Winches for ATVs and rescue vehicles

L

lord_bosco

Mongoose
The new JTAS has an article detailing the standard Traveller ATV and providing several examples of alternate designs. Seems to me that the ATV should have a recovery winch as a standard piece of equipment, although I don't see any description that confirms that opinion. I also don't see anything about winches in the Vehicle Handbook. The closest approximation would be cranes, which are optimized for lifting, not pulling, and require huge gantries.

Winches are commonly mounted on off-road vehicles, helicopters, boats, and any vehicle meant for rescue and recovery work. ATVs use winches to recover vehicles that have become bogged down and are unable to move under their own power. I based my TL8 example on this real-life beauty: https://sherpa4x4.com/products/stallion-25000lb-truck-winch. It has an electric motor, synthetic cable, and is rated to pull more than 10 tons -- enough to rescue a trapped ATV.

Winch
TL8, rated for pulling 11340kg, 30m of synthetic cable, unit weighs 31kg, 1200 credits, mounted externally - requires no space
 
The-Expanse-Season-4-Episode-9-5-90cc.jpg


Always useful.
 
I watch some off-road recovery videos on YouTube and a winch is a standard equipment there. It is used to pull other vehicles or in some cases the own vehicle. I'm really surprised that winches are indeed missing from the Vehicles Handbook. Winches seem to come in different sizes, from the small ones that you put in front of your jeep to the large ones found on tug boats.
The one given by lord_bosco is certainly a good start but I'll look into other sizes and tech level as well.
 
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Looks like the intent may have been to include them as no-weight-added standard features of Traveller designed vehicles.
Pg 3
Towing
Most vehicles are capable of towing heavy loads, usually
a form of trailer or, in an emergency, other vehicles. All
checks using a vehicle’s Agility suffer DM-2 while it is
towing. Its Speed is reduced by one band for every 25%
of its Spaces (or 25% of its Spaces multiplied 250 kg)
it is towing, or part of.
Click to expand...
 
Arkathan said:
Looks like the intent may have been to include them as no-weight-added standard features of Traveller designed vehicles.
Pg 3
Click to expand...
A winch and towing are certainly not the same even though a winch can be used to tow a vehicle.
And a winch is most certainly not a standard feature of Traveller designed vehicles.
 
A front (or side-mounted) winch is used to pull loads (usually vehicles), or even pull itself out at times, though that's just an added bonus.

Rear_mounted ones tend to be for pulling out other vehicles. As anyone who has ever towed a vehicle before w/o a solid towbar, the towed vehicle is NOT towed at high speeds since that tends to cause rear damage to the towing vehicle. :) Actual hight towing speeds are possible, but not recommended due to the aforementioned potential for damage to the towing vehicle.

For the most part a winch is simply going to be listed as equipment, and if you want to price it out a nominal sum is fine (obviously for towing larger vehicles you should increase the sum since heavy-duty winches for large vehicles takes a lot of pulling capability).

Wenches are usually available at the local inn, often with flagons of ale.
 
Page 23 of 2300AD book 3 has rules for winches, hopefully they will migrate to the vehicle handbook when it gets updated.
 
Ok, the following one may not be as useful as the modern variants, but I still wanted to include it, to show the tech level range that Traveller covers.
It is just a proposal. Feel free to adjust any values to your liking.

Primitive Winch
-------------------------

Description:
Merely al log or drum mounted horizontally on a sturdy wooden frame. Connected to the drum on one side is a set of four or more levers in a cross pattern. These handles can be used by one person to turn the winch.
Usually this kind of winch is found as a stationary installation but it can be mounted on some kind of platform on a vehicle. It is quite bulky and uses up spaces if inside a vehicle and for shipping calculation.

TL: 1
Load: 150kg
Spaces: 6
Rope length: 50m
Weight: 40kg
Cost: Cr300
 
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swampslug said:
Page 23 of 2300AD book 3 has rules for winches, hopefully they will migrate to the vehicle handbook when it gets updated.
Click to expand...
To my knowledge 2300AD is a different system so we may not be able to use it directly as a source book for Traveller. As Matthew stated we won't probably see an update on the Vehicle Handbook before 2024. But maybe you can post some of the ideas from the 2300AD book here without copy right infringement.
 
Ok, let's increase the tech level a bit. More suitable for an industrial era campaign or adventure though.
Again, just to throw some ideas around, nothing set in stone, adjust as you like.

Industrial Era Winch
--------------------------------

Description:
The invention of steam powered engines and the development of the steel- / wire-cable changes the use of winches drastically. They are quite heavy though and retain some of their bulkiness, as the wooden parts and the rope get replaced by steel counterparts.
The metal drum of the winch can either be turned manually using a crank lever or be powered by the vehicles own engine via a belt, chain or a crank shaft. The use of metal gears enhances the power transmitted.
It uses up spaces if inside a vehicle and for shipping calculation.

TL: 4
Load: 10'000kg
Spaces: 5
Steel-/wire cable length: 100m
Weight: 500kg
Cost: Cr800
 
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Looking into winches for tug boats the variety of what s available is great, so I went for something average.
Again, this is more a direction than hard facts and figures, so please feel free to adjust.

Heavy duty winch
----------------------------

Description:
Driven by the vehicles or its own hydraulic system the power of these winches is increased. Due to their size and weight they are usually found on massive recovery vehicles or on maritime ships and bigger boats, e.g. tug boats.
It uses up spaces if inside a vehicle and for shipping calculation.

TL: 7
Load: 100'000kg
Spaces: 10
Steel-/wire cable length: 200m
Weight 2'000kg
Cost: Cr20'000
 
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