Land anchors

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Fellow Jeeper

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What's everyone's take on land anchors? I've been reading up on some and seems like pull pal is the best with arb 2nd. What are the differences with the long arm of the pull pal and short arm of the arb? Help me decide thanks.

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Trail_Blazer

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There are a lot of options for land anchors. I live in Nevada and there are a lot of desert runs, meaning no trees! So if you run out here, and get stuck, you had better know some of the different methods for self extraction.

The best way to extract is have someone else pull you out. This can be a simple pull, but you make have to use a kinetic strap. These are fairly cheap and lightweight. Buy one, or two. You will need a solid anchor point connected to the frame. I have seen hitch shackles breach and go flying into a windshield. Should never have happened, but it did.

If you are not too deep, try digging out. Every overland vehicle should have axe, shovel, and hi-lift type Jack (if you're in sand, you'll need a base for the Jack). There are several good tracks that you can put under the wheels in the direction you want to go. After research, I went with the maxtrax. It has worked very well for me. But the PSP (pierced steel planking), and sand ladders work well. If this works, you just drive up and out. Nice!

Everyone should have a winch. If you have one, it should have rope, not wire cable. If you break a cable, you probably won't have the tools to slice it. A rope can be tied into a knot and continue to work.

If you don't have a winch, you need to be able to use you wheels. Fortunately, most off road wheels have spokes, so you can make a windless for a short pull out.

Now for the anchor: there are a lot of choices. A after a lot of research, I chose the PullPal. It works every time, and it is easily recovered. If you are just starting out, you can use a rock, or dig a hole perpendicular to the line of pull and use a log, rock, spare tire, or other long item to pull against. Don't forget to recover your tire. You can always use a picket system.

I would recommend that a group of you get together and review and actually try some of these methods before you need them. This will help you learn thru someone else's experiences, and you learn to work as a team.

Be happy to share my knowledge and experiences. I have to start including pictures.




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Trail_Blazer

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You won't be sorry. Now you'll run into the issue with mounting or storing it. Mine weighs about 35 lbs. I ended up putting it on my Gobi roof rack, but AEV makes a nice vertical mount that can be made to fit most tire carriers, and it also holds the Hi-Lift Jack. Nice, but it wasn't available when I bought my PullPal. Other mounting option were the brush and grill guard and the hood. I have a 2011 Jeep build with a down rated minivan engine that overheated in the mountains. One of the ways I mitigated that problem was to install a Poison Spider vented hood plate. So blocking air flow thru the radiator or cooking it on the hood wouldn't work for me. You can buy a case and store it inside, but space inside a Jeep is at a premium and better used for other items, plus when you need it, you don't want to have to find it. Let me know how and where you mounted it.

Hope to see you on the trails - Mike
 
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Fellow Jeeper

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Ok will do. I have a 2010 jkur with that 3.8. I have a full carbon hood on it so yeah hood won't be an option for me either. But I do have fab fours bumper front n rear with the old tire carrier. I saw they came out with a new version that bolts in the same local but us timed to the gate. It's at a 45° angle . So thinking of mounting it to that. Unfortunately I don't think the aev bracket will work since its for round tube like the old swing out carrier. The new one is flat plate.


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Trail_Blazer

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When I bought my 2011 JKUL it had the Smittybilt SRC bumpers and rock rails. I really like them, but the rear bumper had a swing out tire carrier that rattled constantly on the trail. I cut off the tire carrier and replace it with an ORFAB tire carrier. I bought the one with the two three-gallon Rotopax fuel cans. The ORFAB Tire Carrier carries my 33" Mickey Thompson Baja MTXs, two 3 Gallon Rotopax fuel cans, my Hi-Lift jack, and Trasharoo. I'm adding a propane tank carrier (because we are going on longer run over a week and don't want to carry that many of the smaller fuel tanks). It has places for antennas, although I don't want to place an antenna below the roof rack, just wouldn't transmit well.

The ORFAB tire carrier is mounted to the frame, through the tub and down onto the frame with brackets inside the light wells in the back corners. No Rattle! The bumper mounted tire carrier sat on the bumper. The rattling was extra stress on the bumper mounts and the spindle holding the tire swing arm was cracking at the welds. Another bad feature of the Smittybilt Tire Carrier was that the tire sat high in the rear window, blocking the view. Additionally, you can lock it as added security to the rear of the jeep. Nice Feature!
20140812_170243.jpg
I should have bought the ORFAB version that has the two five-gallon cans. It was cheaper, but I wanted the plastic cans as they are more forgivable on the trail. They don't crack (unless really cold) when hit or dinged. And you can repair them in the field easy enough. You can replace the two five-gallon metal cans with a Rotopax bracket that holds two four-gallon cans. This would have added two more gallons of extra fuel. The bracket is slightly larger, but not noticeably so. Still carries all of what I already have on-board. AEV has a nice bracket that will carry the PullPal and a Hi-Lift jack vertically. It can mounted on the outside, but it would be good to counter the weight with the propane tank. I would have the added benefit of removing some of the blockage in the back window. My current configuration has the PullPal, Shovel, and Axe horizontally (see the picture above), below the top of the tire that sits lower in the window. This better distributed the weight evenly across the tire carrier. Putting that much weight on one side may be a concern. Adding the propane tank may offset that, but I like the current configuration.

Another concern you should have is weight! Adding a bunch of weight increase fuel consumption and braking distance. I ended up upgrading the brakes to a Terraflex system. I had larger discs, calipers, and master cylinder. This was one of the best improvements to the Jeep! Works better than the stock system when it was new. I'm no longer concern going down steep trails with lots of vertical drop or driving in congested traffic on the streets.

Hope this helps! See you on the trails. Mike
 
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The pull pal is less time consuming then digging deep holes for a spare tire pull. I have done this in the past, and it's not fun. I only Cary my Pull Pal if I'm in an arid region. Not useful in the woods or the jungle, in my experience. If I haven't packed my Pull Pal, I Cary a 100ft winch extender. This has always allowed me to find something to rap a tree saver around (Tree, rock, etc...)
 
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SPJEEP4x4

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^^ This. I recently saw a video from Trail Recon showing a guy, I think the founder, of Deadman Offroad demonstrating their anchor. Basically a 4’ x 2’ taro with a specially designed strap on each corner. You dig a hole, out the tarp in, bury it then hook your winch to the straps. Pulled his buried Tacoma out of the sand.
 
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Lindenwood

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It seems that, while it does save some of the hassle of actually moving the spare around, it doesn't obviate what is probably the biggest challenge (actually digging the huge hole). I really want a pull-pal, but I'd just as soon bury my spare or my hi-lift jack's beam (removing the mechanism) before spending the money on the deadman.
 
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Temudjin

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The best land anchor I have ever seen is a spare tire - already on the vehicle and no extra cost. Of course you need a shovel to dig the hole either way and a wheel brace (lug nut wrench in the USA?) let's you connect the winch cable or rope through the middle of the wheel. Best when buried, like a tent peg, at an angle to the line of pull. I once pulled a vehicle over two cable lengths (120 yards in total) using a Tirfor hand winch and a spare tire ground anchor on the Strezlecki Track - it took all day but got the vehicle out and completed the journey.
 
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Trail_Blazer said:
There are a lot of options for land anchors......
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REALLY nice contributions. I know most of this stuff but it’s always great to rehear it, especially from someone who used that info much more than I do. Very nicely written.

If you want to take the time, I would be interested in your input on 2 things:
1) Specifically, what brand, weight, length kinetic ropes do you recommend (not just for light Jeeps but general use).
2) I know MaxTrax are the best recovery boards, particularly when it comes to compactness when stacking. The exorbitant price of the MaxTrax keeps them out of reach of most beginning & part-time off-roaders. This means either something like the X-Bulls or nothing at all. In the last 6 months, however, I’ve come across a lot of experienced off-roaders using the cheap knockoffs, particularly the X-Bulls. Most say their experience has been essentially the same except for stacking, comfortability of the handles, & out of the box mounting/locking solutions. You sound reasonable & experienced, I’d love to hear your take (I realize it is primarily based on desert usage which is not necessarily universal in overall application).

I know this is somewhat of a thread hijack but it looks like the primary question has been answered.

Thanks!
 
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Fellow Jeeper said:
What's everyone's take on land anchors? I've been reading up on some and seems like pull pal is the best with arb 2nd. What are the differences with the long arm of the pull pal and short arm of the arb? Help me decide thanks.

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Click to expand...
Take a look at truck claws or trac grabber. I use truck claws on my CJ and my semi.
 
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