Now that you have your nifty new winch, and are ready for anything on the trail, there are a few things you need to know. Most winches will have a clutch switch on the winch body somewhere. These are usually three position switches which are normally labeled “In” , “Out”, and “Free”, or something similar. Put the switch on “Free” when you are pulling the line to the other vehicle. Once your clevis (the hook on the end of the cable) is safely attached, go back to the winch and switch the clutch to “In”. Power the winch until the line is taught, and stop. At this point find a heavy jacket, bag or pack of some sort to place on the middle of the winch line. This is a safety precaution that will direct the energy of a snapping line to the ground. Without a line weight, the winch cable could break and whip wildly, injuring someone or damaging a vehicle. There are nylon winch ropes available which are much safer if you would like to purchase one separately. You will use the “Out” setting of the clutch if you need to give more line for some reason during the extraction. On that setting, the winch is able to power out using the gears in the case, allowing more control than simply free spooling the line. After the stuck vehicle is repositioned and you are ready to pull again, simply place the clutch back to the “In” position and yank. Please make sure all onlookers are safely away from the extraction, just in case something goes wrong. It is also a very good idea to wear heavy gloves when coming in contact with a winch, because the steel lines can get frayed and cut your hands very easily.
It is very important when extracting a vehicle to know where to attach the winch clevis. STAY AWAY from leaf springs and axle tubes if remotely possible. Winches exert great pressure on whatever they are pulling, so you should try to attach the clevis to something that will not bend, like tow hooks, trailer hitches or beefy bumpers with D-Rings designed specifically as trail recovery points.
What do you do when you are the lead vehicle and get stuck in a place where nobody in your group can get by to pull you forward, or (please don’t do this) you are out alone and unexpectedly find yourself spinning tires and going nowhere? An old trick is to bury the spare tire about 75 feet from where you are stuck with the winch clevis attached to it. The reason you should put the tire as far away as possible is that the smaller the spool gets, the lower the effective pull ratio gets, which makes it easier for the winch to get you out. This has saved the day for many a back country explorer. Another idea is to use trees as a winch point, although there are right ways and wrong ways to do this. NEVER simply wrap the cable around the nearest tree and pull. The cable can cut deep into the tree, severely damaging or even killing it. You can purchase a tree saver strap, which wraps around the tree in lieu of the thin cable, greatly reducing your chances of doing harm to the tree.
The last thing to know is how to wind the cable back onto the winch after the extraction is complete. The best way is to have one person operate the winch controls while another person keeps the line taught and weaves it back and forth as it winds on the spool, so it gets wrapped evenly. The goal is to try to make one wind of the cable be directly next to the previous wind, until you reach the end of the spool, then start going back the other way.
Following these guidelines should keep your winching experience a happy one. The most important issue is always safety – think before you yank!