subject: Tips for Using a WARN Winch [print this page] Tips for Using a WARN Winch Tips for Using a WARN Winch
A WARN winch is a powerful tool, and one that's prone to misuse. While the sheer power of your WARN winch might tempt you to cut corners or jump hastily into a vehicle recovery situation, doing either is a really bad idea. The fact is, rigging your winch quickly or improperly can result in serious injury.
These tips below, along with some personal instruction from an experienced winch user, can improve your chances of completing a self-recovery winching operation safely.
Make sure you have the right winch accessories. You will need heavy-duty gloves, plus a hook strap, snatch block, D-shackles, choke chain, and tow hooks.
Check your mounting system. Your winch, WARN or otherwise, is only as strong as your winch mount. Only purchase a winch mount that's been tested at least at the full capacity of your winch.
Triple-check your equipment. Undoubtedly, you spent a lot of time selecting a WARN winch that can handle the load of your vehicle. That same care needs to be used when purchasing equipment to use with your winch, such as the snatch block, tow hooks, and winch cable. Each and every piece involved in the winching operation must have the strength to handle the load without failure. You know that old adage about a chain only being as strong as the weakest link? It applies here.
Have patience while winching. Moving a stuck vehicle with a winch is a slow process. It's better to accept this fact than to try to overcome it. You may need to stop and start the winch a few times to keep the motor from overheating.
Use a tree strap. As an off-road driver, you need to accept certain environment responsibilities. Ideally, you should strive to leave the trail as you found it which means you need to avoid damaging trees and other plant life whenever possible. When anchoring to a tree, always use a tree strap and not the winch cable to attach to the tree's trunk. This keeps you from slicing tree trunks and damaging your winch cable.
Don't hook the winch cable to itself. This is related to the point above, but don't ever attach the winch cable to itself. You'll end up weakening your cable and setting the stage for a winch cable failure.
Plan your attack. You need to set up the winch so that the cable is perpendicular to the front plane of your vehicle (assuming your WARN winch is front-mounted). Unfortunately, you won't always have a suitable anchor point situated in exactly the right place. In this case, you'd use a snatch block, choke chain, and second anchor point to make the adjustment. Basically you would run your WARN winch cable through the snatch block to the main anchor point. Then, you can attach a choke chain to a second anchor point and also to the snatch block. The choke chain and second anchor point would hold the snatch block in place directly in front of the stuck vehicle. The snatch block then would redirect the winch cable to the primary anchor point that's off to the side somewhere.
As a final recommendation, always choose safety over convenience when using your WARN winch. While it is necessary to get your vehicle out of a stuck situation, you don't want someone to get hurt in the process.
