Lifting Blocks and Diff Locks

[baipin]

What are everyone's thoughts on having a winch? I don't intend to go down roads like in that video coolcraft posted, very often. But, crap happens... If I did get a winch, would electric or hydraulic be better? I'd want it on a mount to be removed and replaced to the front of the back of the bus as required by the winching situation. For what it's worth; finding trees strong enough to winch off of isn't a concern around here; plenty of that in Canada. ;)


Another item to consider; traction boards. Has anyone used those, or even DIY ones?

[Ronnie]

traction boards like aircraft landing boards would be great for deep mud. This is getting way beyond most skoolie travels though.



Winch is a necessity for serious off road. Usually you want one twice the capacity of the vehicles weight. A 4000lb Jeep will have an 8000 lb winch. So a really big one for a bus, or multiple snatch blocks. Each snatch block doubles your line pull, but reduces your pulling speed by half. So a 20,000lb winch should do. Most this size are PTO driven.

[baipin]

Yeah, I figure a 20k winch and snatchblock would suit me well. PTO-drive seems like an easy implementation for the front, but if I want to use it at the back (and I probably would) I imagine that'd be more difficult?


For me, having these things isn't so much because I'm doing some extreme offroad in my skoolie. It's more so that I'm inevitably going to come across some rough roads, and the places I like to go - while no more difficult than some of the stuff you might take your bus on - are really, really isolated. 700km north of the nearest human settlement kind of isolated (various parts of Northern Quebec, Yukon, BC, and Newfoundland). So I don't want to go overkill, but I also want some insurance because I'd have to be 100% self reliant.

[Ronnie]

That far from civilization would require serious self reliance. I had not been thinking about that.


I have done it by running the winch cable under the vehicle to pull in an opposite direction, rather then moving the winch. You would need a roller on the front frame. Maybe a skid pan below the engine so a cable could slid without catching or wearing a hole in the oil pan.

[baipin]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

That far from civilization would require serious self reliance. I had not been thinking about that.


I have done it by running the winch cable under the vehicle to pull in an opposite direction, rather then moving the winch. You would need a roller on the front frame. Maybe a skid pan below the engine so a cable could slid without catching or wearing a hole in the oil pan.

I like this idea. I've seen it done on Land Rovers before, never larger vehicles though. Will definitely explore it further. Guess the hardest part would be designing rollers that could handle that load.

[JackE]

Originally Posted by baipin

I like this idea. I've seen it done on Land Rovers before, never larger vehicles though. Will definitely explore it further. Guess the hardest part would be designing rollers that could handle that load.

The roller isn't really a problem, just design a permanent mount snatch block below the bumper. I few stout pieces of smaller drill casing run underneath the bus could easily be used to pass the cable through.

Another possibility for going backwards would be to rig a way to attach a cable between the duals and use the rims as the winding drum for the cable. Then just backing out would wind up the cable and pull you out.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

funny you mention the rims as the winding drum.
a man i grew up working for on a farm/ranch in texas had a setup mounted to his tractors that basicaly had a spare rim mounted to the rear rims because there was one spot everyone got stuck when wet tool box with cable and blocks ready.
really depended on where you got stuck at in the area and tree angle on how bad of a beating the tires took.
but they were big lug tractor tires.
i had good luck and bad luck with that setup but it worked in a pinch.
double rear wheel rims we cut a hole in the outer rim big/small enough to drop a piece of cold roll already attach to the cable through the hole wrap the cable across the tire in between the dualls and let the lugs keep it in place.
that worked well until you were out and need help getting the mess unwound and had no help around.
so you had to find another tree to unwind.
that was a life time ago thanks for the memory.
we actually ended up cutting the centers out of spares and welding them to the other rim to keep from busting or rubbing tires once we did that we could pull from both sides at the same time and could leave the cables on the spare rims.
probably wont work on a skoolie going down the road but an old school innovation at the time.