Winching Training

I had a one-day winching course with Ray at Pro-trax, Rockingham, today.  It was a very good course, and I had the benefit of one-to-one tuition.  We stared off using the 109, just to make sure I was familiar with its winch and controls, followed by using one of the company’s 110s as their vehicles have plasma ropes, making the work much easier than my steel rope (especially re-spooling the rope neatly onto the drum).

I had already read a few articles on winching, so had a vague idea of some of the principles, but doing a course like this has given me a much better understanding of the techniques to safely manage a recovery.  The final recovery was quite a challenge for a novice, including double line pulls up a 45 degree slope that was too long to be done in one pull, needing the vehicle to be tied off on the slope for the winch and strops to be reset for a second pull after reaching the pulley block, all with no guidance from Ray – he pretended to be a novice who would just use the vehicle and winch controls on my direction.  That final recovery “test” went very well, working first time with no hiccups, which is a great testament to Ray’s teaching.

Even though I only have a winch as an insurance policy, and don’t plan to ever put the 109 in situations where it’ll be needed, it’s comforting to know that I can now use it safely and competently if needed.  It’s also good because there’s little worse than someone who has a tricked up vehicle with no idea of how to use it!