Extraction from a frozen river Ontario, Canada ... Sunday
Jan, 16, 2005:
The Argo is a great machine but the winch on it is a must have!!
I was out with a friend, Jeff Page, on
Sunday going up and down the Holland River when we broke through
the ice. The Argo floated and we
didn't get wet. It was 4 pm. I moved the floating ice around
the Argo out of the way by forcing it under
the stable ice and as able to bring the machine right up against
ice I could get out and stand
on. Fortunately we were about half a mile from my house so I
could walk home and get what I needed to
get the machine out. The front winch cable was too sort to reach
a tree and the rear winch needed a
second battery to run on and the remote control female jack
had ice init so I couldn't plug in the control
switch to make the rear winch work. The font winch cable was
too short and only powered by the small
battery in the machine. I first went home and got a 15000 lb
tow cable and hooked it up to the front
winch to a big tree. The front of the machine was lower in the
water than the rear because of the engine
so when I started winching the front of the boy came over the
top of the ice but the tracks were
trapped under the ice ... the winch drained the battery and
the Argo would no longer start.
I went back to the house to get another battery (deep cycle
marine, real heavy), some flashlights(it was
dark now) some gloves because my hands were continually wet
and cold. I was thinking if all else fails I can
go back in the morning and get it out but we would try once
more tonight. We had some coffee and while
chatting my friend told me he had turned on the bilge pump when
I went to get the rope from home and
that a lot of water had come out and the Argo might have a leak.
It became apparent that I had to get it
out tonight or risk it sinking and becoming a bigger recovery
problem. I had to get the back winch
working so I could pull the machine out and I had to get the
machine running again so the tracks would
grip the ice and help not to mention getting it back to the
house.
It was snowing when we started back with the battery, a propane
torch to de-ice the winch connector,
some WD40 (I don't know why) and a set of booster cables. I
dragged the heavy battery across the ice
with some nylon straps hooked together. when we got back to
the Argo it was lower in the water and I
was panicked thinking the engine might be flooded. I got in
and there was water in the machine. I tried to
start it and to my amazement it started and I was able to use
the bilge pump to empty it. Now I knew I
had to do something to get it out or stabilise it so it wouldn't
sink. I thawed out the connector on the
rear winch but I had broken parts of the housing on the male
end of the connector with efforts before
and now I had to figure out which way the connector went together
.. my frozen hands didn't help much.
I went to the front of the machine and had my friend slide the
heavy battery to me ... I had to lay across
the front of the machine to try and pick it up but lost my grip
and it went through the ice and into the
river.
I now thought of breaking up the Ice in front of the machine
with sledge hammers and pulling the
machine with the winch towards the tree. Went home and got sledge
hammers and life vests ... it didn't
work, the ice was too thick and hard to break. I had to get
the rear winch working so I went back to the
house and got the battery out of my van so I could hook it to
the winch, It was around 8:30, we were
getting tired and after several glove changes my hands were
sore and very cold. We got the battery back
to the Argo and I was able to fit some marine connectors to
it and hook up the winch. The remote control
connector was still a problem, I prayed some WD40 in it and
it thawed it out some more and I was able to
hook up the ten foot long remote control line with the trigger
switch on it. The trigger switch has two
switches on it a trigger to stop and start the winch and another
switch that controls the winch in and
out. The controller had fallen in the water and the switches
were now frozen and inoperable. I couldn't
believe my predicament and my bad luck. It was snowing, cold
and my friend didn't trust the ice he was
standing on. I sprayed the switches with the still warm WD40
and the controller started working!!
Thank God ... and I did very sincerely!! Now we had to break
some ice around the Argo and point the rear
of the machine towards the tree. My friend slid the sledge hammer
to me across the ice and I started
breaking up the ice but the handle on the sledge was coated
with ice and I lost it in the river too. We
managed to get the Argo turned around by hooking up a couple
of cables from the rear winch to the tree
and pulling it sideways in the hole in the ice. We deployed
the front winch cable out across the ice in
front of the machine just in case the machine some how sank
we would have another hook-up point. The
rear was now lined up and the cable was under tension but the
extra cables I had attached were a
problem and I had to let the winch tension off. The control
switch was again froze and it wouldn't let
the winch cable out and the connector was flakey so I didn't
know what the real problem was. I played
with the connector and sprayed the control again and finally
it started working.
I was now set up to do the pull and it was near 10 pm. My hands
were aching with cold but this had to
work! I started the Argo engine and ran the bilge to get rid
of the excess water. The Argos rear end
would come out on to the ice at about a 45 degree angle so I
had to make sure the front end of the
machine didn't go under the water because water would quickly
fill the machine through the hood and
vents. If anything went wrong at that point the Argo would sink
and I would get very wet! I started the
pull and I knew once I started it, the Argo had to come out
or I'd nosedive back into the hole. I put he
machine in reverse and started winching. The Argo broke through
a couple of times but then grabbed
solid ice. I was now at a weird angle to the water and worried
the winch cable would snap or let loose and
tear my head off! To my relief everything went as it should
and the Argo popped out of the water and I
rolled back under the Argos power. The machine performed as
it should have ,,, excellent! It was me
that made the errors through lack of experience. The rear winch
was the thing that saved the machine
and no-one I have spoken to has heard of an Argo with a rear
winch!!
How was your Sunday??
PHOTO
Chris Lauzon
