Last year I attended an event that gathered together a group of folks who frequent the back country, driving their vehicles extensively off road. I don’t usually go for these types of events. I haunt the back country to avoid people, not to commune with them. This event did offer me the opportunity to learn techniques that I might never consider.
The major topic of conversation was self-recovery. The sponsor of the event had lost his jeep to fire only a few weeks previously. So, fire safety was foremost in people’s mind. But other types of dangers present themselves on a daily basis—everything from flat tires and broken axles to blown engines. How would I respond to such an event?
The area where we were camped in had no cell phone coverage, so calling someone was not an option. It was there that I decided I needed to up my self-recovery game. I first evaluated my current situation. What are the most likely disasters I would encounter?
Based on past experience, flat tires, dead battery, and getting bogged came out on top. I carry a spare tire, and a little jack. I also have a battery backup to restart from a drained battery. Getting stuck is another thing entirely.
My truck has only a single recovery point mounted to the front passenger side frame rail. And while I carry a hand winch the line is only 15 feet long. Paired to my tow strap, that is only 35 feet. An anchor point would have to be close by to be of any value.
As 2020 dawned, I made a plan to improve my self-recovery abilities. I decided to deal with communications right away. Then I would work on recovery points, and perhaps a winch over the year.
Early on I decided to rely on a ham radio for communications. This meant acquiring an amateur radio license, which I did in November of 2019. I purchased a Kenwood TM-D710GA radio for the truck. This radio is setup for APRS communications with integrated GPS. APRS allows me to send and receive emails both to and from home. It also provides near real time, tracking information. If she is interested, my wife can watch me drive about in the woods and deserts from her computer.
Once communications were taken care of, I purchased a high-lift jack. While these are not the most stable tools in the truck, they offer some advantages over bottle jacks on uneven terrain. The primary purpose of the jack is to lift the truck out of holes and ditches.
When I need a tow, I have to have some place to connect the tow rope–recovery points. The stock Tacoma has no recovery points at the rear. This is usually accomplished with a receiver hitch. However most receiver hitches reduce the departure angle of the truck requiring a higher lift. So I opted for a rear bumper with an integrated receiver. I chose one from Trail Gear that is class 4 tow rated. I found a local welder that attached two shackle points to the bumper providing additional points for connecting a recovery rope.
To make my recoveries softer, I acquired a dynamic recovery rope from Yankum Ropes. These ropes are amazing. You can see them in action at Matt’s Off Road Recovery.
This left adding recovery points to the front of the truck as the last recovery modification. I debated adding a winch not wanting to give up cargo weight for vehicle weight, but to facilitate recovery I decided to do so. This decision limited the bumper designs I would be able to support as the winch weighs 60# with a synthetic rope. Every pound of vehicle weight would shave a pound off load capacity. I’m not known for packing a lot of gear, but having the option to do so is important.
I eventually selected a hybrid design from C4 Fabrication. The hybrid design saves 50 to 80# from a plate bumper depending on design and manufacturer. Adding the bumper/winch combination I selected is equivalent to carrying one wife, all her gear, our two dogs, with enough left over for 10# dog food 😲. In the end, I decided to mount a winch; she isn’t interested in coming along anyway 😘.
The bumper arrived via FedEx on a nice pallet all wrapped in shrink wrap. There was no damage to the bumper at all, not even a scuff. Good job, FedEx!
You can barely see that it is not painted. So off to the powder coater where it will be painted to match the rear bumper.
C4 provides a wonderful installation video. I particularly like the part at 16:34, the bumper jumps on to the truck no muss, no fuss—real life is not that way.
Two weeks later I picked up a freshly painted bumper and brought it home. Alone, the bumper is heavy but I can manage it by myself as long as I don’t mind a few dings and scuffs. However, once I mounted the lights and the winch, I could barely slide it around in the truck bed. So out came the recovery gear.
I threw my tree protector over a stout branch in the handy cherry tree that shades and shelters the truck in summer. I fastened a soft shackle around the center bar. Then hoisted the assembled bumper out of the truck bed.
Using the hand winch, I can adjust the height of the bumper to the height of the truck frame rails and assemble everything—or that was the plan. First uninstall the factory front bumper. In case you have never seen a factory front bumper they aren’t much, a rectangular aluminum tube weighing in at about 10 #.
Once the stock bumper is removed there is a nice gap in the front of the truck.
Since a pendulum is lowest at the rest point of the arc, a bit of fiddling was necessary to get the bolts to line up. After we had finished the dear bride suggested that it would be easier to measure the height of the mounting bolts then lift the bumper to the same height. Pull it away from the truck, move the truck into place and then let the bumper swing onto the bolts 🤔. Well yes dear, but what’s the challenge in that 🤦♂️. Learn from my mistake.
Anyway, just as I was wondering if I had bitten off too much, I got the height correct and it easily slipped into place. You will notice that there are no pictures of the process. Just like C4, I was too busy getting it into place to film the action. Had we thought of the above process I would have had time for photos—maybe.
Now all that’s left is to spool and tension the rope onto the drum. In the above photo I’m off to find a clearing to do the tensioning–that was another adventure. If you want a preview here is this wonderful video from Warn Industries—guess which part I had trouble with. Clues can be found in the comments.