I decided to take another winching and recovery course from Bill Burke this spring. Even though I have been through his training in the past and I have performed a number of recoveries I though a little refresher might be a good idea. Time to make sure I have been doing things correctly and maybe learn a few more tidbits.

The class was in Grand Junction on Saturday February 25. We met at the Horizon Road Safeway and headed to the OHV area east of the airport.

The morning started with Bill giving us an introduction to vehicle recovery and handing out a document he has assembled that contains a comprehensive assortment of information on winching and recovery hardware. After a Short review of the information we all saddled back up and followed Bill on a circuitous route to are first practice area. Even though the day was intended to be a recovery class Bill always takes the opportunity to sprinkle in a some challenging off road driving. Whenever needed Bill steps in and provides words of wisdom and direction.

Our first session of the day was staged in a mostly empty reservoir. Bill placed his Rover in a easy stuck scenario in a mucky section of the lake. This session was intended to cover recovery or snatch straps. We learned about dynamic recovery straps and rope. The rope is made from ship mooring line and has a dynamic stretch of up to 30% under full load. The straps have a stretch of 12-15%. With this said the rope provides a better solution in that it provides more stretch and a smother recovery.

In the first recovery it was an easy pull and required no run up by the pulling vehicle. This is always the place to start. The second scenario provided an example of how the puling vehicle needs to get some run to use the dynamic capability of the rope to break the stuck vehicle free.

We moved on from this area to a lunch break and a discussion of the winch. Bill spent time covering the different types of winches, hydraulic, worm drive, and planetary. We also discussed both wire and synthetic ropes. Bill then setup a recovery scenario where we used his winch and a Pull-Pal. Once this recovery was completed we setup a second using a jeep with a hydraulic winch and wire rope.

Leaving this area Bill lead us on a route that provided some driving challenges in some gullies. We needed to practice wheel placement keeping them placed on the banks of a v shaped gullies. We had a real recovery to deal with with on of the class members dropping his left side it to the bottom and coming close to his roll over angle.

At our final stop Bill placed his Rover in the bottom of a gully and instructed us that we needed to move it up the gully and out onto flat ground. The Rover had a failed transmission but could roll and had steering. He left us to figure out the recovery providing a watch full eye and little nudges in the right direction when needed.

With the final recovery complete and darkness setting in it was time to head out and finish our day.

For me the day was a good refresher off the recovery techniques that I have learned in past session with Bill.

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