I have a winch that I share between all 3 of my Jeeps and for most expeditions I also carry 4 aluminum sand ladders but in the back of my mind I worry a bit about situations where I need to use the winch but there's no place to winch from. Two years ago I was stuck in what I'll call a small "slickrock bowl" on a Colorado trail which if dry would be no problem but water was flowing over it from an underground spring. There wasn't enough traction on the wet rock face for me to go forward or back. And no place nearby to winch from. I was about to start piling rocks to get out when someone in an XJ came by and pulled me out with the strap I also carry. Since then I've been thinking about ground anchors. I haven't pulled the trigger on any of the commercial ones so far because the ones I've found are either large to carry or look like they'd be difficult to use in the rocky Colorado ground on the trails I often explore (ones with a "boat anchor" style blade).
I came up with a new ground anchor idea - what if I made an anchor point that could bolt to the sand ladders that I already carry? It could fit in my recovery gear bag and be bolted to a sand ladder when/if needed and the sand ladder could be staked to the ground. I drew this concept:
The concept drawing seemed like it would be practical, so I built one:
In the photos above it's bolted to two stacked sand ladders. Each one is 1/4" aluminum, so together they're 1/2". One is probably enough but two will be more rigid; I'll do some testing when it's done to see how it performs with one or two.
All of the nuts are welded in place so only one wrench is required to bolt it together and secure it to the sand ladders and the bolts I used have 3/4" hex heads (same size as the Jeep lug nuts) so the only tool required is the Jeep lug wrench.
The stakes are 3/4" diameter and 24" long. A large nut with the threads drilled out is welded near one end, that's to aid in removing the stake from the ground. The I.D. of the drilled nut is just over 3/4", so another stake (or the Jeep's lug wrench if all stakes are in the ground) can be inserted and used to twist the stake out of the ground.
I sewed a bag out of heavy canvas to store the stakes in and the anchor point fits nicely in the bottom of my recovery gear bag when it's not bolted to the sand ladders:
It doesn't make sense to head for the trails without testing, so here's a test.
The ground is pretty solid clay at my house so I did the test with only 4 stakes. If they looked unstable when I started the pull, I would have put in more stakes.
The test was to pull the LJ over a berm at the top of the driveway.
Since it was a short distance pull and I wasn't spooling too much line out, I did a double line pull - the more wraps on the drum, the lower the power/higher the amp draw and doubling the line doubles the power/cuts the amp draw.
The test:
The stakes are designed so that removal is made easier by using another stake (or the Jeep's lug wrench) to twist the stake and pull it out.
Test passed. The ground anchor works as intended so I'll declare it ready for use on the trail.
The winch mount is a quick install/remove design that uses a receiver mount for the winch, I wrote about it here: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/quick-install-remove-winch-mount.39528/#post-656375
I came up with a new ground anchor idea - what if I made an anchor point that could bolt to the sand ladders that I already carry? It could fit in my recovery gear bag and be bolted to a sand ladder when/if needed and the sand ladder could be staked to the ground. I drew this concept:
The concept drawing seemed like it would be practical, so I built one:
In the photos above it's bolted to two stacked sand ladders. Each one is 1/4" aluminum, so together they're 1/2". One is probably enough but two will be more rigid; I'll do some testing when it's done to see how it performs with one or two.
All of the nuts are welded in place so only one wrench is required to bolt it together and secure it to the sand ladders and the bolts I used have 3/4" hex heads (same size as the Jeep lug nuts) so the only tool required is the Jeep lug wrench.
The stakes are 3/4" diameter and 24" long. A large nut with the threads drilled out is welded near one end, that's to aid in removing the stake from the ground. The I.D. of the drilled nut is just over 3/4", so another stake (or the Jeep's lug wrench if all stakes are in the ground) can be inserted and used to twist the stake out of the ground.
I sewed a bag out of heavy canvas to store the stakes in and the anchor point fits nicely in the bottom of my recovery gear bag when it's not bolted to the sand ladders:
It doesn't make sense to head for the trails without testing, so here's a test.
The ground is pretty solid clay at my house so I did the test with only 4 stakes. If they looked unstable when I started the pull, I would have put in more stakes.
The test was to pull the LJ over a berm at the top of the driveway.
Since it was a short distance pull and I wasn't spooling too much line out, I did a double line pull - the more wraps on the drum, the lower the power/higher the amp draw and doubling the line doubles the power/cuts the amp draw.
The test:
The stakes are designed so that removal is made easier by using another stake (or the Jeep's lug wrench) to twist the stake and pull it out.
Test passed. The ground anchor works as intended so I'll declare it ready for use on the trail.
The winch mount is a quick install/remove design that uses a receiver mount for the winch, I wrote about it here: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/quick-install-remove-winch-mount.39528/#post-656375
