Winching FAIL

Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
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Apr 2, 2020
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Merritt Island, Fl
Tried to use my winch to move an empty swim spa. Like my wife said, "Epic FAIL"!

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Line to spa. Combination of a tow strap, a tree saver, and a Harbor Freight tyedown strap (!!) employed around the thing.

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Strap low against the bottom structure.

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This fence post was my undoing...

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Line to Jeep

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Line to spa...

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Try #2

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Try #3! All it did was bend the shit out of the fencepost...

Even though this failed, it was a good learning experience as I used EVERYTHING in my recovery kit. The tow strap, the tree saver, two soft shackles, two clevises, my snatch block, my TRE Coozie, and even my e-tool to dig around the fence post to remove it from the ground.

This should have worked famously, it didn't because the fence post wasn't even CLOSE to strong enough. I'm guesstimating the spa weights in the 500 to 600 lb range empty. 3 guys put it in where it is, they used rollers to roll it across the lawn, and once it was on the plastic substrate, they slid it around like it weighed nothing. I figured I could move it by hand the same way, but not even my burly son-in-law and I could get it to budge - hence the winching attempt. Its like it has glued itself to the plastic panels its sitting on.

Two questions:

1) I'm certainly open to critique of anything I may have been doing wrong, unsafely, or sub-optimally. Yes, that is a Harbor Freight tye-down you see as I didn't have quite the length with the tow strap and tree saver combined (coupled with a soft shackle). I wasn't able to stress test the lashup fully due to the bending fence post!

2) Son in law and I are going to try something completely different tomorrow - but what could I have used as an anchor at the snatch block that would have held up to the strain?
 
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Actually using the winch also pointed out a problem. The guy I bought it from was all proud of the fact that he'd bought a new bracket to locate the solenoids over the drum instead of over the motor where they had been previously. Bad idea. The bolts that hold the solenoid box to the bracket stick downward and are abrading my expensive TRE line! Looks like I'm going to move it back over the motor where it came from...
 
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As soon as I saw the 'fence post' I knew what would happen, those will just not stand the stress. And you're not pulling 500lbs (the weight of the tub) you're pulling against the friction created by the 500lbs pushing the bottom of the tub down onto the surface it is sitting on.

I can't speak to what the bottom looks like (is it smooth? wood? are there any lips?) but even if it is all smooth the concrete is rough and time will have sort of glued them together a bit.

I did this once years ago with a friend, he had a tree as an anchor, and we did 2 things.

1. used a spreader bar so the to ends of the strap going around the tub wouldn't crush the corners of the tub where they pull together towards the winch line.
2. LIfted the tub with a 5' pry bar and put a length of steel tube under it as a roller.
 
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I like where your head is at in this recovery - My wife is going to love when I use my winch to extract our old fridge!

I’ve actually done something similar to move a 8x12 shed. I buried a 4x4 roughly half way instead of your fence post. I also used a bottle Jack to lift the shed and slide in bunch of schedule 40 pvc pipe I had on hand to use as rollers. Then I dragged it across the yard (think Egyptian pyramid building style) and it rolled surprisingly well over the grass.
 
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DaveF said:
As soon as I saw the 'fence post' I knew what would happen, those will just not stand the stress. And you're not pulling 500lbs (the weight of the tub) you're pulling against the friction created by the 500lbs pushing the bottom of the tub down onto the surface it is sitting on.

I can't speak to what the bottom looks like (is it smooth? wood? are there any lips?) but even if it is all smooth the concrete is rough and time will have sort of glued them together a bit.

I did this once years ago with a friend, he had a tree as an anchor, and we did 2 things.

1. used a spreader bar so the to ends of the strap going around the tub wouldn't crush the corners of the tub where they pull together towards the winch line.
2. LIfted the tub with a 5' pry bar and put a length of steel tube under it as a roller.
Click to expand...
Good points. The bottom of the spa is wood framing, and its sitting on plastic pads that are QUITE slick. Don't know why its glued like it is. I sure wish I had a tree to use as an anchor - but I gots nothin'!

Son in law came up with tomorrow's idea: We're going to screw some additional wood onto the open end's framing (we're worried about overstressing the wood frame of the thing), use a hydraulic jack to jack it up enough to get rollers under it, then push the sumbitch by hand.
 
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Juggernaut said:
I like where your head is at in this recovery - My wife is going to love when I use my winch to extract our old fridge!

I’ve actually done something similar to move a 8x12 shed. I buried a 4x4 roughly half way instead of your fence post. I also used a bottle Jack to lift the shed and slide in bunch of schedule 40 pvc pipe I had on hand to use as rollers. Then I dragged it across the yard (think Egyptian pyramid building style) and it rolled surprisingly well over the grass.
Click to expand...
Where my head was was obviously up my ass - but learning something is never a bad thing.

I now have plans C, D, and E. C is son-in-law's plan; D is my building contractor sending out a crew of burly guys. Plan E involves tearing down part of the fence and driving the Jeep in so I can winch directly and not need the anchor point.
 
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Zorba said:
Where my head was was obviously up my ass - but learning something is never a bad thing.

I now have plans C, D, and E. C is son-in-law's plan; D is my building contractor sending out a crew of burly guys. Plan E involves tearing down part of the fence and driving the Jeep in so I can winch directly and not need the anchor point.
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Don't forget to put the Jeep in 4-low... just in case :D
 
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T posts are made from butter you can bend them by hand.

If the solenoid relocation bracket is installed correctly it should not interfere with the winch line. A lot of Warns need the fasteners trimmed or shorter ones sourced.
 
Blackjack said:
T posts are made from butter you can bend them by hand.

If the solenoid relocation bracket is installed correctly it should not interfere with the winch line. A lot of Warns need the fasteners trimmed or shorter ones sourced.
Click to expand...
Yea, that's obviously the case here. I'll see if I can invert them and/or use carriage bolts with smooth heads.
 
Zorba said:
Where my head was was obviously up my ass - but learning something is never a bad thing.

I now have plans C, D, and E. C is son-in-law's plan; D is my building contractor sending out a crew of burly guys. Plan E involves tearing down part of the fence and driving the Jeep in so I can winch directly and not need the anchor point.
Click to expand...
If you have more of the T posts, set two next to each other with about 18" exposed. Move back 3 feet and set another one. Tie a strong line off to the top of the pair down to ground level on the next one. It should be exactly opposite the bending force, so about a 45 degree angle to the pair of lines going through the snatch block. Repeat that with one more post and that should give you enough of an anchor to do what you need.
 
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I know you want to use your winch, but I moved my hot tub without any special tools. A couple friends and I tilted it up on it's side, and used 2" sch 40 PVC pipe pieces as rollers. Works fine on concrete and wood floors. In the grass, I would lay down a sheet of luan or plywood.

When I sold it, I think I used some moving dollies, and we pushed it up board ramps into the buyers utility trailer. IIRC, mine was 8-900lb.
 
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Zorba said:
Good points. The bottom of the spa is wood framing, and its sitting on plastic pads that are QUITE slick. Don't know why its glued like it is. I sure wish I had a tree to use as an anchor - but I gots nothin'!

Son in law came up with tomorrow's idea: We're going to screw some additional wood onto the open end's framing (we're worried about overstressing the wood frame of the thing), use a hydraulic jack to jack it up enough to get rollers under it, then push the sumbitch by hand.
Click to expand...
I was going to say rollers. The Egyptians had some great ideas for moving heavy items.
 
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mrblaine said:
If you have more of the T posts, set two next to each other with about 18" exposed. Move back 3 feet and set another one. Tie a strong line off to the top of the pair down to ground level on the next one. It should be exactly opposite the bending force, so about a 45 degree angle to the pair of lines going through the snatch block. Repeat that with one more post and that should give you enough of an anchor to do what you need.
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Thanx for this. I was wondering what I could do if I had more posts. I don't at the moment, but another pair would be easy and cheap enough to come up with. I'll see if son-in-law's "jack and roll" plan works tomorrow, but I'll hold this in reserve.
 
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LukesfirstJeep said:
I know you want to use your winch, but I moved my hot tub without any special tools. A couple friends and I tilted it up on it's side, and used 2" sch 40 PVC pipe pieces as rollers. Works fine on concrete and wood floors. In the grass, I would lay down a sheet of luan or plywood.

When I sold it, I think I used some moving dollies, and we pushed it up board ramps into the buyers utility trailer. IIRC, mine was 8-900lb.
Click to expand...
If this thing could be tilted, it could be slid. It isn't so much that I "want to" use the winch, just that it seemed to be a solution. I need this thing moved ASAFP - but it only needs to move about 15 feet.
 
This may be an opportunity to use that sand anchor you never had a chance to try. Bury it in your yard and plant a bush over it. :D:D

I have used a delivery cart on mine just to break it loose from the surface.
 
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