How to winch with your trailer

You’ve found it, the ultimate campsite. You’re ready for a week of peace, quiet, sunsets and a fighting fish or two. Best of all, there’s no one around to spoil the serenity. However, the only flat bit is up a nasty little climb. You’re pretty confident that with the help of your crawl control, or maybe the diff lock, you’ll get the car up there no dramas. But your compact hybrid van, or camper trailer is going to make this a bit of a challenge. I mean, it’s an awesome campsite, but it’s not worth breaking your gear for…

Here’s where the winch comes in

This is where you’ll find yourself glad that you chose to include a winch in your setup. Actually, this is where you find yourself glad that you chose to include a quality winch! As opposed to a cheap future boat anchor. No sir, a well built and properly installed winch in which you can put some faith!

This scenario is the less often talked about facet of having a winch. It allows you to think differently about the terrain ahead. Your winch lets you glide into camp in style rather than come crashing in busting and bumping (and breaking).

Now, obviously, a winch is only as good as its anchor. We’ll not go too deeply into this aspect. Honestly anchor selection, or creation, is a topic worthy of its own column! But let’s assume that you had a mate who prefers to swag rather than tow. Or that there is a suitable tree in an equally suitable location.

Slow and steady

Here’s the thing about winching, for work of leisure, it’s not meant to happen fast. All too often we see folks complicate the process, or actually do damage to their winch, by attempting to drive whilst winching. Contrary to pretty much every influencer, this really isn’t helping. Soft sand being the exception to the rule here. But is creating a potential for you to ‘shock’ your winch’s gear box. So, let’s take our time. Let’s get the kids set up under a shady tree, well out of the way. Let’s grab out our recovery gear, choose our best anchor and get to work.

The how-to

Our tree trunk protector should sit flat around the lowest practical part of the trunk (this may not be at the very base if the tree has a complex root system nor base). Since you’re towing, let’s immediately dispense with the notion of a single line pull and set to getting our pulley or winch ring in place to reduce the effective load on our winch. Don’t be afraid to use a multitude of extension straps to make your rope ‘longer’ but leave the stretchy ones in the kit.

Be prepared to do a bit of road building

Every scenario is different, but if you can reduce the effect of near vertical ‘steps’ in your winching path with well placed rocks or your Maxtrax then there really aren’t any downsides.

You’ll quickly notice what an excellent job winching does at keeping your car and trailer in a straight line and moving forward – eliminating the chance of a failed ‘step up’, ‘slide off’, ‘fall back’, and potential jack knife.

Before you know it, you’re cresting the gnarly bit and setting up camp in paradise.

Other situations require a winch

Now, of course this short, complex step up into camp isn’t the only scenario in which you might deploy your winch. There are a multitude of other terrains and locations where a slow, strong and controlled recovery effort is exactly what’s needed.

It’s important to remember that sometimes your best bet is a two-part process. Recovery of the car, then turn around and recover the van. You may just be stuck enough that expecting your winch to drag your whole combination out of the muck and onto dry land is quite simply asking too much of your gear.

Should you need to winch your trailer you’ll need to be mindful of what’s going to happen to your jockey wheel under load. At the very least you’ll want to wind it down as low as possible to reduce the leverage on it. You might choose to use some kind of wheel sled, or, as is my favourite, employ your shovel as a makeshift sled and brace with the wheel sitting on (and secured to) the shovel itself and your handle secured to the tow hitch… it’s not perfect or pretty, but if used carefully and monitored for movement, it makes for a useful and minimalistic option.

There’s plenty of adventure out there waiting for you, fitting a quality winch, and taking care of it, might just be the key to finding the perfect location and getting you, your crew and your gear there safely, calmly, and in style.