Sand recovery using a ground anchor.

Looking for advice on self recovery in sand. I do a lot of solo desert wheeling and recently had an oh shit situation. Was looking at the RedRock Ground Anchor 12,000 lb. Capacity. Wondering if anyone has had any experience with this style of anchor or can suggest a better solution.

 

I assume you have a winch. You can always bury the spare tire in a pinch. Or if you already carry one of those jeeper farm jacks, pound the rod into the sand

 

Deadman

https://deadmanoffroad.com/

 

Bury the spare- not bad. Not bad at all. Never would have thought about that.

learn something new all the time on TW

 

You got to dig one heck of a hole.

 

So skip the gym that night ?
Idk, man. Worked for me. Only needed to do that once in Baja. I don’t plan to get stuck all the time, and I don’t like carrying unnecessary crap with me.

 

Used one of those years ago to extract our vehicle. They work great if you have solid ground to work with. For sand....as long as it's buried deep enough, and there is sufficient holding force from the ground, it should work okay. There is a lot of digging involved when using these. You need to make sure it's deep enough to "grab". They are designed to plow into the ground as the load is applied. But with sand, it's hard to predict. Something like this and a hi-lift jack would surely help.

 

I tried the spare tire thing to no avail. My dumb ass went down a berm to get closer to the lakes edge for the night so it was a pretty steep angle of approach. Didn't think about hammering the jack in to the sand excellent pointer thanks.

 

I mean I spent an hour digging and placing recovery boards and firewood. So probably better than what I had to do LOL.

 

Great I'll check it out thanks.

 

Goes without saying but for all of the above carry a full length shovel too. Not one of the Fischer price folding ones you see on every broverlander.

 

LOL
Yup I have a full size axe and shovel always.

 

Practice before it becomes a real world emergency

So many different types of sand I have seen anchors just pull right out of the ground even before the pull started to get serious.

 

Check out the Anchors section of Army FM20-22, bunch of PDFs online and includes the burying the spare tire trick, as well as some other ground anchors with logs, sand parachutes, purpose-built gear, etc.

 

If you have a friend in the power, cable or telco construction biz, even a used one of these works well. I always preferred carrying ones from phone or cable because they are typically smaller than power uses. Not easy to install by hand, because screwing it in is way better than digging it in. Two man job in most cases, can use shovel handle through the eye. Works well in muddy ground / bogs as well.

After moving the truck the length of the winch cable, removing the anchor and repeating, you'll probably abandon the anchor if you're free.

 

Interesting this is similar to another option someone from another forum sent me.
Which is a bit expensive and only has 1 distributor stateside that I can find.
https://www.bushwinch.com/the-bush-winch/accessories/the-bush-ground-anchor/






Interesting

 

Some of the pics are dead (2007) but enough are still good between this and the Yotatech link in the 1st post to see whats what.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/5207-pull-pal-alternatives
Essentially a home made anchor with the "plow" sourced from a farm supply store. Back then around $50 parts/materials, no welding. One fellow dual purposed the beam of his high lift jack as the main beam of the anchor.

 

I drove on the beach at Assateague Island National Seashore and got stuck. I had borrowed friends Land Anchor PRT, and it got me out of my predicament. ARB sells an identical version, but the price difference is significant. I would check the reviews on these and make an informed decision. While more expensive, I ordered the ARB based on my experience with the Land Anchor, and satisfaction with their products in the past.

Do your research before buying, is my best advice.

 

Carry some (empty) large sand bags, or even a couple large heavy duty feed bags. As you dig the hole to emplace them, you fill them up. Wrap your snatch or tow strap around the full bags buried in a hole and there's your anchor point.

A large feed bag will give you far more surface area than one of those plow-type anchors, and if you have to abandon it, you're only out a feed bag and a tow strap (carry a cheap one from HF even if you have a nice one - they're handy and disposable). In a bad spot once I even used the dry bag out of my rucksack (but you bet your ass I dug it out afterwards!)

Additional weight and expense is minimal.

 

Have you downloaded, and read, FM20-22 Army recovery manual ?