I don't run a winch, but I often carry a 4 ton come along that's gotten me out a couple of times when trees were handy. What does everyone do where nature doesn't provide anything to pull on?

Try 2 steel fence posts. You can cut them shorter if necessary but don't cut the flange off. The 2d one can be considerably shorter than the 1st.
Drive in the 1s one angled away from the truck about 10 degrees +/-. Put in the 2d about 3-4' behind it, same angle. How deep you need to put them depends on the soil. Tie something VERY sturdy from the top of the 1st to the bottom of the 2d (a heavy duty ratchet strap works great). It's useful to weld rings or something on the posts to keep the rope/chain from sliding up or down. Tie the winch cable to the bottom of the 1st one.

Now to get the posts out of the ground. I assume you have a hi-lift jack of some kind. Here's a post puller thats inexpensive and works great (but don't cut the 2d post too short to use it). I've used one for years. POST PULLER

i carry 3 steel concrete stakes. 2 24" 1 30" and an axe to drive them. then i carry a tow strap. drop one end loop over end stake then loop it around each stake. clevis W block to loose end loop and hook up winch. I'll keep carrying it all and hope to never use it. you can also make deadman anchors with the stakes, log, rock, dig t shaped trench put tow strap around your deadman, drop it in trench, string strap out through bottom of tee attach winch cable, pull. Tools required to rig. Shovel, axe, straps, 2 clevis, block, stakes. This is a learned skill i hope to not use.

D-6 Cat.....handy and somewhat portable!
Saw a guy pull a tree onto his truck about 10 years back, using a winch. Tree was all rotten inside and just kinda broke off and landed on the Blazer.

The only time I ever needed a "deadman" and nature wasn't helping, I was lucky enough to have a few T posts in the truck. Sunk them at an angle away from the pull, and hooked right at ground level. It worked, but barely.

I only had to do this once, about 25 years ago when I got stuck at the edge of a wetland on the Canadian prairies. Nearest tree was a mile away...

I chained up the spare wheel & tire, and buried it (vertically) as deep as I could in a slot I dug in the waterlogged soil because I needed a LOT of surface area to pull against. I then used the come-along to pull the truck get as close as I could to the tire, then I dug the tire up, then buried it again as far at my my meager collection of chain and tow straps would allow.

I think I had to bury and dig up that wheel & tire about 5 or 7 times. Did I mention that I got a long way on the marshy ground before I got stuck?

Definitely not recommended! Since then I go more prepared!

John

Was this you John?

HAHA! Just like that, but different colour vehicle! I am glad that there is no aerial photography evidence of my little lapse in judgment!

One can go a long way through soft ground if you have enough speed... or get stuck way out there if you do not have enough!

There were no farmers to ask for a tractor tow out, but even if there had been, I am not sure that I could have overcame my embarrassment enough to ask and face some crusty old farmer laughing at me for trying to drive on the whitetop grass where it was vivid green (a local boy would know to drive on the brownish-green whitetop grass only!)

(in my own defence, I was about 19 years old, and thus thought myself invulnerable, immortal and possessor of all knowledge!)

John

Happy Birthday to ya!

Thanks!

Unfortunately, my birthday cakes are starting to look like this nowadays...



and they set off the fire alarms!

John