This Winch is Powered by Your Vehicle’s Wheels (Video)

As they say in the video, you’ll wonder why this was never available before. And it’s not exactly new technology, but I’ve never seen a commercial product like it before.

It’s called the Bush Winch, and it’s quite simple: A large spool attached to your wheel’s lug nuts (special lug nuts are included to permanently replace your factory lug nuts), which winds up a rope as you drive. With the other end of the rope attached to some sort of anchor, you can drive yourself right out of a tight spot.

As you drive, or as you sit in place with your wheels spinning, the rope winds around the spool. When all the slack is taken up, it begins to pull you towards whatever anchor you’re attached to. Pretty dang cool.

The Bush Winch is a light weight self-recovery system for 4WDs and 2WDs. When needed the Bush Winch is simply connected to the front or rear wheels of your vehicle as you choose. With the winch rope attached to the Bush Winch at one end and the anchor point at the other, the winch rope winds onto the Bush Winch as the wheel spins. You can choose to go backwards or forwards until you are pulled onto firm ground again. Take the Bush Winch off again when finished and store it and the winch rope in the kit bag. The Bush Winch connects and disconnects simply by hand without any tools and the winch rope is very strong, soft to touch, light weight and easy to handle.

Are angels singing for you, or is it just me?

But as usual, there’s a catch. This time, it’s a question of whether it will fit your flivver or not. To find out, you’ll have to check out their fitment page.

I think I’m out of luck, since my truck has 8 lugs and it appears that the Bush Winch is only made for 5 or 6 lugs. But hmmmmm, maybe our old woods Jeep?

This video will show you how it works:

And this video is a sorta-kinda “Bush Winch how-to”

It looks like a bit of work to set up, but it sure beats being stuck or digging and jacking. I’ve done enough of that to last me the rest of my life!

Might be a hassle trying to find two places to anchor the lines…

What do you think?

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.