The band Dawes reminds us that “Things happen. they always do this“ In fact, just last week I had planned a quick 3 mile hike to the river. Instead, I ended up in a humid session of parkour, weaving around a series of fallen trees and limbs along the way.
While I was on foot and could easily find a way around, over, or under these obstacles, the path I was on was a shared-use path. Anyone riding a dirt bike, quad or side-by-side may have had their adventure come to an abrupt end.
This is a very common phenomenon in New England, where huge trees in second-growth forests wait out a storm to break their branches or topple them completely. It keeps people like me busy in the spring and summer, people who want to make sure the trails are clear for other people. Especially now, when the state and government have very few adherents. However, no matter how broad my shoulders are, the wood is heavy and unwieldy.
enter the Dragon System Pocket Winch ($399), a lightweight, compact side-by-side style winch capable of pulling 1 ton and weighing 1.5 pounds. But it’s not just about being a good person and clearing the way. The pocket winch is great for those who get stuck in mud, building tree forts and even removing the occasional stump. Its lightweight, compact design fits into a pouch smaller than a Nalgene bottle, so it takes up minimal space wherever you keep it.
In short: The Dragon Systems Pocket Winch is the one tool you never knew you needed until you’re stuck in a jam you can’t get out of. It is an easy-to-use, highly engineered, lightweight, compact, reliable device. Throw it in your pack or glove box and become the self-reliant gobbler you claim to be. Compared to a traditional come-along, it is extremely lightweight and beautifully engineered, but it comes at a hefty price and has a limited working load of 2,000 pounds.
Dragon Capio (Secret Ingredient)
Dragon Doubler (Force Multiplier)
Includes 1′ sling, 4′ sling, quick-start guide and carrying case
Pros
- size and weight
- ease of use
- built reliability
Shortcoming
- slight learning curve
- expensive
- Not available over 2,000 pound capacity
Dragon Systems Pocket Winch Review
Who is Dragon Systems?
The people behind the brand are two aerospace engineers, Jake Ruhl and Ryan Neal, who saw the need for self-rescue. When you’re traveling alone, or even in a group, over rough terrain, there are things that can trip you up.
And that’s when the idea of a pocket winch came to his mind – after a mistake during a night trip. So, these two guys set out to create a product that didn’t exist.
Sure, there are plenty of accessories you can pick up at any random auto parts store. They are generally not easy to use, prone to jamming, and – speaking from experience – breaking when you need them most.
He envisioned the opposite of the usual uniformity: something light, compact, easy to use, and completely serviceable in case of failure. The goal was to perform self-rescue without being burdened with more cumbersome equipment.
What is this?
The Pocket Winch is a pint-sized object mover with a large capacity. This is a revolutionary change made not keeping in mind the quantity, but keeping in mind the quality.
What is coming together? Come-Along is a human-powered rescue device that you attach to a stationary object and the object you are trying to rescue. There is a hand crank in the middle of the mechanism that you use your force to move whatever you are trying to retrieve.
By nature, they are clunky and cumbersome and will fail when you need them most.
While the Pocket Winch borrows the concept from these remains, it has been engineered to a much higher standard. Look-alike, but a fraction of the size, each piece pocket winch Very specific. It includes a carbon fiber handle that provides tactile feedback so you know when you’ve reached its limits, as well as a proprietary poly line that uses Dyneema fiber to prevent breakage and premature wear.
there is also dragon capiowhich serves as the winch’s belay device, and dragon doubler Force multiplier, which lets you double the weight you tow. Both of these pieces are so intricately made that I found myself staring at them on the way. They are almost too specific and very easy to use.
Additionally, the entire kit weighs only 1.5 pounds, and all parts are replaceable.
in the area
You can move a lot of things around with a tool designed to exert 1 ton of force. As soon as I saw the pocket winch, visions of trail maintenance danced in my mind. The number of trees falling here in winter far exceeds the number of people available to move them out of the way. However, one task that really proved the importance of this mighty force was the construction of a bridge.
A dear friend of mine is converting the forests in his backyard into the ultimate campsite/four-wheel adventure park. The 10 acres he’s modifying is a creek, with 10-foot-high banks in some places, making it nearly impossible to climb up in an ATV, side-by-side or jacked-up 4Runner. Not one to hire anyone to build something, he envisioned a bridge whose main structure was boulders and telephone poles.
The average New England telephone pole weighs between 600 and 1,000 pounds. It’s easy to push them in with the right excavator, but it takes finesse to get them into the right position. In addition to rifling and burning octane on various off-road vehicles, we spent an afternoon using a pocket winch to dial in the final resting places of four fresh utility poles.
Part One: Setup
It will take you a few minutes to learn how a pocket winch works. The main thing to remember is that you will be working closest to the anchor side and will need enough line to secure the capio to your load end.
Like any belay device, the Capio has its own features to help it perform to its full potential. This is not a time-consuming endeavor, but I recommend you put everything together at your favorite’s tailgate and read the included quick start Guide. (You can also commit this video In memory before leaving on your adventure.)
The Capio also has the direction the rope needs to be fed laser-engraved on the side of its anodized aluminum body. These little details are good signs when you’re in the middle of it all. Key reminder: It will always be attached to a sling on the load side.
the dragon gives you 25 feet high-strength lineA 1 foot and 4 foot sling With complete kit. I would recommend taking 100 feet of line as well as a few more slings. The pocket winch is a precision system that you don’t want to mess up with ropes and straps lying around. And, trust me, you can always use more line and more slings.
Part Two: Getting to the Brass Pile
Once we had everything secured, the task of cranking the actual winch seemed a little easier.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods using traditional equipment to move everything from logs to the backs of stuck cars that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. There is always a struggle.
However, with the pocket winch, the struggle is replaced with reaction. When you reach the maximum capacity of the winch, the carbon fiber handle will begin to bend.
We reached that point while setting the position for the final pole. A bolt of the pillar became stuck on a footing boulder. To relieve the tension, I backed off the line a bit, changed the position of the tractor we were anchoring to, and gave it another push. Easy Peas.
Part Three: Final Results
I purposely left the Dragon Doubler out of the initial setup to get an idea of what it felt like to maximize the potential of a pocket winch – and never got there. Apart from a bolt getting stuck on the last pole and having to readjust our angle, everything worked smoothly.
High modulus UHMWPE fiber line is incredibly strong.
In the end, we spent about 3 hours carefully arranging the four telephone poles so they were evenly spaced and lashing the top decking into place. And even after getting the pocket winch out on that hot, humid day in the middle of the woods, it still looks fresh and clean. This is a clear indication that this mechanism was built to last.
When using the pocket winch, we installed it on the load side instead of the anchor side. Everything still worked, but not as smoothly as it did when we installed it on the anchor side. I wasn’t worried about the winch failing; All I knew was that we were working harder than we should have.
in closing
The biggest issue with being self-reliant and being able to self-rescue is the enormous amount of gear you need to do it. When it comes to carrying off-road power tools, etc., rescue equipment is larger, heavier and harder to use.
Dragon Systems changed this with their Pocket Winch. The compact size and lightweight construction are just the tip of the iceberg here. The quality of the materials and their modularity, as well as the overall ease of use of the product, really make this thing an easy task to throw in your pack or storage bin.
Mine is currently in my day bag for those river trips where the trails are littered with not only branches, but also large pieces of trunk and other elements of the “tree” that are not easy to bend and move.
A pocket winch is one of those things that you don’t realize you need until you get into a situation where you really need it. In writing this article, I hope to help some of you prepare for the unknown. We all eventually get stuck in a jam where we need something like this – so it’s better to get it than waste a day wishing for it.
