now here is where the REAL fun began. once we all got down into the creek, we immediately had to move a tree to proceed down the creek. this was NOT a small tree this was a 30" oak that had fallen across the creek. we put my new PROMARK 3500, my buddies ranger 4seaters 4500LB WARN, and another buddies 3500LBWARN to the test. we hooked our bikes winches to this tree, and hooked our bikes to other bikes and all tried to winch this tree out. we finally got it out of the way after some hard snatches.
the warn 3500 burnt up trying to pull the tree but he helped us by ramming his bike in reverse and snatching the log. the ranger with the 4500lb warn burnt up at the next hole where he got stuck, so i was the only one left with a winch the rest of the bight and BOY what a night it was. we ran up onto another tree across the creek. it was about a 20" tree. the majority of the canopy was in the creek and without a chainsaw we had no choice but to break off each limb one at a time in order to try and move the tree. i burried my bike in the sand, locked my brakes, and winched for almost a solid hour non-stop breaking off limbs one at a time untill we could then try and pull the tree out of the way.
i finally got my wife to snap a few pix at the end of the ordeal but you can see how each limb was snapped off the tree, and eventually after de-limbing the tree, i was able to move the trunk of the tree as well so we could proceed thru the creek. my bike pulled non-stop for over an hour, and NEVER burnt up. my battery survived, my winch survived, and the PROMARK saved the day. we were not done yet.... after i got that tree out of the way we ran into another one and decided to just get out of the creek so again i had to put the ole PROMARK to the test. i winched myself up out of the creek bank, and winched almost all of the other bikes up out of the creek . so for almost 2 straight hours, the winch never got a break except when free spooling out to hook to another limb/tree or bike. i know if i still had my warn on my bike, it would have burnt up just like everybody elses warn did last night. after this ride, almost everybody on the ride was talking about how awesome the winch was. it got us all out of a bind last night and it is still working today! here are the pix of the creek bank. my bike and a buddies polaris 850 made it up unassisted, my wife took pix as i was walking up the hill. once i got back up the winching resumed pulling up other folks up the hill
the aftermath, just a muddy bike.
for those of you who would like to know, my winch is a promark 3500 outback series. it has held up thru some TOUGH stuff. last night proved its durability. it pulled for almost 2 hours straight, it got a little warn but you could still touch it with no problems. the motor never bogged down, the winch never stopped pulling. it did just what it is designed to do, and when you compare it to my warn, you'd think the warn it just designed to tear up.
one heck of a night of riding pix inside, PROMARK WINCH SAVES THE DAY
May 2 2010, 12:05 PM
