My winch is not installed yet, and I got the Defender stuck in some thick gumbo on the side of a makeshift trail that runs about 800 yards up to a little dam on a creek above our cabin in NC. I had a 4K winch on a hitch-tray in the back and hooked it up. Not a chance. Mind you, only the two right wheels were stuck, and the truck was listing hard right.

I called my neighbor and told him to bring his tractor. He rumbled up a few minutes later on his 4WD farm tractor and we hooked up. He started pulling in 4WD, in reverse. The wheels just spun. He took the tractor back to his barn.

He came back 20 minutes later in his Bobcat tracked excavator. I shackled a length of tow rope between the two rear tow hooks to make a bridge, and then hooked it to the hook on the bucket of his Bobcat. He lifted, the Bobcat strained, and then the 15,000# tow rope just shredded. Right in the middle, not on a sharp edge. It just came apart. To be fair, it wasn’t brand new, but still!

Then he threw me a chain he keeps in the floor of the cab and I ran it between the tow hooks with bow-shackles attaching it. He was able to lift the rear end clear, which left only the right front tire buried deep in the muck. He couldn’t back up. I had to gas the Defender in reverse to get it to roll backwards as he backed the trackhoe up.

I don’t know if my 12k Zeon that goes on Tuesday of next week would have gotten me out or not, but I sure would have wanted that extra 50% pulling power to even have a chance.

 

Amen brother. I have seen Jeep’s pull 1ton trucks out of bad **** since they were chained off to big trees, my minimum was 10k but got a good deal on Zeon 12 from Lucky8 I am confident in getting home in any scenario. BTW this is my first time with synthetic rope, love the weight savings and no broken wire poke in the finger when least needed.