The Pull-Pal (www.pullpal.com) is a collapsible implement designed to be used as a portable winch anchor when you're stuck and there is no fixed anchor point available to winch from. Attach your cable to the bar end and the "plow" blade slices into snow, sand or soil to secure a solid winch point for extraction. The tool comes in several sizes to accommodate vehicles as heavy as 10,000 pounds.
Winch Recovery Tips
We've seen a myriad of broken, stuck, rolled, and dead-stick vehicles out far from the nearest highway. When you're in one of these situations, you work your best to get out and back on asphalt. A little common sense and some technique applied to winching practice will help ensure safety and reduce the risk of greater mechanical damage.
When winching another vehicle, it's best not to have the pulling rig in park if it has an auto tranny. It's safer for the transmission to have the shifter in neutral and use the brake to hold the pulling vehicle in place.
When winching a heavier stuck vehicle, it's sometimes necessary to anchor the winch vehicle to keep it from slipping. In such a case, be careful if you anchor the winch vehicle from a point on the rear. This could apply too much tension through the frame of the winch vehicle. You can attach an anchor strap or other connection to an attachment point near the winch and run it under the winch vehicle.
Always ensure that any winch attachment point used on a vehicle is strong enough to support a strong pull. Having an attachment point fail while the winch cable is under tension can be disastrous. When using a snatch strap in conjunction with a winch cable, be aware of the stored energy in the strap and exercise caution during hard pulls.
When using a winch cable it's always a good idea to prevent kinking the cable in any way. Hooking a cable hook back onto the winch cable or rope is always a bad idea. This will quickly kink or damage the cable or rope. Once a steel cable is damaged, it is both hard to handle and can be weakened in the bend.
When a vehicle goes on its side or upside down, it's best to right it back on its tires as quickly as is reasonably possible. While in a sideways or inverted position, fluids can start running out of their intended enclosures and you risk motor oil starting to seep into the engine cylinders above the pistons.
Once a rig is on its side, attach the winch cable on the far side of the vehicle and slowly pull to get it back on its tires. In this case, a tree strap and shackle were used to access a good attachment point on the truck frame. If you have two vehicles (besides the rolled one) with winches, you can use one to pull the rolled vehicle over while an opposite attached winch feeds cable out to slowly lower the vehicle back down on its tires.
Getting stuck is part of wheeling, but part of the overall challenge can be conquering the obstacles, or getting where you want to go...or getting yourself unstuck and moving again. As with any kind of trying situation, application of a little ingenuity and technique can usually get you free and on your way for yet more challenges ahead.