If you have ever wondered how much force is required to recover a bogged four-wheel drive, you are about to find out my friend! Are you sick of the same articles over and over again preaching about the importance of…
If you have ever wondered how much force is required to recover a bogged four-wheel drive, you are about to find out my friend!Â
Are you sick of the same articles over and over again preaching about the importance of this or that, or explaining a technique the same way that Grand Pappy did, just because that is the way we have always done things? Yep, us too! Which is why we decided it was about time to dive deeper with this recovery edition of Unsealed 4X4. We strive to achieve a balance between real world results, backed up with scientific testing, with everything we do in Unsealed 4X4. Want to know how much force is required to recover your 4X4 out of mud? We did it. Keen to know how much winch you actually need? We found out… and we have the soaked carpet and sand-filled interiors to prove it!
Introducing the Load Cell
I hate the term ‘game changer’. It is lazy, sensationalised and feels like a slogan rehashed by Personal Trainers to get you to buy diabetes-inducing protein powder. But what we have here is the very definition of a game changer in our opinion. Introducing the latest addition to the Unsealed 4X4 team: Our load cell, which has earned the nickname… Load Cell. What this very specialised piece of equipment does is measure the loads placed on it in 5kg increments right up to 10 tonnes (what this unit is rated to). Essentially it is two large blocks of alloy with two huge shackles that connect to either end of it. When you pull on these shackles, the internal gadgetry of the load cell will measure and record how much force is being placed on the unit. Science! We can connect this when winching, or performing snatch recoveries, in a variety of terrains. This will highlight exactly how much force is being placed on the vehicle and recovery gear in the heat of the moment. How cool is that!
Sand Recoveries:
Snatching in Sand
For this example we bogged the 150 Series Toyota Prado belonging to Managing Editor Tim Stanners, which has a full array of barwork and touring mods to further weigh it down. We estimate his truck weighs approximately 2,840kg. The tow vehicle was a ZD30 3.0L GU Patrol, with a similar amount of aftermarket gear on it. We also bogged a new Toyota Troop Carrier and towed it out with the same GU Patrol – just to highlight any differences in weight between vehicles.
Load Recorded
1,975kg
(Troop Carrier)
Load Recorded:
1,605kg
(Prado)
