Last Updated on June 28, 2021
Have you ever felt abandoned when your car was stuck in the mud, and there was no friend to reach out to?
Well, you must have at least for the initial few hours!
Of course, it was a dreadful experience, but things would have been better had you kept a winch strap in your car trunk.
A winch strap is a tool used for heavy transporting, loading, and unloading. Besides using it for high utility tasks, keeping one in your car trunk is recommended as it can unstick your car; you just have to give support to the winch by attaching it to a tree or a big rock.
Hauling, hoisting, lifting, and pulling the car out of the mud, one winch strap serving many purposes.
With the range of purpose it serves, it is advisable to have one and, more importantly, know how to use one.
Unfamiliarity with its usage or not using it correctly can lead to disaster.
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Do you want to learn how to use a winch strap? Read on!
Here is how you go about safe winching by using the winch strap properly.
- Before getting started, make sure that the wire rope and winch hook are not frayed and damaged. You do not want to do the laborious task of winching with a damaged tool.
- Wear gloves as winching is a task involving harmful work with the motor running; prevent yourself from potential injuries.
- Spool the entire winch strap out. For accelerating the process of spooling, separate the winch strap from the clutch lever.
- Do not make a heap of the rope in front of the winch and arrange it in a straight for letting the spooling happen more freely and prevent tangles.
- If the pulling involves kinetic force such as pulling a truck or car, then use frame-mounted tow-points in place of a winch hook.
- Untangle and wrap the winch strap around the load or the vehicle. Ensure that the strap does not twist or bend while you wrap it.
- After wrapping it, find an anchoring point where you could attach the strap with a stronghold. Then, lock the winch to stop the spooling.
- At last, tighten the winch strap and start winching.
Points to keep in mind while winching
- Get the winch strap of the highest quality since it supports intricate tasks and, therefore, has to be manufactured using the best materials. The quality of the winch strap ensures increased dependability on the tool and makes it a safe option.
- Pick the largest tree to spot out the anchoring point and use a broad strap when winching with the support of a tree. If possible, avoid wrapping the winch strap around a tree regardless of the type of winch strap you use. Find the biggest rock instead to attach to an anchor point.
- While using a winch strap for heavy loading and unloading, it is evident that no less than two people are involved in the process. For making winching safer and smoother, employ certain hand gestures such as signals for steering direction, stopping the winch, power in and out of the winch, and more.
- Stay away from the winching points and do not stand between the car and its anchor point. Also, wear hand gloves, especially while spooling and unspooling.
And there it is! The right way of using a winch strap. If you have faced challenges with your winch strap before, then trying winching in the manner mentioned here will make things easier.
The winch strap is excellent and is a must-have when you plan a road trip or if your work involves transporting huge goods.
Hopefully, this guide helped you to learn how to use a winch strap. If you have any queries on using the winch strap, then inform us. By the way, you’ll find a lot of winch guide and tips on this site such as:
- Most popular hand winches review
- Who makes the best truck winch?
- What are the best car trailer winches?
- Installing/ Mounting a winch on a trailer.
- Using a cable winch puller
- How to winch backward – 2 Methods
- Proper ways of using winch pulley blocks
I’m Daniel Galbreath, founder of OffRoadersWorld.
I spend my spare time writing on this website, OffRoaders World. I share my thoughts and reviews on different types of gears, share tips sometimes. This website is specially created and regularly updated basically to help other folks like me when I started to solve the various problems they face, specially when they go off-roading.