On Tue, 10 May 2005 03:10:59 GMT, "Busahaulic"
> wrote:

>
>Not referring to the four rollers that mount a few inches in front of the
>drum that "they" call a fairlead. A real fairlead is pretty much what you
>have when you string a snatch-block directly in-line with the winch but a
>distance away. As you've seen, the tendency to climb up one side of the drum
>is greatly reduced. My dad always tried to convince me to put the winch
>under the middle of the jeep so we could put a real fairlead at either the
>front or back of the frame, thus maintaining perfect alignment to the drum
>no matter what angle the pull was at. The problem is obvious. With a full
>body on the jeep, there was no way to easily switch the cable from front to
>rear or vice versa, especially when the reason you needed the winch was cuz
>yer high centered in a mud hole with mud oozing over the front fenders!
>Then there was the running gear and engine in the way, going out the front.
>I still like the idea of a long fairlead withe the winch mounted amidships.
>An open-framed vehicle would be much easier to implement it in.
>
>A customer at the shop a couple weeks back showed me how he had an extra
>trailer hitch receiver welded to his truck and a 12-ton winch mounted to an
>insert for it. It appeared to be about a 3" receiver. With that he could
>have a receiver at each end. The fairlead was virtually worthless however -
>typical 4 rollers mounted a few inches from the drum.
>
>Have you ever seen those balloon gadgets that (JC Whitney used to sell them)
>you'd shove under the side of your stuck car - anywhere you could get
>access, and hook the hose up to the tailpipe? It was big enough that even
>with relatively low pressure it was able to lift the car.

No, but that sounds interesting. :-)

>
>I always wanted to add a hydraulically operated arm under the vehicle,
>something like the outrigger arms that the power company boom trucks use for
>stability. I envision the pivot point as being a slot so that the first
>movement at the pad end would be downward. Once it reached the ground and
>started to exert lift on the vehicle, it would slide in the pivot slot and
>effectively move the vehicle either fore or aft depending on which way you
>engineered it to go. Too bad it would also add a couple hundred pounds and
>would probably always be facing the wrong way - move ya back when ya can't
>go back...!
>
>The best I ever actually used on the trail was when I was 18 and jeeping
>with another teen-ager. We were hopelessly stuck with the jeep teetering on
>the edge of a bank dropping off into the river (real river!) about 100 feet
>below! We were afraid to hike out for help as someone would sure as hell
>roll the thing over the bank and watch the big splash! We were able to pile
>up enough large rocks for a fulcrum and use about a 6-inch diameter alder
>tree as a lever. From about 15-20 feet out it was easy to lever the jeep
>back onto the trail and away we went! [I worked in a sawmill and he worked
>in a steel fab shop, so we were real he-men!);o)
>
>Ah, well, whatever you rig up will probably work just fine and if not,
>you'll re-engineer it until it does! -BaH
>