Very cool recovery of a stuck Unicat

RHINO

RHINO

Expedition Leader
rick if you watch some vids of those the cab and box flex is crazy, but they are designed to do it.

just plain cool, its even cooler they all appear to be cruisers.

so here comes a Q,,, when i watch vids of recoveries in the USA they just never seem to have the same feel of competence and teamwork like africa and australia. why do you think that is? just more everyday experience in those countries or what?
 
B

bjowett

Adventurer
So how many Toyotas does it take....?

I thought for sure the Unicat was just going to keep right on driving away after the recovery... that would have been classic!
 
Metcalf

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
I'm sorry......didn't enjoy it.

-the 'winch' trucks where asking for a frame, winch, or rigging failure with that many snatch blocks and vehicles hooked together.

-the guy on the cable with no winch gloves. Ouch...its even steel cable.

-a self recovery or similar sized truck recovery would have been the way to go.

-There was a lot of people standing around....didn't like that.

-There was some strap on ball action too.

I'm paranoid when it comes to recovery, sorry.
 
bat

bat

Explorer
Being a winch novice how does the drivetrain with stand that much force. I mean is the tranny or brakes holding those vehicles back.
 
K

kerry

Expedition Leader
bat said:
Being a winch novice how does the drivetrain with stand that much force. I mean is the tranny or brakes holding those vehicles back.
Click to expand...

It's Land Cruisers all the way down. With all the Land Cruisers strapped together there's a lot of brakes/drivetrains/weight to absorb the pull on the Man. The winch mountings on the front two have to be absorbing a lot of strain.
 
Last edited:
T

ThomD

Explorer
OK, I'm gonig to need some 'splainin' here.

What is the video showing on the back of the Unitcat at 1:11?

What exactly is going on with the truck at 1:14? Is that the cable running to a snatch block and then back to the frame of the truck?

The trucks in rows 2-4 are daisy chained to each others' frames?

Oh, and the scene at 2:17 looks pretty unsafe to me and I'm not even sure what he's doing

I'm so proud of me - I just figured out why the first trucks in line had their hoods up.
 
michaelgroves

michaelgroves

Explorer
kerry said:
It's Land Cruisers all the way down.
Click to expand...

:xxrotflma
Don't you wish it had been a bunch of these? http://www.turtleexpedition.com/images/t534.jpg


kerry said:
With all the Land Cruisers strapped together there's a lot of brakes/drivetrains/weight to absorb the pull on the Man. The winch mountings on the front two have to be absorbing a lot of strain.
Click to expand...

If I had to criticise what appears to be a pretty professional recovery (esp given the number of people involved!), that would be it. I would have positioned the two winch vehicles as far back as possible, with three anchor vehicles alongside (i.e. five vehicles ranked close together).

Then the cable from the first Winch-truck would run around Snatchblock #1 on the Unicat, back to a snatchblock on Anchor-truck "A", back to Snatchblock #2 on the Unicat, and then terminate on Anchor-truck "B". The cable from the second Winch-truck would run around Snatchblock #3 on the Unicat, and terminate on Anchor-truck "C".

That way, each of the five trucks in the rank would only be taking a 1 x winch pull, except Anchor-truck "A", which would be taking a 2 x pull. Additional anchor trucks could be attached to the back of the Winch and Anchor trucks as necessary.

There are a few reason why I think this is a better way of rigging. Firstly, to avoid the problem mentioned above: the winch mountings were taking very large strains - of the order of 4 x winch pull in the case of the first winch truck. Secondly, because the winch mountings held, the winch-truck's frame was being stretched between the winch and the multiple anchors behind it, also with a 4 x winch pull. Thirdly, because the rigging between the achor truck and the winch truck is taking unnecessary strain (there's little reason to daisy-chain the anchors when they could be anchoring independently, alongside each other, unless the ground is very slippery).

Congratulations to the team, though - that sort of situation needs a huge amount of co-operation, especially if there is no clear chain of command. I bet everyone wanted to do it their way!

(Interesting to see that this was a group of old ballies in the Toyotas! Spike will understand the term :) )
 
Last edited:
michaelgroves

michaelgroves

Explorer
Weird, but this exerpt from the website isn't what I saw on the video!

"Once the mud was cleared from the tires and stones were places under the wheels the South Africans alined their vehicles side by side with they start their engines and with the aid of walkie talkies they all engage their gears and reverse their vehicles at the same time and they get us out. Screaming and clapping is the order and we are clear. Clapping and Screaming is the order and we are clear. "
 
R_Lefebvre

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
I'm so proud of me - I just figured out why the first trucks in line had their hoods up.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid to ask because I don't know... why?

Being a winch novice how does the drivetrain with stand that much force. I mean is the tranny or brakes holding those vehicles back.
Click to expand...

The transmissions *should* be able to take it. IIRC, parking pawls are designed to hold a vehicle on a 30°, and if it's too much, they'll just ratchet, not break. I asked this once to a powertrain engineer when we were riding in an Explorer, and he explained it to me, then threw the truck into park while were were moving, and it just went "whiiirrrrrrrr-clunk" and stopped.

That being said, I stand on the brakes whenever I can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
186,488
Messages
2,886,588
Members
226,515
Latest member
clearwater

Members online

Total: 572 (members: 26, guests: 546)
Top