Brake Line Locks - Page 4 - Off-Road Forums & Discussion Groups

7T8CJ7 · #31 09-10-2008, 10:35 PM

In a previous life I spent many happy hours as a tow truck driver. I have operated many different tow trucks and all have had MICO Hydraulic locks. Never had a problem with one not holding in hundreds of winching situations.

CJDave · #32 09-11-2008, 09:31 PM

Drove a tow truck on weekends for a few years. It had a tricky, vacuum-controlling lever on the steering column that worked somehow with the hydro-vac for parking and winching. I never did know exactly how that system worked.That was a ton-and-a-half-chassis with vacuum over hydraulic brakes; I think it used a Midland booster. ** Had a fork lift with the lever-operated MICO lock on it.... it was a single-axle-only brake system.

OlllllllOCJ · #33 09-18-2008, 11:44 PM

The frame stretch comment made me think about this guy... Just took some time to find it again.

Click the diagram above for some interesting reading.

That is page 22 of a very long winchathon but it is pretty good reading.

He likes big snatch blocks...

I'll get back to the brake line locks... Just other things to do right now.

Dale

CJDave · #34 09-19-2008, 06:35 AM

Looking at those very carefully drawn sketches, I don't see the BEST way to increase pull without wrecking the frame of the winch vehicle, WHICH IS... use the anchor point for the snatch-block system and the Jeep pulls basically single-line. You have to set the Jeep offset just enough to pass the multi-part system past it and the anchor takes the strain, not the Jeep. I ran a winch truck that we owned when I was a kid that had a Braden M-5 with 300 feet of 5/8" cable, and if there is anything I learned from running that truck, it was that when you tie onto something, the winch will wreck it AND YOUR WINCH VEHICLE unless you use your head.

Jim_Lou · #35 09-19-2008, 06:46 AM

Yeah, that's NOT the way to do it. He has modified his frame (welded in 1" plate!) to take that pull, but a stock frame will be severely damaged that way. Don't ask how I know.

It doesn't take much more effort to run the lines under the Jeep to the anchor. Then it's all good.

CJDave · #36 09-19-2008, 08:22 AM

Because we had that winch truck, we were kind of the go-to guys for extricating reeeely stuck vehicles like hay trucks and so forth. My dad would send me because he was usually too busy and didn't want to break away. I COULD NOT COUNT the number of times I have pleaded with a truck driver NOT to connect to ONLY ONE bumper hook (I HAD a bridle in the tool box that could go to BOTH hooks, but everyone was always in a hurry.) and every now and then I would get out-shouted (hey, I was just a kid, what did I know, right?) so I would just give up trying to convince the guy, and then when I had to pull real hard with that Braden, his truck frame would get Zee'D; as in one frame rail got moved foreward.

OlllllllOCJ · #37 09-19-2008, 08:46 PM

It's just a bit crazy to setup compound pulls for your average Jeep. Recovery Trucks have to sometimes I'm sure.

Enjoyable tangent... Go for it. I'm not doing anything with the thread anyway (can always start a new one when I get to it).

Winching and recovery can be more than a bit tricky... The more you know the better off you will be.

Dale