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MudAnchor's Pics
The MudAnchor Story....or What's in a Name.
By Mark Masse
MudAnchor's Pics
A few months after I bought my truck from the previous owner, a guy who liked to cut corners here and there, I drove out to the local muddy, forested trail area to see what it could do off-road. As my sons and I went back into the woods, we came across a few ATV's, a pickup, and a tow truck. I stopped long enough for the tow truck driver to ask me if the winch on the front of my truck worked. My reply was a confident "you bet," since only a day or two before, I spooled the cable out and re-wound it.
Anyhow, my kids and I (and nobody else) took one of the several trails branching off the main access trail. About 100 yards later, we came across a rather large and unbeknownst to us, deep, puddle. I took a hard look at what I was up against--If I didn't have a mammoth PTO winch on the front, I'd have turned around with my tail between my legs. But I DID have a mammoth PTO winch. I then selected the best track to get us through this obstacle. To double check my selection, I got out of the truck and walked the first few yards--the ground was solid. Even if it wasn't, I've got 8,000 pounds of pull on the winch to get me across. I hopped back in, gave it a bit of gas, and began powering through the water in 4 wheel low.
As soon as the truck crossed the spot where I ended my foot-reconnaissance, it began to plunge nose-first into the mire. Knowing that a truck this fierce-looking couldn't get stuck in this seemingly trivial mud puddle, I gave it a bit more gas, until my horizontal movement ceased and my vertical movement (downward) was at an all time high. If not for the knowledge that a king-size winch was bolted to the bumper, I would have been getting a bit worried by now. My two sons, not knowing how empowering a winch can be to an off-roader, began to worry, but not me. I jumped out of the truck beaming with confidence, struggled through a foot of quagmire topped by another 2 feet of brown water, found my winch, and with a certain amount of flair, spooled out 100 feet of cable to attach to a tree on the other side of lake truckeater.
By this time, the kids are going bizerk and a small crowd has gathered on the banks to witness this proud truck extract itself from the clutches of this seemingly benign puddle. As I engage the PTO, I reassure all that we'll be on the other side in a few short minutes. The clutch pedal comes up, the mighty half-inch cable tensions, I brace for the expected jolt and...nothing. "That's odd", I think to myself. Hmm...there's not too many things that could go wrong, here. Let me read that data plate one more time--push the lever and the cable goes out. Pull the lever and the cable comes in. Simple enough.
In the next 10 minutes, I tried every PTO/transmission/transfer case shifting combination possible--even ones that made no sense. Now, 30 minutes after every rational person on earth, I began to worry. I started troubleshooting.
It turns out that the PTO shaft was spinning but the universal joint right at the winch wasn't. It was at that very moment that recalled seeing a low-grade hardware store bolt shoved through this universal joint and PTO shaft when I inspected the underside of the truck the week prior. It was also at this very moment that I realized how much I despised the previous owner of the truck.
With a red face, and standing up to my thighs in swamp, I asked our spectators if they had a truck that they could bring around to help raise the Titanic. They got their 4WD Dodge pickup, backed it up, and connected a 2 inch snatch strap to my pintle hook. As I tried to reverse out, they yanked and tugged and jerked until the strap broke. So far, my total movement was zero feet and zero inches. Problem must be a weak strap...they attached a 4 inch snatch strap to my 6,000 pound mud anchor and tried again. This time I actually felt a bit of a jolt when all the slack in the tow strap was taken up, but the results were the same.
The tow truck I passed on the way into this mess was long gone. It began to look as if my truck was going to be a permanent fixture in the landscape.
After 3 hours of futile effort, I got the folks with the Dodge to give my family and I a ride home, just a few miles away. I was forced to leave my M715 beak-down in the goo overnight with water over the front bumper while I negotiated a "deal" with the only towing service in town willing to go out to this particular spot.
The negotiation with the tow driver didn't go well. At least not for me. It seems he had all the leverage, though it turned out to be a win-win situation in the end--He won $150 of my hard earned dollars ($75 if my wife asks), and I won my truck back.
I called Memphis Equipment the next day and ordered the PROPER parts for the PTO shaft. It ended up costing me $1.61 to get the winch up to rated load. I figure that's the most costly $1.61 I'll ever spend. I have also figured out that $150 is the going rate for tuition at Humble University. I graduated with honors that day.
My whole outlook and procedure while off-roading has since changed. I haven't had to use the winch for self-extraction since. Now I use my winch for good instead of evil, pulling trucks out of that same area for 20 to 50 bucks a pop.