So I’ve been meaning to make this video for years. I’ve had this footage for a long time. Whether you find yourself rolling your truck out into the wilderness of the United States or wherever you may be on earth, whether you’re solo or whether you’re with the group, at some point if you decide to test the ratings on that winch, you’re going to need to know how to do it and what to carry. And I’m going to show you everything I’ve carried over the years and have been able to successfully extricate myself whether I was alone or whether I was with the group.

So you’re going to want to stand by and check this out. My name is Natasha Peterson. My name is Shaley Swenson and we’re on Hell’s Revenge and welcome to jailbreak. Nice. Thank you ladies. So it’s always those trips that you really don’t expect anything to happen when you find yourself sliding off a road into a ditch in the mud. It is what it is. But if you’re properly equipped and know how to use your equipment, you’re good to go. For the most part, you can pull yourself out one way or the other.

Many times you end up looking like a fish on a hook, but you know what? Nobody’s looking and surely nobody’s videotaping this, right? But if you’re going to travel, carry what you need. Don’t rely on other people to have it because most of the worst places I’ve ever been stuck in when I was with somebody else, it always turns out the people that took me to the trail never actually had anything to get themselves out if they got stuck. I’m the one that’s always over-prepared and it served me very well.

So here’s some of the things that I carry on my vehicles at all times. Okay, the first thing I’m going to talk about is a high lift shovel. I’ve had this thing for like eight years. I use it all the time or whenever I get stuck and need to use it, and it’s never once failed me. The construction is solid, the construction is simple, and there aren’t any moving parts to break. This is a high lift jack kit that they sell and it’s under 200 bucks. You get a full size heavy duty spade and it comes with a telescopic handle.

This literally gives you the ability to store this. I carry this in my tailgate. I usually don’t even remember I have it until I need it. I used this recently in the Ozarks when I buried the truck up to the fenders when I was testing out those Yokohama mud terrains that failed miserably. By simply pulling the pins on this, two cotter pins, you’re good to go. You have an absolute full size, incredibly sturdy, you ain’t bending this, this ain’t breaking shovel. And like I said, I’ve used this dozens of times over the years in sand, in mud, in rock, in every other substrate you could possibly think of, and it’s never once failed me.

And as a matter of fact, it’s not even scratched all that bad. And the beauty of this kit is this shovel setup, I believe it’s around $158. I’ll leave a link in the description if you want to pick one up. But the beauty of this is it comes with the spade head, which is a full size shovel. I can’t stress that enough. Full size shovel. But they also give you a pickaxe head that pops on equally as easily and quickly. And they also give you a five pound sledgehammer head. I use this doing demolition on some underground plumbing where I was breaking up 12 inches of concrete to get at the cast iron pipe underneath.

And I use this and it worked. I’ve never had an issue. It’s incredibly simple and it stores easily. Now when I’m on the road, I don’t necessarily carry the pick and the sledgehammer. And they also give you an axe head, which I can’t find. But I carry this shovel. And like I said, it fits in the tailgate of my 80 series. So I always have it. There’s a lot of shovels around. This is one of the most common ones, the Gerber folding shovel. And this is a good shovel. I’ve used it a lot of times.

But shoveling with this, unless you’re an Oompa Loompa, kind of sucks and it’ll kill your back. But this is better than nothing. Okay, so the second piece of gear, besides the shovel that I carry with me at all times, and you really can’t miss it, are MaxTrax Extremes. Now where I’m from, these are very, very common. But I’ve noticed out west, lots of guys that have been wheeling their whole lives don’t even know what they are. They have no idea. These things have saved my bacon several times. Because of the lift and the suspension and the gears on my truck, I’ve never had to use these to make a bridge to climb over rocks, etc.

But lots of people do. If you come to a gap and you can’t get your truck over it, you can take one or two or three of these and make a bridge and get right up over it. What I use these for is mud. These are the extreme version of the MaxTrax. There’s a whole bunch of iterations out there. Lots of companies make them, but MaxTrax makes the best ones. And the Extremes have metal studs in them. That’s what I wanted. I carry three of them on my truck because everyone that makes a MaxTrax holder for the vehicle, they can’t carry four extremes.

I don’t even understand that, but it is what it is. So I carry three of these. If I get stuck, I stick one of these under each tire and it gives me something to grip. These things have gotten me out of trouble. I don’t know how many times. The only downside, and there’s nothing that can be done about it, is if you’re sunk in mud and you need to put these under your wheels to get it out, you’re going to be digging these things out. So hopefully you’ve got a high lift shovel or not.

But I’ve sunk these things so far that I had to literally use my winch to pull the MaxTrax out of the mud. That was in the Ozarks and it was no joke. But these are my go-to. If I’m stuck, before I even start winching, usually I’ll stick these under the tires because it gives the truck something to grip and pull herself out. And they work every time. My number two, go-to. These are on the truck at all times. So there, as they say, is that. Now the third piece of gear that I always have with me, almost every Overland vehicle has one, and it’s the high lift jack.

It’s mounted to the truck, you set it, you forget it, it’s there when you need it, and you can find a thousand threads on a thousand forums to tell you how dangerous this thing is. Anything’s dangerous if you’re not paying attention or you don’t know how to use it. The high lift jack is one of the most simple, effective tools you can possibly use. I’ve used this thing to change springs, I’ve used this thing to change shocks, I’ve used this thing to get my truck out of a hole, etc, etc. And with the bottom jaw, with the bottom jaw and the top attachment, you can use it as a huge come-along.

This is the extreme version, so it’s longer than the standard version. I’ve got a seven inch lift total on my truck, so I need it. If you grease the linkage, carry a repair kit, this thing will never fail you, and you should not be scared of it whatsoever at all. The main thing that happens is people jack, and as they’re pulling it down, they lean over. You’re putting your jaw right above an incredibly hard piece of metal that’s under tension. Don’t do that. The high lift gets a bad wrap, and it’s one of the most effective tools, and I always have it with me.

So that would be my third piece that I’ve used pretty much every time, except the last time I was in the Ozarks, it didn’t help me whatsoever at all, because it was an absolute shit show. I was in a foot of mud, clay, and it wouldn’t have helped. But if you are in mud, and the jack can help you, you can use this. High lift jack makes this base plate that goes under the jack, which gives it a much larger footprint. So if you find yourself in mud, really soft sand or soil, this gives you a firmer grip, and there’s also companies that make outriggers for it.

When I say outriggers, instead of just having this right here, you can get two other arms that come down like a tripod on a camera. They keep it more stable, but I’ll tell you what. I’ve used it in some incredibly precarious situations, and if you know what you’re doing, and if you pay attention, you don’t need all that. This is a simple tool that does a simple job. It’s simple. So that’s the third thing that I always carry with me, and most of you do too, and you should not be afraid of it.

If you want to be afraid of something, get married. You see what I mean? But don’t be afraid of the high lift at any rate. Moving on. Okay, the heart, the main part of my recovery gear is in this backpack. I got this from Blue Ridge Overland Gear. It’s made by 7P International, I think, or they make it for 7P International, but it’s made in USA, and yes, it is made by Blue Ridge Overland Gear. This pack right here is incredibly sturdy. It has an amazing zipper on it, and it also has hookups on it, so you can carry this on your back.

This is full of all my recovery gear. This stores, this whole pack stores right over here. Out of sight, out of mind. I don’t even think about it until I absolutely need it. And what is in here is some of the best technology for getting yourself out of a sticky situation that you’ll find. You zip it open. It’s a clamshell design, and inside this I carry 30 feet of 30,000 pound bubba rope. This is the kind of rope that actually stretches, so you can snatch somebody. This is an amazing piece of kit, and bubba rope has been doing this for a long, long time.

You can rely on this and not have to worry about this kinetic rope snapping on you. This will get you out. And then I have a 30-foot worn strap just to give myself a little bit more reach. You can combine this with the bubba rope, but you really don’t want to if at all possible. This is a toe strap. This is kinetic rope. This doesn’t stretch and give you any type of elasticity. This does, so I try to use these separately if I need them at all. Usually I use this if the 150 feet of amp steel blue that I have in my winch can’t reach what I’m trying to winch myself out with.

You follow me? Toe strap, kinetic rope. Two very different things. Try not to combine them unless you’re absolutely in the shit. This right here is an ARB tree strap. This is to tie around a tree so you don’t destroy it with your winch cable, your winch rope, or anything else, or the tree doesn’t destroy your winch cable or your winch rope. These are smart. You can tell by how clean this is. I’ve had this for about three years. I don’t have to use it very often. Like I said, I’ve used the winch three times. Driving can usually keep you from getting stuck, but in the Ozarks, in New Hampshire, in the northeast, we got water.

Some of the trails are rivers. If you got a winch, you need a winch jacket. You throw this over the cable and it keeps the winch. If the winch happens to go awry, it keeps it from going airborne or coming through your windshield or hurting somebody else. If you’ve got a winch and you don’t have one of these, don’t use your winch because something bad will happen. And when that happens, the media will make a big deal out of it and it affects us all. You see how that works? Yeah. This is a 30,000 pound worn extreme snatch block.

This, with this, around this can effectively double the pulling power of your winch or your come along or whatever you’re using. These are really, really good to have. I’ve never actually had to use it in real life, but if you’re going to get one, get a good one because cheap ones will shatter and then this becomes a projectile and you don’t want that. Same thing with these, get good ones. There’s a bunch of hencho in China and then there’s some that are made in the UK and many that are made in America.

Buy American. There’s a really big spider in that bag. This right here came with the high lift jack shovel kit. It came with the kit with the axe head. It came with a bunch of things. Gloves. It came in a bag. That high lift kit is the shit. If you don’t have one, get one. It costs less than a DMOS shovel and it does much more and it’s a better piece. It’s just a stronger, better unit. This came with it. I’m not exactly sure what this is for because I wouldn’t use this around a tree because this will snap, but I carry it nonetheless.

You never know. And finally, Factor 55 came out with this. This is a newer version of this. This allows your winch to run inside with a clamp around it or with this bad larry around it. Instead of using metal, instead of using one of these shackles, you use one of these soft ropes and they work because this rope is incredibly strong. I doubted it when it first came out, but it’s incredibly strong. This is a modern day snatch block that replaces this. Less metal, less things to come through a windshield or take somebody’s head off, because that does actually happen.

So that’s pretty much everything. Everything that I have, I travel a lot. 2020 I was on the road for 10 months in some of the roughest places I could find in America to go wheeling. And I was utterly and completely alone 90% of the time. I rely on my gear. And if it’s not good gear, I will tell you that does not make me sponsor friendly. People are reluctant to give me products because they’re afraid. If you’re afraid, someone’s going to give you a bad review, then you might want to rethink what it is you’ve made because if there’s something, if it doesn’t work as advertised, people should know.

So the final thing I’m going to cover in here is probably the most obvious. And that’s a winch. Carrying a winch on your vehicle, if you’re going to be an overlander or an off-roader, and especially if you’re going to do it solo, but not even solo. You should always have a winch if you’re going off-road. Don’t rely on somebody else. And when it comes to a winch, far too many people, they just don’t pay up. They go to Harbor Freight, they buy a Hencho and China winch with a big old steel cable on it.

Don’t do that because those winches are not reliable and those cables are junk. We live in a society now where you can actually get synthetic rope that is so strong, it is ridiculous. Now on my 80s series, I had a red winch. But before that, I had a worn winch. And before that, I had a worn winch. And before that, I had a Smittybilt winch. And all of them failed. What happened was they just couldn’t stand up to the weather. They rusted to crap. So I went all the way to the United Kingdom and got a red winch.

Red winches are literally machined out of a block of billet aluminum. They have motors you can remove and put in a larger motor, making it from a 8,000 pound to a 12,000 pound to a 16,000 pound winch. They are phenomenal and incredibly well made. Incredibly well made. Sadly, on my new truck, the 2019 4Runner, with the particular setup I had in the front, I couldn’t fit a worn winch. So I had to go back to worn. So I got a worn Xeon with synthetic rope and I took the entire winch apart and made every single connection 100% bulletproof.

I crimped them, I soldered them, and then I heat shrunk all of them, which they didn’t come from the factory like that. So that’s my two pieces on that particular topic. Winching. If you’re going to get a winch, get a good winch. Period. The worn Xeon seem to be really good. And the one everybody else loves so much. They come up winch. They’re great winches, I guess. But they’re also made in China, so I’m not buying that. If it isn’t from America, Japan, or Australia, or the United Kingdom, I’m not putting it on my truck.

That’s just how I roll. No pun intended. Sadly, the community is full of so many fanboys. If I have a worn winch, they’ll defend worn winch, even if it rusts to shit and falls apart in less than a year. You see what I mean? I run into that a lot. Hence the red winch. But at any rate, this is what I carry, and I’ve already shown you the winch. The winch is the share. At any rate, if you enjoyed this video, hit that like, share, subscribe, leave a comment below, and I will return the favor.

Links to everything that I’ve shown you will be in the description box below. I am out! If I can find the remote. [tr:trw].

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