By Tony and Eric
Pulling a tranny in the woods? Just how to make this happen started out as a conversation where we went back and forth for about an hour trying to find an easy way to do this with only the gear in the rig should you ever have to do this.
Eric started things off wondering if we could use our rear winches rigged up to something to lower a tranny to the ground. But you not only need something to attach a snatch block to but you also would need a way to keep it from being pulled back. This lead to the first dilema of what to hook it to. Eric had the idea of bridging the space between the doors with a Hi-lift but even my 5 footer is too short for this. And you still dont have a way to keep it from being pulled back as the winch spools in. A roll cage would be a great solution on both counts, but sadly neither of us have one. Having something at the rear to hook the cable to is also esential so the cable wouldn’t tear into the tail gate and gear in the back, another one for the cage that we don’t have. Since the winch idea hit a bit of a road block, it was time to think inside the wagon.
The biggest hurdle is the lack of an anchor or tie up point to use something to lower the tranny. At least it would be if you don’t have a rollcage and most wagons don’t. My next thought was to use a tow strap wrapped around the roof. You could even leave the doors open for access, something you couldn’t do if you bridge the doors with a long piece of something. Ratchet straps and rope came up as a way to lower the tranny but after using an engine hoist to lower a tranny recently I worried that the tranny tunnel edges would cut the strap or rope.
Frequent use of a lever hoist (a chain style hoist that has a ratcheting handle) at work made that an option but the ones we have at work are pretty heavy and it would not be practical to keep one in the rig. There are heavy come-alongs but they are not very subtle and removing and re-installing a tranny does require some finesse. Did some more research on lever hoists and did find that small ones are available. Even looked up where to get one, found one that has the capacity (550 lbs) and weighs only 3.5 lbs. Not much at all to throw in the tool box. So for now this is where things stand. Wrap the roof with a strap and hook up a lever hoist. Hope it works….
What’s the likelyhood that you will need to do this on the trail, not very. But it was sure a lot of fun going back and forth coming up with ideas and solutions to an interesting problem. So the next time I pull my tranny I may give this a shot. Be interesting if it works and trying it out in the driveway before attempting it on the trail sounds a lot less daunting.
And whats the best thing we got out of this little conversation, the motto in our logo. Eric gets the credit for “thinking inside the wagon” and this pretty much sums up where we are coming from and has a lot to do with getting this website going.
