fraction of a second.
Jeff Glucker
Not bad but why wouldn’t you carry a manual winch at least?
Cost? This setup is also very reliable. I watch a lot of documentaries from Russia’s far east and their Southern neighbours. Lack of or just ancient equipment is the norm.
Here they start a truck by hand swivel – and instead of pumping water, they fill a tank with buckets, for hours:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-ONg-09Dg&feature=youtu.be&t=1019
I’m totally going to remember how to do this when I’m stuck and there’s no internet. Just like I always remember how to tie a sheepshank or a bowline or any knot more useful than the one called “a bunch of half-hitches”.
Not bad but why wouldn’t you carry a manual winch at least?
Cost? This setup is also very reliable. I watch a lot of documentaries from Russia’s far east and their Southern neighbours. Lack of or just ancient equipment is the norm.
Here they start a truck by hand swivel – and instead of pumping water, they fill a tank with buckets, for hours:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-ONg-09Dg&feature=youtu.be&t=1019
Can’t remember what I paid for my manual winch 10+ years ago, but under $100
Well, I guess you were neither a tourist nor an “overlander” then, ha! Driving a huge Pajero in Kyrgyzstan had some strange social effects, too. Among other things, traffic in roundabouts would come to a halt in order to let us pass first.
Well, I guess you were neither a tourist nor an “overlander” then, ha! Driving a huge Pajero in Kyrgyzstan had some strange social effects, too. Among other things, traffic in roundabouts would come to a halt in order to let us pass first.
Yeah, not really. But at the same time, if we’ve experienced Central Asia in SUVs, haven’t we sort of overlanded whether we like it or not?
Yeah, not really. But at the same time, if we’ve experienced Central Asia in SUVs, haven’t we sort of overlanded whether we like it or not?
Definitely not a “pure” experience, no. A part of why I’m longing back – spending more time. Not just taking in vistas and having a few chats, but really taking the time to be there with no specific plan the next day.
Definitely not a “pure” experience, no. A part of why I’m longing back – spending more time. Not just taking in vistas and having a few chats, but really taking the time to be there with no specific plan the next day.
Can’t remember what I paid for my manual winch 10+ years ago, but under $100