Jeep Talk Show Flagship Episode – What, When, and Why Winches!

Jeep Talk Show Flagship Episode – What, When, and Why Winches! Hey Idaho Jeepers and off-road enthusiasts! 🚙💨 It’s time for another action-packed Jeep Talk Show Flagship Episode! Join host Tony and the crew as we dive into the essentials of winches—what to get, when to use them, and why they’re a must-have for every off-roader, newbie or pro. From steel vs. synthetic ropes to recovery tips, we’ve got you covered with expert advice to point you in the right direction. 🛠️🌲 Plus, meet Anastasia, our new Chick Chat co-host! Driving a luxury off-road vehicle (not a Jeep, but her husband’s got one!), she’s bringing fresh vibes and perspectives to the show. Catch her debut on this week’s Chick Chat episode, out every Monday! 💪✨ In this episode: Winch 101: Why every off-road vehicle needs one (yes, even if you don’t hit the trails often!). Steel vs. Synthetic: Pros, cons, and geographic considerations for winch lines. Recovery Tips: Snatch blocks, tree savers, and how to avoid common mistakes. Newbie-Friendly Advice: Perfect for those just dipping their toes into the off-road lifestyle. Chick Chat Update: Get to know Anastasia and why she’s a perfect fit for our Jeep community. 🔧 Pro Tip: Don’t miss our discussion on Matt’s innovative winch line from BleepinJeep.com—game-changing gear for your rig! 👉 Join the Jeep Talk Show Crew: Become a Patreon subscriber at JeepTalkShow.com/contact for exclusive perks. Like, subscribe, and comment on YouTube to keep the adventure rolling. Leave a 5-star review on your favorite podcast platform to grow our Jeep community. Follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter for the latest Jeep news and must-attend events. 💬 Got a question or topic idea? Drop us a line at JeepTalkShow.com/contact. Tell us what you think—did we get it right, or is there something we missed? Keywords: Jeep Talk Show, off-roading, winch guide, Jeep winches, steel vs synthetic winch, off-road recovery, Chick Chat, Jeep community, newbie off-roading, Anastasia Jeep Talk, BleepinJeep winch line, Jeep lifestyle, off-road tips. #JeepTalkShow #OffRoading #JeepLife #WinchTips #ChickChat Thanks for riding along—let’s hit the trail! 🌄🚗 Welcome to Jeep Talk Show, the ultimate podcast for Jeep enthusiasts! Join Tony, and, the crew as we dive into off-road adventures, Jeep Wrangler 392 updates, Jeep Gladiator camping, and the Jeep Cherokee relaunch. From $130K Jeep resale trends to Gladiator tent reviews, we cover Jeep modifications, off-road gear, and events like Easter Jeep Safari and Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion. Get expert Jeep 4xe towing tips, lightweight truck camper insights, and off-road trail guides for Jeeps. Subscribe for weekly Jeep news, join our community at jeeptalkshow.com/discord, and hit the trail with us! Head to https://jeeptalkshow.com to explore our world of Jeep madness, subscribe, and let us make your day a little more rugged and a lot more fun. Ready to roll with us? Let’s hit the trails together! #Jeep Talk Show, #Jeep podcast, #off-road podcast, #Jeep community, #Jeep off-roading, #Jeep Wrangler, #Jeep Gladiator, #Jeep news, #Jeep modifications, #Jeep accessories, #off-road adventures, #Jeep events, #Jeep 4xe, #Wrangler 392, #Jeep camping, #Jeep trails, #Jeep Wrangler 392, #$130K Jeep resale, #Jeep infotainment bricking, #TuneOutdoor Gladiator tent, #RealTruck trail access 2025, #Jeep Gladiator camping, #lightweight truck camper, #$13K Jeep camper, #Jeep Cherokee relaunch 2025, #Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion, #Easter Jeep Safari 2025, #Jeep Badge of Honor app, #women off-road Jeep podcast, #Chic Chat Jeep podcast, #Jeep off-road gear reviews, #best Jeep accessories 2025, #Jeep 4xe towing tips, #off-road trail guides for Jeeps

Idaho boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep Talk Show flagship episode. This is our primary flagship episode. I don’t know if you heard it or not, or watched that episode where it was a flagship two episode last week and April said, yeah, I see how it is. (Laughs) Number two,(…) number two.

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It’s not, you’re not number two.

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You are on the second flagship episode. The important thing to understand is you’re on a flagship episode.(…) There you go, that’s the key.(…) All right, hello, I’m Tony and welcome to the Jeep Talk Show. On tonight’s episode, what, when, and why. Some of you may be thinking this has been beat to death and for some of you, it probably has been beat to death. You know the answer, but we have newbies on the listing and watching the show all the time and this is a great opportunity to answer a question for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re right because all this is opinion, but if you trust us and we have both been doing Jeep and off-road stuff for a while, we may be able to point you in the right direction. Yeah, we may be able to point you in the right direction. We are here to help, we are here to help. Dude, before we get started, I gotta ask, tell me more about the new co-host for Chick Chat. I saw the thumbnail, I saw the preview and I was like, who’s this? We have a new face. So Anastasia, she ran across her. I don’t know exactly how she ran across the Jeep Talk Show, but she started following the Jeep Talk Show on Instagram(…) and by her own admission, she watches the show and enjoys the show and I think that, and Anastasia, if I’m saying this out, not correctly, I apologize,(…) you know, I’m a guy, it won’t be the last time I say something wrong(…) in the woman’s point of view, but I believe that she had indicated that it would be fun for her to be interviewed on the show and she has a griddle,(…) I wanna call it a griddle, I can’t remember what it’s called, but basically it is a Land Rover, but it’s not made by Land Rover(…) and because of her following the Jeep Talk Show and I’m thinking to myself, why are you interested in Jeeps? You know, if you’re driving this thing that’s based off of a Land Rover and so, but it’s still off road. You don’t have to have a Jeep though to watch or listen to this show. We talk about a lot of off road concepts and certainly this vehicle that she has is a off road vehicle.

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It’s the other side of the pond, that’s all. Yeah, but come to find out, her husband has a Jeep and he’s big into the Jeep stuff and so is she. This just, the one she drives is kind of like a luxury off road vehicle. So it’s not a Jeep wagon, but something along those lines.(…) So,(…) just got to know her chatting and stuff and posting back and forth and stuff. So, yeah, one day I was thinking to myself, we have, it’s always been the plan to have more Chick Chat hosts because not everybody’s always available. You know how your life goes. Oh yeah, everybody’s got schedules. And if you’re not here to record, I can dip into a few people that I can get on here and still record the show. I can always record by myself. That’s not the case with Chick Chat.

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I think we’ve joked around, but like I have to put on a wig and use a high voice. (Laughing) I can always fill as a backup to record an episode, but not with Chick Chat. That needs a woman host. So I’ve been needing to get some alternates set up and I thought to myself, “Well, let me see if Anastasia might be interested.” And I remember the first time we were gonna get on the phone and talk about this, I didn’t know what her name was. It’s like Grindel Girl, you know? Because I just don’t worry about, yeah, by the Instagram thing. I won’t lie, I’ve got customers like that that I cannot for the life of me remember their name, but I know their Jeep and a heartbeat. Yeah, the old name. And it’s like, it’s kind of, you know, I know that Jeep name, I know that, you know. It’s like, “Hey, sport friend, fella, guy.” Yeah, you.

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“Oh, if you say the Jeep name.” It’s like, “Oh yeah, I know that dude.” Moldova, yeah. So anyway, I got on the phone, had a conversation with her. She was really excited about the idea of being an alternate host for Chick Chat and a fill-in type person in case somebody wasn’t available.(…) And Wendy and Amanda did a, recorded the Chick Chat on Sunday and invited Anastasia in. Kind of an introductory episode. And so if you don’t watch the Chick Chat episodes, you should, they come out on Mondays.(…) And this week’s Chick Chat episode has three people. It has Wendy, Amanda, and Anastasia on it. So, and I thought that Anastasia did a really, really good job.

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I mean, some people get a little nervous about talking out here. I’ve interviewed a few people. And actually when I do the interview process, I purposely talk to them about five or 10 minutes, just to kind of, you know, calm them down. It’s not- Let them ease into it. Yeah, it’s not a big deal to me.

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Yeah, I can be interviewed. So a lot of people don’t like public speaking. I don’t get up in front of the public, but it doesn’t bother me. I can say stuff.

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Look forward to a heckler or two. Come out there and beat somebody’s ass. And it’s for those of you that don’t remember, I got my foot in the door as a, you know, that was my first appearance on any of it was, I was getting interviewed on Chick Chat. And then it developed into more. So I was like, you know, it’s a great way to get in. It’s a great spot for the female woman driver that doesn’t want to deal with, you know, I don’t need you guys to a mansplain it to me if you can talk to somebody of the same caliber and, you know, that helps immensely because there’s a lot of women that own Jeeps out there. Women’s explaining. I mean, that’s kind of the whole point is that the women are explaining it to you. And just like the men, we have a tendency to listen to some people and not others. I think women have a tendency to listen to women. And when a man says exactly the same thing, I don’t think it has anything to do with, naturally the mansplaining, it has to do with, they’re going to give me a hard time. They’re going to think I’m dumb. They’re going to judge me. And women, I think are less likely to do all that. I may be wrong. It’s a comfort level saying, yeah. Exactly. I get it. And I think it’s great. And if we can do anything here to help women

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take that dip their toe in the off-road pond, I say do it.

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All right, Greg, we’re talking about a series of things that like the newbies may be curious about. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a newbie. Being a newbie is fun. I like watching a tic-tac. We all are somewhere. Yeah, I like the tic-tac and the Instagram photos where our videos where they show kids doing things for the first time. And I think it’s the most wonderful thing about having children is you get to remember back whenever you didn’t know. And you get to relive that experience with the children. I’ll often comment when the kids are doing things that are funny or just, you don’t understand why they’re doing it the way they are, but you understand that they’re little, they don’t know. I say, I love newbies. Newbies are great.

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They’re toddlers just yearning for experience and expertise.

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And we all, and we’re new about something all the time. Really, no matter how old we are, there are things in our lives that we have not experienced. And I think one of the reasons why people get into off-road is it is a new experience for many of us whose parents didn’t do that, whose friends growing up weren’t into off-road. So it is a very new experience. It can be very technical and very challenging. And if you’re interested in it, it can be a lot of fun learning along the way. And that’s– Yeah, and if you take a life you’re doing, it quickly becomes an obsession. Yes, yes it can. That’s the trade-off is it gets expensive and it becomes an obsession really fast. They transition from hobby to lifestyle. Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. You get more for your return on the, and then you would with any kind of drugs, but it does for some guys like playing golf or shooting guns or whatever, it’s a hobby thing. When you get into off-roading, and it doesn’t matter if like you said a minute ago, if it’s Jeeps or whatever platform you start with, it quickly turns into, it’s like, I love this. I want more of this. I need to know more. You’re a sponge. You’re just wanting to soak it all up. And so you’re looking everywhere you can for more information, more,(…) what, how to’s and all that stuff. And it does, it turns into a lifestyle. It transcends a simple hobby experience. Once it gets a hold of your soul. Be me Seymour, absolutely. So I thought I would mention real quick here. And I can’t remember if we talked about this before we started recording.

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The newbies thing side of it, a lot of you guys out there already know what Warren, or I’m sorry, I just jumped ahead there. You don’t have to get a Warren winch. A lot of you out there know which winch, what brand, what model and everything you want or what you have. And, but the, there’s a much wider range of winches available today than just a few years ago. So Greg and I are going to go into, Greg and I are going to go into what winch and why. And Greg, let’s start with, should you even get a winch? Is that just something that you, an accessory that you put on the front so it’ll look cool?

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Well, let me rephrase that. If you are going off road at all, ever, yes, you need a winch. And the whole point is self recovery. Because there is going to come a time and we’ve all been there at some point. And if you haven’t got there yet, it’s not a matter of if it is a matter of when, you are going to find yourself in a position where you need a helping hand and there’s no one else around.(…) So a winch is absolutely a godsend life-saving device to have strapped to your vehicle, properly installed, properly maintained.(…) And if you know how to use it correctly, if you don’t, it can absolutely be a nightmare.

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Let me ask you this. You’re familiar with Gilligan’s Island, right?(…) Yeah.

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I know it’ll look it, but I’m old enough to remember. Do you think that they had a hammer on the SSBino?

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I’m pretty sure they didn’t. That would be a very handy tool. Yeah, there’s probably 15 episodes all about them building hammers out of coconuts or something.(…) Yeah. But it’s a tool that you don’t know that you need until you get into a situation where you need it. And I can well imagine that there on the island, a hammer, even without nails, would be a very useful tool to have. And you wouldn’t need it for a three hour cruise. I wonder how many people are going, what is this Gilligan thing? What is this three hour cruise? So that’s the way I look at it, a winch. A winch is like having that tool that you may not need. Excuse me. And then once you have it, it’s like, wow, this is wonderful.

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Game changer. Because it’s not just for self recovery in and of like an emergency situation. You could just get a little off kilter in a given trail or find yourself hung up like turtles on something. And if you don’t have somebody around to push or pull you off of it, it’s too easy. Just pull a little bit of cable and get after it, save yourself and keep on trucking without doing any damage. But we always go off road with a friend. And I don’t mean the passenger seat, a friend with a capable rig.

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Recommended highly. It’s, I mean, I’ve been guilty myself of having gone off and done things without another rig for miles around, but that’s no excuse. The smart move is to make sure that you’re, you know, wheeling with a buddy, wheeling with a group, something. But in the off chance you do find yourself in one of those situations where you don’t have that help. A winch can absolutely save your ass. So well worth the investment.

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Let’s talk about details. What kind of winch should I buy? Well, real quick, before you go to the direction, I want to correct you on something where you may not need a winch. I think that if you have a off road capable rig(…) that you should have a tool, not initially for off road, because you can be in situations, especially here on the Gulf Coast of Texas, where we have tropical weather. Because when tropical weather happens, especially hurricanes, trees fall down, there’s gonna be debris. Now, of course you could just keep your ass at home, but you may be in a situation where you can’t, and you need to be able to go from point A to point B. Maybe it’s a family thing. Maybe you’re trying to get to your mom’s house or something, and to check on her, to help her, whatever. That winch is going to really help you

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get yourself into trouble, but if you think it through and use it right, it’ll actually get you to where you need to go. So I think that if you’re gonna have an off road vehicle, you should have a winch, and the more the better. I agree.(…) I don’t want to mess you up on what you’re gonna talk about here, but I’ll throw a curve ball out there. Front and rear winches, or maybe a front winch and a portable one, where you could plug it in to the rear two inch receiver, because winching forward isn’t always the best way to go.

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Not necessarily, and there are ways around that, which I have used on multiple occasions. If you’re properly equipped to do so.

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Yeah, I mean, if you have a, I’ll just use the Overlanders as a decent example. If you have a decent receiver, and you have one of those winch cradles that ties into a receiver hitch, yeah, that could be a game changer, because you don’t even have to leave it hooked up on either end. They’ve got bumpers with receivers built into them that you can put on the front of your rig. So if you have one of those cradle style ones, you just undo it, put it in the back of the rig, and it’s just whenever you need it. And they’ve got quick connect plugs that you can use that borrow from the welding trucks. It’s a, they’re a male-female socket that you can tie your winch leads into, so you can permanently run your hot and ground to both ends with that plug, and then just have the opposite side of the plug on the winch instead of the traditional bolt to the battery style.(…) And just, I mean, that thing’s modular. Use it on both ends all you want. So definitely, definitely improves things. If you can’t go forward, you have to go backwards. That’s huge. The trick I’ve always used is just to double back the winch line to something behind me. It helps if it’s another rig, or like you said, if there’s an actual tree or something that I can tie it to, if I, and this has happened to me in the past, if I’m somewhere where there’s nothing close by to tie off to, bury something, bury your spare. Bury, bury a big, you know, there’s things you can do, especially on the beach. This is why you take your ex with you. This is why you take your ex with you. (Both Laughing) Yeah, take all your emotional luggage and put that in the dirt. So yeah, no, there’s lots of little tricks and things that you can do and get creative with it.(…) Accessories for the winch when it comes to, like a wireless, one that’s wireless enabled where the remote doesn’t have to physically plug into the winch. Snatch blocks. I go, what’s a snatch block? That sounds dirty. It’s a pulley.(…) And what it does is it allows you to– You break out your lounging, folding lounging chair with a remote on the winch. And you just sit there and sip a little tea or a little beer and work the winch, yeah.

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So snatch blocks, it’s just a pulley, like you would see in any kind of a crane or overhead hoist setup that allows you to double back or however many you’ve got. And using a snatch block in that scenario where you tie the line back to your vehicle will effectively double the pulling power of the winch, which is, that’s huge if you need it. Like if you’re really mired up, really, really stuck or really, really broke, and you need that extra oomph, a snatch block can save your butt there. Tree savers. It’s basically a really short toe strap. It looks like a toe strap, but they’re usually only about four to six feet long. You wrap that around a tree so you’re not cutting into the tree with your cable. Tread lightly, folks. We’re not trying to take down the very thing that we need to extract ourselves. Somebody else is gonna need that tree.(…) Right. So use a tree saver, don’t be an asshole.(…) Things like that.

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When it really, it comes down to, for a lot of people, it is a budget constraint because in their minds, they’re like, “I’m not gonna use this all the time. It’s not like my tires, it’s not like my locker, it’s not like my suspension.” It’s something I’m only gonna use once in a while. And if you go into it, that mindset, there are plenty of people out there that have spent as little money as possible and put the winch on the front of the rig and then never used it. Oh, yeah. They just don’t find a reason to, and so yeah, it’s just sitting there. It’s an ornament. But for those of us that know we’re gonna use it on a regular basis,(…) then you wanna get a decent quality. I’m gonna argue that point with you. I don’t care if you think you’re gonna use it or not.(…) A tool that you don’t have is a tool that you need.

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It’s true, it’s true. But if you’re gonna lay down the money or you go into Harbor Freight for your 3H Drive ratchet set or you’re gonna get a little bit higher quality brand. How often are you gonna use it?

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Yeah, so I like to recommend to people that get the best one you can afford. And if you can’t afford that one, save up for the one that you really should have.

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The entry level rule that most of us in the industry like to go buy is you buy a winch that has a pulling rating, your capacity, of at least one and a half times the curb weight of your vehicle.

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So for your average– I don’t lie about your curb weight. Yeah,(…) yeah, you gotta be honest about it. And it’s important to remember that that max line pull for any given winch, I don’t care if it’s a steel cable, synthetic line, whatever brand it is, the max pull that is listed, it’s kinda like your tire sidewall dimensions, that is for the last layer of cable on the winch drum, not the first layer. And it works the exact same way that gear reduction does, tire size does. The winch drum may only be two or three inches in diameter, but by the time you put 50, 60, or 100 foot of line on there, the diameter grows. So when you pull out 10 or 15 feet of it, you’ve got all that cable still on the drum.

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It’s a two-fold thing. You’re not getting maximum pull, what the winch is rated to do, and you’re smooshing.(…) Again, doesn’t matter if it’s steel or synthetic, everything else that’s still wrapped around the drum is getting crushed by the pull that you’re putting on that top layer.(…) So always recommend that even if it’s a short pull, use your snatch block, run that cable out and run it back, because that way we’re getting the maximum effective pull power on the winch, and we’re not damaging the existing, whatever cable you have. Yes, the debate is big about steel versus synthetic. I used to be just like you where I was like, steel or nothing. I want that ultimate, and fuck you strength. I don’t want to have to worry about it. And when you take into consideration that the modern synthetic winch ropes,(…) as far as tension strength and pulling ability,(…) they’re stronger than steel in that capacity. I never argue that synthetic is not as strong as steel or more so. What I argue is that steel is not affected by UV radiation, the sun,(…) pointing sticks and rocks. I was just fixing to say that.(…) And rocks, so the steel cable will not worry about how much sun it gets exposed to, and it’s not going to care how many rocks or trees you scrape it up against during your extractions. Synthetic rope, you’ve got to keep those things in mind. And there are aftermarket ropes that you can replace.(…) If you get a Smittybilt synthetic line winch, and you notice after the first six months of having it on the front of your Jeep that that rope has started to really fade and change color, that’s your big red flag that the UV’s gotten to it. You need to upgrade or use a cover, one of the two. But there are aftermarket ones that are made out of better synthetic materials that do not succumb to the UV effect as harshly. And they are actually rated for a higher pull strength than what the winch is. It’s what I did to mine. I wore out the original one and then put a Bubba rope brand one on it that’s a little bit larger diameter. And the actual line is rated for more than double what my winch is capable of doing. Well, there you go. So provided I don’t cut it or abrade it or something, I don’t have to worry about it as much. But the other thing is just weight. Your average 9,500 pound capacity or 10,000 pound capacity winch with a steel cable on it, that cable alone is significantly heavier than a synthetic rope, which to most people it’s not that big a deal. But when we think about the potential of breakage, the kinetic energy that can be stored in a steel braided cable versus a synthetic rope, which is why if you watch “Top Truck Challenge” or any of the other well-known experiences where they’re having to use the winch, we put that weight. It’s either a bag with sand in it or you throw a jacket or something over the steel cable. They go, “Why do they do that?” You see them doing it and you go, “Why?” Well, if for some reason the cable breaks or a recovery point breaks or a hook breaks, the kinetic energy that is stored in that stretched steel cable has got to go somewhere.

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And by putting the weight over the cable, it helps drag the cable to the ground if for some reason it should come undone on either end. With a synthetic rope, it’ll do the same thing but because the synthetic rope does not have the same mass(…) as a steel cable, it’s not nearly as dangerous.

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So it’s more likely just– I could see like if you’re in a competition or something, that synthetic would be a lot handier and who cares how long it lasts, you’re in competition. You just want it to last for that race or whatever it is you’re doing because now you don’t have to take the time to hang something over the line in case it breaks.

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And it’s easier to manipulate if you are not trying to run the cable back in. You just rope it up on your arm, throw it on the hood, go. Steel cable, you gotta have gloves. You gotta watch out for pokies if you do have a fray. If you do have to maintain steel cable, that’s the other trade off. While it’s not susceptible to UV, it is susceptible to moisture.(…) So you have to keep that in mind.(…) Both styles require pre-tensioning before you use them the first time. You can’t just take it out of the box and throw it on the Jeep and go.(…) That tells you in all the instructions, you have to run that cable all the way out and then pull it back in under some semblance of tension to preload the cable. The neighbor always gets pissed off when I hook up to three houses down that I hook up to their vehicle and start dragging it out of their driveway.

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I’ve used telephone poles, I’ve used dumpsters, I’ve used another rig. I mean with a hundred foot line, you need a wide open space to do this. Yep. And what I’ll do is I’ll run it out, hook it up, single line, and then I just barely hold the brake while I let the thing idle and for a load and pull itself back in with the remote. On the XJ, I was out in a park area, in an off-road park, and I think I had it in park and I literally drug the XJ with the winch.

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That’s me, I mean, you can do it that way. Yeah, yeah. I was just going by what they were telling me to do and that was so much fun. This thing, it’s on your vehicle that this literally drags the vehicle. They can do that, yep. Like it’s nothing, yeah.

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So weight rating is important. Average, cheaper, two door, four door, whatever. Let’s say 37s and down, a 9,500 pound capacity that’s of decent quality would normally fit the bill. Again, with a snatch block, you can effectively double that.(…) For a heavier vehicle, like a setup like mine where I’m pushing 7,000 pounds curb weight with nobody in it, I’m currently running a 12,000 pound capacity winch.

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But you also have to bear in mind that if you’re gonna be one of these folks that wheels in a large group on a regular basis, you might end up using your winch to rescue your friends or strangers more often than you use it on yourself. So your fairlead is an important thing to remember. If you’re running steel cable, you probably should have a roller style fairlead. That way when the line pull is off at an angle or up or down, the roller fairlead, it looks like rolling pins. There’s two long ones top and bottom and then two shorter ones on the side. Whereas with the synthetic line,(…) they just have the aluminum like what’s known as a Haas fairlead, HAWSE. And it’s just a radius smooth opening that the cable can go through and slide and do the same thing. And it won’t hurt it if it’s in good shape because it’s just a smooth aluminum or stainless surface or something like that. So those are all little things that you have to remember when you’re shopping for one. Again,(…) I’m not gonna pick on any particular brand because I’ve heard it all different ways. You hear people talk about Badlands at Harbor Freight. The Badlands winch, and they’re cheap, they’re affordable and they work good. Well, I mean, okay, I’ve never personally owned one. I’ve never seen one in the wild. So I can’t tell you how true that is.

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I can speak on worn, I can speak on Smittybilt, I can speak on, you know, mile marker. And they also have, in case some of y’all didn’t know, hydraulic actuated winches that aren’t electric. And you’ve also got PTO winches. Greg, what’s PTO stand for? So that’s when you were supposed to ask. Personal time off.(…) It’s power takeoff. There are power takeoff winches that run off of either your manual transmission or your transfer case in certain applications, and they are gear driven. There’s no, but the trick is you have to have the vehicle running to use it. Same thing with the full hydraulic winch like mile marker used to offer. If the vehicle’s not running, it’s no good. It’s a paper weight. Whereas with an electric winch, it’ll work until the battery’s dead, even if the vehicle’s not running. So, and that, given that scenario for most of what we do off-road, I prefer the electric style over the other ones, but you know. Electric’s nice. I’d like to have gas, you know, natural gas, I think would be great for an option.

(…)

I mean, or like a two-stroke? Like you just have a little two-stroke, like one of them really bad-ass RC cars, and you just have a little. No, it’s like a dryer. It’s like the dryer in your house. You can have electric, or you can have natural gas. Or yeah, natural gas. Well, if they came out with it, the guys that are running propane for their rigs, that would be a godsend, if you think about it. That would be really funny. So, but yeah.

(…)

Yeah, I like electric. You got lots of options there. The only thing that bothered me about the electrical was, is you got these huge, huge cables that are connected directly to the battery, and potentially go by sharp things, especially like if you were in an accident or something, or maybe you rolled your rig, you don’t know what’s gonna happen to those cables, you could develop a short very quickly. And once that short happens– Very quickly, it’s a high-amp, high-draw, yeah, those electric motors pull a decent amount of current, so routing those cables is important if you’re doing the install yourself. Make damn sure that anything abrasive, sharp, that generates heat, like your exhaust, or the side of your block, all those things. I know we talked about it once before, but I’ll mention it again. There are certain types of aftermarket batteries that are dual top-post sideposts.(…) And I had a buddy back in the day that had a red top optima that connected his winch leads to the sideposts, and then overheated everything and actually melted one of the leads in the battery. And we found out that the top posts were the standard style, but they had just cast lead lugs, basically like little lead channels under the plastic that go down to the side lugs.

(…)

So it just melted that. It acted like a big inline fuse is what it did, and it melted it on the ground side, ruined his battery.(…) So, but yeah. Well, it was an optima. It was ruined to start with. (Laughs) So connections, the cable size, as I said, if you wanna shore it up and you don’t like the leads that it comes with and you want more, go to your local welding supply and check out the electrical leads they have for that. They’ve got some really burly stuff. It’s not cheap, but if it’s a concern and you wanna hedge all your butts, it’s a great way to go.

(…)

It might be kind of a pain in the ass as far as use goes, but one of those battery disconnects, those little things that you turn where you can disconnect your battery from the vehicle, you could put that same thing on the winch line. So you could literally turn, take the power off those lines. So if there was any kind of a short or something, and if when you went to use the winch and you go to turn it on, you hear that, (Imitates Engine Revving) you go, damn, and you turn it back off. We have a problem.

(…)

So the wireless ones are always fun and cool.(…) Hell, there’s some of them where you can tie them into the vehicle connections or you’re off your phone and use it like Bluetooth, where you don’t even have to have any kind of remote. It’s all worked off your cell phone. You could do a lot of damage really quick. I mean, you’re gonna blame that on Bluetooth connectivity. I mean, you know, come on. I’m saying, but the technology’s here. So if it works for your application, you’ve got all kinds of options there. I do like the idea of like a switch like on your panel or something inside. So, because there are situations where it would be better for you to be inside. Quite often people route the winch controller into the side window because they need to be in control of the vehicle while they’re doing stuff. The neat thing there is that you’re not gonna get that winch line tied up into the cable line. It just gets all chewed up.(…) They might, again, I’m running the older style ones. So mine’s a wired remote. It goes up over the hood through the windshield wiper arm around the mirror once just in case I do drop it. It’s not gonna fall to the ground or go into the tire. And then through the window and my remote has a little magnet in it. So I could stick it to the roll bar and just,

(…)

click, click, click, click while I’m looking and watching and driving at the same time. But it is a hassle because you gotta undo all that stuff. And I’ve seen it over, I’m sure you have too, where people tuck that stuff away. You take your remote and you tuck it and the reaches, furthest reaches of your tool, cadre or whatever. And then you’re like, “Damn it, where’s my tree saver? Where’s my remote?” And then I’ve seen the wireless ones where they forget that they use the thing in two years and the batteries are dead in the remote. That’s a really good point. And they don’t have a physical way to connect it to the winch. It’s like, “Oh shit, now what do I do?”

(…)

Where’s the remote? I mean, this is the reason why people go to the range is so that they can be ready in situations where they need to use their weapon. I think you should do the same thing with your winch. Every so often you need to take it out, hook it up. Oh yeah, it needs to be run. And think about where that controller is. Where can you put it so that you can get to it? One of where it’s difficult to move around in the Jeep. It’s not flat. Think of off camber. Think of nose down, nose up. Or if you’re trying to tell somebody, if you’re on your side and you can’t get out and you’re telling your buddy, “Yeah, it’s in the whatever green tote in the very back bottom left corner.” It helps to know where it is. Try the one on the left.

(…)

Because there’s a guy, I mean, there are guys, I’m not one of them, but I used to be, I say that right,(…) where I had multiple toolboxes and cases and spare parts and stuff like back in my mud bogging days where I’m tearing stuff up all the time. I carried all kinds. I carried a spare starter. I carried a spare alternator, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it’s like, you gotta keep all this stuff put away and contained and you don’t want it all just banging around in the back of the rig. So it’s like, yeah, if I’m the only person that knows where it is, or if I forget, like one of my favorites at the shop was when somebody shows up for a gear job. And the first thing I asked was like, “Do you have your wheel lock key?” And they go, “My what?” Oh, yes.

(…)

Yeah. Oh, it’s just a spline drive. Anyone should fit. And it’s like, no, there’s a dozen different variations on that theme. (Laughs) It’s all the different manufacturers and sizes. So yeah, I keep multiples leftover spares just in case, but I can’t cover all of them. And if I don’t have one that fits, then– It ties into the labor time. Go home and get your wheel lock. Yeah, it ties into the labor time for you because you’re sitting there pulling these things out and trying it and trying it. Nope, nope, nope. Like, nope, that one doesn’t work. Nope, that one doesn’t work. And if all else fails, you can go to any discount tire and wheel store(…) and just tell them that they forgot to put your wheel lock back in your vehicle, regardless of whether or not you had your tires installed there, because I guarantee you, I’ll bet you my next paycheck, there’s not a discount tire that you can’t go to and find a box of those things behind the sales counter or out in the shop. Because they got a lot of youngsters and a lot of guys that don’t last very long and they forget to put them back in. Customers long gone, the thing’s still sitting on the tool testing hole. That’s a good point. You need to make sure that you see it.

(…)

They say, I’ll put your key back into the glove department or whatever. You better look, because I guarantee you, Then you go over there and you check and you make sure it’s the right one.

(…)

Yep, you’re gonna end up with somebody else’s. So knowing where your stuff’s at, being well prepared. It’s your responsibility, your pilot in command. It’s your responsibility to make sure there’s no brand. I have as much as I hate to be the guy to say this, I’ve had runs that I’ve been on where guys, they had a thousand, $1,200 winch set up, really nice set up a one or something. And they’d never used it. They didn’t know how it functioned. They’d never read the manual. They didn’t know how to engage it, disengage it, nothing. They literally get the remote out of the console and hand it to you and go, okay, here,

(…)

they don’t know how to do anything with it. You’re going,(…) okay, so now we’re starting over at square one here and we’re halfway through the day.

(…)

So do your homework, boys and girls, learn how to use your stuff. I’ll take it home with me, because I know how to use it.

(…)

So no, it’s, you got, again, for most people, it’s a budget constraint thing, but if you’re just not sure,(…) look at what’s around you on the trail. Look at who’s using what and which ones. Because some people focus, like you mentioned earlier, competition.(…) The old school, is it the 8624 one? That’s the double stack one. Those things have an incredibly lightning fast line speed with no load. And you’re saying, well, what’s that mean, Greg? Well, that means if I’m using the control to put cable out or bring cable back with nothing actually hooked to it, we’re just spooling the winch up or spooling it out, that style of horn is really fast, the way it is geared and set up.(…) Whereas, yeah, whereas your old school model marker, your two or three generation old,

(…)

like the one that I’ve got, it’s the Schmittie built, they’re not fast,(…) not at all. The line speed is incredibly slow. And so if you are in a hurry to do something and you don’t know how to just slap that thing into neutral and pull the cable out, or you don’t maintain your winch because you wadded it up and bird nested it the last time you used it, didn’t ever bother to go back and fix it, putting the winch motor neutral and trying to pull that cable out manually gets stuck. And then you’re like, ah, shit. And meanwhile, your buddy’s cooler’s dumped out and his wife’s screaming at him and you’re just trying to figure out how to get your winch to work so you can save his ass. I think it’s always a good idea to be prepared to do things right. But ultimately, if you’re off road and you’re doing something to recover your vehicle or somebody else’s vehicle, speed is not your friend.

(…)

Go, go, go. Even if it’s an emergency. If people are pissed off and they’re yelling at you, fuck them.(…) That’s not the point. The point is, say– And if somebody’s injured, if it’s just like the EMS will tell you, somebody in a car, you don’t move them. You don’t know if their neck’s broke, their back’s broke. You’re gonna do more damage than good potentially and it’s the same thing. How many times have you seen the videos of like a tractor truck pull where an engine blows up or a drag strip or a car goes sideways? And there’s always that one guy with a fire extinguisher that bust his ass, trying to hurry up and get to the car that’s on fire. It’s the same thing when we’re off roading. Somebody gets, they’re just, it’s too much adrenaline. They’re too excited, too much whatever.(…) And you rush, rush, rush. Well, if there’s a guy pinned and you’re trying to recover the vehicle to save that guy, the last thing you wanna do is not hook it up, right? Put the recovery point on wrong. Oh my God, can you imagine the pain that you could cause simply by not putting him on right and whatever is on him, is now on him again? All the sudden. Yeah, do it right. Take your time. So these are all important, important factors to consider. So proper education, training, and use, man. That’s recovery 101.(…) Practice. Practice, practice, practice. And I think there’s probably groups in your area where they take people off road and they teach them off road recovery. I used to do it. I used to do it. Those things are wonderful to do, to go and be a part of. And especially when it’s somebody,(…) somebody else’s rig, somebody else’s winch, or maybe they’ll make use of your rig. I think that’s wonderful whenever you can actually use your own equipment and be shown. But even if you’re just watching, you’re seeing things that you’re in a nice, controlled, calm environment. So whenever you’re in a very hectic environment, it’s not going to be, it’s not going to be like driving in a new area and you got to turn the radio down so you can see where you’re going better. So you can see better.

(…)

(Laughs) Yeah. No, when I used to do it,

(…)

I definitely would cover all those things. And it’s like, this is a good recovery point for a winch or like a chain or a strap. This is not.

(…)

Like we said earlier, how much cable should I pull out for a given thing? How do I use the snatch block? What’s the difference between this and that? So if you already know all that stuff going into it, you have the ability to, you understand it. Like again, us talking about it for a lot of people is not going to make any sense because they don’t know what these components are. Whereas if you can get into one of those courses or classes or even just watch some YouTube videos, just basic stuff, when you see it and you can experience it that way, you’re like, oh, okay. That’s the difference between a tow hook versus an actual recovery point. This is the difference between abrasion on a synthetic rope versus the strength of the steel cable, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that does help immensely if you have the opportunity to do so before you go out and find yourself in one of those situations. We’ve said it a lot.(…) Shit happens and you may not be planning for it to go south, but it’s like being armed, better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. And if you don’t know how to use it, it ain’t much good to you. Let me ask you a quick question. I know for steel cable, you definitely want a nice set of gloves, probably leather gloves, heavy duty, because you can,(…) those little steel, individual steel cables can pop and poke out and all kinds of things. And it’s just a good idea because now you’d be working with pain.(…) Would you say gloves? I think gloves are a good idea whether you’re working with synthetic or steel because synthetic is not going to poke your hands. The ones that I keep, yeah. But it can definitely give you an abrasion burn if you slip your trine. If you did something stupid and got your fingers under the winch line as it was tightening up.

(…)

I mean, a glove’s not really gonna save your finger there, but I definitely just for the sake of the comfortable manipulation. The glove may slide off when your fingers come out. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it’s definitely possible.(…) Mine are just like the off brand mechanic style gloves, that neoprene kind of, I just keep an extra set of those in the Jeep. So anytime that I’m having to do recovery work, myself or someone else. So your tree shaver, if you’re tracking through the brush or cactus or something, yeah. I mean, that’s kind of, it’s just like, you wouldn’t get under your Jeep and start grinding on it with your angle grinder and not put on safety glasses unless you just really don’t enjoy having normal vision. My dad told me to- The gloves are definitely- This is just squint when you’re doing that. And then it’s less likely to get anything in there. It’s a smaller opening.

(…)

Yeah, we’ve all been there and that small opening is all it needs. Well, I guess after about the age of 40, I started needing reading glasses. So now I have eye protection anytime. I’m working on the Jeep. They always seem to fall off though. It was so damn frustrating, but it’s sweat and stuff.

(…)

So let me ask you about this.

(…)

Is there any person that shouldn’t have a winch? Is there any person that,(…) I’m not talking about doesn’t read instructions, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is there any person that you can think of that shouldn’t have a winch on their vehicle? And that’s not necessarily, that doesn’t have to be Jeeps. It could be any vehicle. I mean, you can put a winch on anything, but can you think of anybody that wouldn’t? I mean, I guess somebody that maybe is strength challenged or height challenged, or maybe they’re handicap in some way. Maybe they’re in a wheelchair. Can you see any reason why somebody shouldn’t have a winch? I mean, as far as that stuff goes, no, I wouldn’t let any of that stuff be a method of stopping me from doing it. Because if I’ve gotten around any kind of disability or physical restriction based on size, stature, or strength to actually be out on the trail, then you’re gonna have to figure out a way because again, you’re going to. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. If you’re off-roading in any capacity, again, lightweight bunny slopes to hardcore stuff, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to eventually find yourself in a position where you need to be able to self recover. It could be mud, it can be sand, it can be snow, you could be turtled up, high centered, you could be broken. I mean, there’s, we’ve used them many times in some of the more hardcore stuff that I do with the buggy guys, well, we’ll put the snatch block way up high in the tree and run the winch line up to it and use it to pull the buggy up off the trail to change something on, you know? Because buggy guys aren’t carrying around like bottle jacks and high winds. They just really don’t carry that stuff. Way back before the internet, I remember seeing in the back of magazines where they were showing winches and other stuff, and they would literally have the whole rig hanging on the limb of the tree. Yeah, that was a great seller. Yeah, but you could literally look at this. You’re talking about a piece of equipment that is just incredible. And the way they make them these days is just incredible. Even the shit brands are– Oh yeah, yeah, again, the technology has advanced so rapidly in the last 10 plus years. I mean, and there’s like, when you just talk about worn alone, they’ve got two or three different tiers of style versus quality of features. Well, those things were hurting their sales so badly, they had to come out with multiple levels. They had to, so, you know, and this Smittybilt again, I’ve had the same 12,000 pound capacity Smittybilt on the front of my Jeep since it was live. I’m really surprised that you run a Smittybilt, because Smittybilt to me isn’t something that is like, you know, yeah, yeah, I’m saving up for a Smittybilt.

(…)

This one was one that was leftover on the shelf(…) at a shop that I used to work for many, many years ago, and he had two of them, and he barely got the first one sold. Again, a 12,000 pound capacity winch amongst Jeepers is not something that’s sought after for most of them. They’re looking at the nine and a half, maybe a 10. So that one sat and sat and sat, and it was the same year that they redesigned and came out with the H2Os or whatever it was called, where they basically redesigned the casing and modernized everything.(…) And he literally sold it to me below his cost, just to get it out of the freaking, you know, the shop, just to get it off the shelf. And I was like, why not? You know, that’s cheap, so I’ll take that one. Somebody’s better than nobody. There’s three ropes on it so far. Yeah, I’ve been through two regular bitty-bilt lines and now the bubble rope that’s on it. That’s a good point I’d like to make. According to Grock, you should change your synthetic winch line out fairly often, because it’s like two to five years, I believe, is what Grock is saying. Especially if you’re using it on a regular basis. Yes, they stretch, they wear, they fray. So synthetic line is more expensive, and you have to buy it more often. So that’s something to consider. I’m cheap, I’m cheap and I’m lazy. And as long as, and I understand, like Steve, up in Chicago with all the ice and snow and stuff and salt that they have, steel could be, steel cable could be problematic. But down here on the graph,

(…)

Geographic definitely plays a huge, huge, I mean, if you’re wheeling out and, you know,(…) let’s say you spend a lot of time in Farmington, New Mexico, or out West where they’ve got the slate, sharp, you know, rocks and stuff,

(…)

the steel cable’s your friend. If you’re wheeling back East in the mud and the smooth sandstone and the old trees and all that kind of stuff, the synthetic line is gonna be more of your friend.(…) It’s, I mean, it really does come down to that. And then personal preference, some people just don’t like the idea of having a plastic rope attached to their winch. It just sounds wrong. You know, same guys that don’t like all of my framed handguns. So yeah, science is great. And I have no doubt that the synthetic line is very strong or even stronger than steel. It has a lot of advantages to it. They just need to fix these other things, like pointy rocks, sticks.(…) Yeah, well, again, in the straight, it’s, you know, linear tension versus anything else. I mean, the synthetic lines do have their limits. They do have their weaknesses. I’m not saying, you know, like that one’s better than the other.

(…)

I just ended up with one and I’ve enjoyed how it’s performed. Again, my first cable, my first synthetic rope that was on that winch, I ruined it just by misusing it because I was, it was every time I needed it. I think what you said about geographical differences, that’s one of the things that you need to keep in mind. Don’t just, you know, like hand grenade it, say, well, this is this thing I need to do. Check out your area, check out where you’re gonna be wheeling. And then ask your buddies. And if they, before you finish your sentence, they say synthetic, ask somebody else, somebody that will consider that, because there’s positives and negatives about either. And also too, other than the fairlead, whether it be a fairlead or a roller or a Haas,(…) you can put cable on that winch. I think this is true. You can put cable or synthetic. So you could literally change what you needed to do depending on what area you wanted to. You can absolutely, yeah. And you can shorten them. You don’t have to, if you don’t need a hundred or 120 foot of cable, regardless of which style, if you only run 50 foot, like if you’re somewhere where you’re in the woods, like in the trees all the time. If the tree is 20 feet of water, why do you need 50 foot? 150 foot lines, yeah. You don’t need 150 foot of cable on the front of your rig. Whereas if you’re out in the desert all the time,

(…)

you know, that longer line might come in handy more often than not. So, like you just said. Think twice before you winch on that cactus and make sure you’re clear (Laughing) before it comes at you. Make sure the tree you’re tying to is a live tree and not one that’s dead that you’re just gonna gank out of the ground. So let me ask you this where we get over to our Nikki G. I’m not gonna forget this time, Nikki G. Don’t forget Nikki G. I love those.

(…)

So, I don’t know if they still make them. I got a feeling they do, but I think it was actually sadly worn that came out with everything you can have in one package winch. The transformer. Air compressor. It was a beer cooler. Air compressor, had the winch. It had a little bit of everything in it. And you could put it in the cradle. You know, you could, I mean that thing, yeah. They were really hot. Yeah, my impression of that is what a piece of shit.(…) I had nothing, I mean, but generally speaking, things that do a bunch of things don’t do anything well. One thing well.(…) Like the flashlight that has the radio built into it and the cat, you know, like remember the 495 survival knife in the back of the comic books. It’s got the compass and the fishing line and the flint steel in the handle. And it was like this really shitty, you know, worst quality blade you could imagine that goes dull after you cut a paper bag with it. Survival knife. Man, it was cool. If they only had had that on the end of the screen. You could start a fire.(…) Yeah, those things were cool.(…) So yeah, you got a- What’s your opinion of those winches that do more than one thing if you have an opinion?

(…)

I, from what I saw of that first attempt on those, it was like, it’s very utilitarian and cool in that aspect, but I think the longevity on them, like the air compressor kind of sucked and they were slower than Christmas. They were fucking heavy because all the extra shit stacked on top of the winch itself. So it’s like, you had to be pretty dedicated of not wanting a separate air compressor power supply or winch to want to spend the money that they cost. And you almost have to have two people to pick the cradle up with all that in it and move it from one end of the vehicle to the other or even, you know, put it on. So you’re not gonna hard mount a setup like that on the front of a Jeep. Like it would be up above the hood this far. So if you were gonna have one, it needed to be in a receiver cradle to use it effectively. And they were really expensive. So it was a great idea on paper and practical application. It was like, kind of a fizzle. When you’re building things like that, you’re building them to sell. And I’m sure that that sold to an audience. I think you can still find them on broadcast. For a very short period of time.

(…)

And then they run– Till the word got out. It’s like when the movie releases and they come out with all this buildup and then people actually start talking about it and go, oh, I’m not going to go see that movie. Yeah. The previews always spoil it for you cause you go in there thinking it’s gonna be like what you saw in the trailer and then you watch the movie. The damn previews had almost the entire, everything that was good about the movie was in the previews. Well, and they’ll mislead it. They’ll try to trick you on purpose to make you think that the plot line’s different or the character arc’s different or what. I’ve seen trailers before where they included footage that wasn’t even in the fucking movie. Yes. And then they joke about it in the DVD extras, the bonus behind the scene. It’s like, yeah, we changed this scene and this and that. Not on purpose. I mean, it wasn’t the reason behind it. It wasn’t just to mislead people, but we’ve done that here on the show where there’s something that happens like in the Zoom room that was funny or whatever. And I’ll put it at the front as a teaser. And if people go through there and go, I didn’t see that. So it’s a lot like the movie thing you’re talking about. I just wanted to– Imagine you’re editing. Yeah, I thought it was so funny or so cool. I wanted to include it. So I wanted people to see it.(…) Clickbait, you clickbait bastard, you. So we’ve agreed. You should get a winch, at least on my side. You should get a winch if you have an off-road vehicle, even if you don’t take it off-road because you never know when you might need that tool.(…) Absolutely. You make your own decision. Snowpocalypse 2021 in Austin. My winch got a healthy workout. There you go. And I wasn’t pulling out other four-wheel drives. It was all cars and regular trucks, three feet of snow. You may need to get your friend out of the ditch before the police arrive.

(…)

Definitely wear gloves for that one.(…) For more than one reason, maybe even put some things on your shoes in case there’s any spillage.

(…)

So I’m thinking, get a winch. I like the idea of steel cable over synthetic. There’s a lot of things about synthetic that are really neat, but being a lazy bastard, I like the idea of something on there that I don’t have to mess with. I just go and use it whenever I need to use it. You know, I haven’t, you’re talking about it, I haven’t stretched the cable. I have not stretched the cable in that winch. That winch is just- Need to do that. Mounted, actually- Stretch it, move that sucker. Yeah, I know, mounted on the XJ. And then whenever I,(…) then when I got the Gladiator and got the winch bumper on there, I moved it off the XJ onto the Gladiator because it was gonna be going to Moab.(…) But again, you gotta have some space to go to. I don’t know where I would go. And then frankly, if it went to one of the local parks, I don’t mean off-road parks, I mean just parks. And found a place to stretch the cable. I’m not sure the place would show up.

(…)

I would suggest, honestly, if you’re in an urban area and you need to be able to do something like that, look for a large parking lot that doesn’t have a large volume of people in it, where you can put it around like a concrete base of a light pole.

(…)

Find some place that has like the big loading docks, big warehouse type environment where you can hook up to something or call a buddy. You guys could just, you find you a nice little country road or like set a big parking lot and park him on one side, you spool your cable out and hook up to him. Make a little adventure out of it. There’s little things you can do to- Lock out the license plate just in case that light pole falls over.

(…)

Yeah, don’t put it on the metal pole, use the concrete base or something like that. It needs to be something that will support the weight of the vehicle. Yeah, but you’re an op-ed, I’m no engineer. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Use a telephone pole, don’t do that. Telephone poles are not a bad idea, but still, I mean, you could just imagine what might happen. That would be funny, but show up on some video on YouTube. And, hey Tony, that looks like your Jeep. Oh yeah, don’t put big Jeep talk show logo stickers on the side if you’re gonna be doing that stuff. Hey, good point though while we’re on the topic is where you put the winch cable on your recovery point. If you are using a tree or a boulder or something like that, unless you just have to based on restrictions, yeah, lowest to the ground, especially for trees, because we’re trying to utilize the strength of that root ball that’s in the ground to hold you. If you put that sucker up in the top of the tree, you’re liable to pull it over or break it. And you can pull it over on top of your vehicle.

(…)

Right, be mindful of that. Be mindful of your surroundings when it comes to other people on the trail.

(…)

You need to call it out. If you’re in the vehicle and you’re gonna start putting tension on the cable, you need to call it out. Let them know if you guys are on radios two ways or they’re within earshot, you need to say, winch in and say it so that people aren’t just standing there like, “Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.” This is why I need a PA system. Other than get the hell out of the way. I need to get one of those things right. Prop clear, I mean, winch line pulled.

(…)

Yep,(…) and be mindful of where you put your hands, boys and girls.

(…)

You’re not gonna help that cable line up any better on that drum by having your hand right in front of the fairly. Don’t be that dumbass, because you’re gonna lose your hand or your fingers. Don’t do that, that’s incredibly stupid. Let the winch pull up on the drum like it’s gonna. And then for your OCD, when you’re done using it, pull the cable back out and then put it back on nice and pretty. Don’t try to use your hip or your hand to push that cable the direction you want it to go on that drum. That’s incredibly stupid because it’s gonna suck your hand in there. It seems like we’ve had a conversation about this. Maybe we talked about it last week or we just talked about it off air.

(…)

Did you get a chance to see or are you aware of the winch line that Matt from Bleeping Jeep came out with? Yes, and that is such a sweet, it’s so simple,(…) but so awesome at the same time.

(…)

Nobody come up with it before now and it’s just like, man, that’s freaking awesome. Because how many times have you used a D-ring or a shackle mount something and you leave the thing laying on your fender or the tailgate and drive off without it or you loan it to a buddy or somebody you don’t know on the trail and you never get it back.

(…)

Being able to do away with some of that extra crap, it’s less shit to keep up with. Well, the way Matt explained it, you do away with all the crap. You just use the winch line. It’s amazing. Because it has a big knot in the end so there’s nothing on the end of the winch except the big knot.

(…)

See, that’s where you’re fixing to tread off into the dark side of winches because you can’t do that with a steel cable, my friend. Oh no, absolutely. Sorry. No, I understand. Sorry. And the cool thing is it has a couple of loops that you can push that notch through, I mean that knot through. Soft shackles are awesome. Now you can put it around a tree without a tree saver so you don’t have a tree saver in your bag. I think you should still have one just in case.

(…)

You do need something to, you do need a snatch block because you still need to be able to double up the– And there are differences, the snatch blocks for steel cable versus synthetic. You need to be mindful of which one you’re getting. Pointy and sharp, you wanna go with something nice and smooth for the snatch block. Factor 55 is a well-known brand that has those really bad ass, it works with a soft shackle and does the same thing as a snatch block. It’s just you use your soft shackle and then their donut and you don’t have to worry about tearing up your synthetic line using something like that. I love the idea of the, what is it? What is it? Factor 55 calls it closed winching, closed connection. Yep, the closed– Where nothing’s open, there’s no hook that has an opening to it. Everything is closed so you don’t have to worry about something slipping off or the line going loose and then you go to pull it and then the line pops off and usually it’s the worst opportunity. So I really like that. Check out the winch line that Matt has at bleeping Jeep, bleeping Jeep.com. Yeah, it’s definitely cool, definitely cool. If you want– And don’t forget maintenance, folks. Yeah, and again, this thing is a all in one type thing. You put it on your winch and you don’t have to do, the only thing you need to think about getting is where is that damn controller? Because now you don’t need to be able to get to your bag for your D-rings or any of that stuff. The winch is all in one.

(…)

You can go back to the most recent round table episode that Matt was on, I think it was last week, week before, check it out. Matt explains it on the round table. I think it’s a great idea and just like you, I was like, wow, why hasn’t anybody thought about this before? Speaking of nobody thinking about something before, let’s get to our Nicky G. You saw that coming, didn’t you? Nicky G, Nicky G!

(…)

All right, Greg, great conversation about winches.(…) We talked a long time, but we didn’t really come up with any definites other than steel or– You need a winch. Yeah, steel or synthetic. You need a winch. Winch or no winch? Get a winch. We don’t care what, if you use steel, cable, or synthetic rope, get a winch, learn how to use it and properly install it. So that is definitely, that’s a no brainer. It’s something that every off-roader should have regardless of what level of skill, what type of terrain, what type of vehicle, get a winch. You’ll thank us later. And I was gonna mention this earlier. It amazes me, and I think I haven’t mentioned this before, but I’m gonna mention it again with the new Chick-Chak co-host, Anastasia. It amazes me at the level of quality people that are willing to come and be part of the show, you included, Greg. And it is– Oh, thank you. It is just amazing to me. I can say, “Hey, would you like to do this?” And people say, “Oh yeah, that’d be great.”(…) It’s a great outlet for you. I think you said that you would like to tell people all this information you have, you’d like to be able to give this information out to people and help them. And in your day-to-day job, they don’t wanna hear anything from you. They just wanna know, “Is it done yet?”

(…)

I do have some conversations that will take more time. Well, are they paying attention?

(…)

I like to have the discussions. I like to shoot the shit. I like to compare notes and opinions.

(…)

Like you mentioned at the top of this, if you’re not learning something, then you’re an idiot at that point. Nobody knows– Not a student at all. If you’re not open-minded enough to be able to say, “I can still learn something new about any of this stuff.”(…) Myself, personally, I’ve been doing all of this for over three decades.(…) Again, it’s not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle for me. It’s a profession for me. I will earn my keep, it’s how I provide for my family, and it’s how I have my fun.(…) But there’s always something, I’m always learning. And it could be something minor, it could be some small detail about a given axle assembly, or it could be something big, like Matt’s new winch line. You find out about something like that, you go, “Damn, that’s freaking awesome!” So I was all excited about having my badass bubber open, and then I found out what Matt’s doing. It’s like, “Fuck, I want one of those.”

(…)

So it’s a good way to find more ways to spend her money. So I think this is a great opportunity to mention this. Uh, we’re always learning and we’d like to learn from you. Maybe we’ve gotten something wrong, maybe something we didn’t consider. Uh, reach out to us. You can, uh, if you’re watching this on YouTube or rumble, you can just go right down there and leave a, leave a comment. Uh, you can go over to g talk show.com slash contact and reach out to us through email or voicemail or, uh, really a bunch of different ways we’d love to hear from you. So let us know what you think. Did we get it right? Did we get it wrong? Were we mostly right? What we, what was it that we didn’t consider? Let us know.

(…)

All right. So are you ready to join the Jeep talk show crew? Oh, and I didn’t ever finish up. Welcome Anastasia. We appreciate you joining the, the Jeep talk show team, uh, as well as, uh, uh, Greg and April and, uh, we’re not going to have April this week. She’s actually out, uh, a hobnobbing with some, uh, vendors and stuff. So, uh, we’re going to be doing somebody else. I haven’t asked Anastasia yet, but I thought it’d be a great opportunity to get Anastasia on here and let her fill in, but not just for a chick chat episode, but a, uh, a regular flagship episode. So I want to reach out to her and see if we may have her on. And if it’s not her, it’s going to be Steve. Oh, Steve was always willing to jump in there and, uh, uh, join in, whichever they appreciate it. All right. Anyway, ready to join the Jeep talk show crew become a Patreon subscriber today, uh, at a Jeep talk show.com slash contact and unlock exclusive perks while supporting the show. Keep the adventure rolling by leaving a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform to help grow our Jeep community. If you’re watching on YouTube, don’t forget to like, subscribe and share. Oh, and comment, stay in the loop, following us on social media by signing up for our newsletter and the latest Jeep news must attend events. Got a question or an idea for our next episode. Send it our way at Jeep talk show.com slash contact. Thanks for riding along and let’s hit the trail with more epic adventures. Greg. Thanks a lot.

(…)

You know, have a good night. Thank

Broadcasting Sense 2010

(…)

You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.