Learning to winch (I'm the student)

[socal.dave]

If it's a wire winch line do yourself a favor and buy some thick leather gloves to use when spooling. A single broken wire strand will rip the snot out of your hand.
Most everything has been covered in this thread. Be kind and use a tree saver. Use winch points over areas that have only one or two bolts on the other vehicle. Rocks aren't the best winch points. Consider using synthetic cable over steel. And stay the hell away from a tensioned line. Think of it as a bull whip with about 20,000 lbs of potential energy just waiting to take your torso apart. Ive seen one snap and hit the side of a rig. You would of though it hit a street light pole at 20mph. I treat a winch the same way I treat a hi-lift. With fear and respect. I HATE hi lifts.. Dont get me started on those....

I specifically got synthetic line because I didn't want to deal with the dangers of steel. I feel like it's easily worth the extra cost.

Funny, I also have fear and respect for hi-lifts, I carry a bottle jack with me so I only have to use the hi-lift when I absolutely need to. I was letting my first jeep down off a hi-lift (79 golden eagle cherokee chief) when the handle got away from me, it fell, released and shot back up, it just caught the tips of my fingers which probably did more good than bad, it my face on left side so hard, the RIGHT side swelled up. My teeth wouldn't meet in the back for a couple of days. Lotta respect for them

[daniel_buck]

yea, I've heard alot of bad stories about high lifts, so I just never got one.