Winch Ground Anchor

[4x4Brick #1561]

Anybody out there have any experience with a winch ground anchor? Maybe it's me but I find myself taking a lot of solo trips and have had some close calls getting too stuck to get out. Got stuck in some rice field silt and later, after getting free, tried to figure out a better (faster, less digging way) and came across the winch ground anchor. Pull Pal and ARB versions look bulky and expensive. Bushwinch's ($250 usd less costly) version looks interesting but I'm a little nervous about 'screwing' augers into Texas and Louisiana mud and sand. As a person who has too often experienced breaking the tops off of bolts or bending the screw, I'm nervous that I wouldn't be able to screw down the augers and in trying to get down the auger anchor breaks. Murphy's Law loves when you get stuck and breaking the top of an auger so I couldn't get the anchor out and the winch rope wouldn't hold would be classic irony on a bad day of 'stuck'. Anyone use Bushwich's anchor successfully with or without their Grenny?

 

[Dokatd]

Anybody out there have any experience with a winch ground anchor? Maybe it's me but I find myself taking a lot of solo trips and have had some close calls getting too stuck to get out. Got stuck in some rice field silt and later, after getting free, tried to figure out a better (faster, less digging way) and came across the winch ground anchor. Pull Pal and ARB versions look bulky and expensive. Bushwinch's ($250 usd less costly) version looks interesting but I'm a little nervous about 'screwing' augers into Texas and Louisiana mud and sand. As a person who has too often experienced breaking the tops off of bolts or bending the screw, I'm nervous that I wouldn't be able to screw down the augers and in trying to get down the auger anchor breaks. Murphy's Law loves when you get stuck and breaking the top of an auger so I couldn't get the anchor out and the winch rope wouldn't hold would be classic irony on a bad day of 'stuck'. Anyone use Bushwich's anchor successfully with or without their Grenny?

Being in the US it's not often you don't have a tree or some other stationary object to anchor to. Maybe beaches or I guess in the plains. But why muck around in the muddy plains. The beach I can see.

A good selection of straps and maybe some winch extension cable/rope is probably more useful than an anchor. But I do understand an anchor can be handy in just the right situation.

I'm not sure there is a perfect solution, but again, lots of straps and extensions can go a very long way. Pun intended.

 

[4x4Brick #1561]

I've got some forest land that I can't drive through (too dense) but there is a gas line easement I do drive through. So I'm driving east / west in a forever strip of 'no tree land' with trees to my right and left and never in front. So when I get stuck I'm parallel with the trees. Like an American Tantalus - I can never reach the trees that are juuuusssst out of reach. If I'm not on the edge of the easement I can't even do a side pull. And I'd like to do some solo beach runs (solo as in me and whomever I can talk into getting up pre-dawn to go crabbing) but it's still just a single vehicle on the beach. And Texas sand is a lot less fluffy than sand most other places but I've still managed to get stuck. Not in the Grenny (yet) but plenty in my past trucks.

 

[Tom D]

I have heard ground anchors aren’t great. But I have never used one. They are heavy and bulky.

In the desert or on the beach you can bury your spare wheel, I’d invest in some maxtrax instead..