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When you are the one stuck

Being stuck is usually boring and occasionally dangerous. The first job is working out which one this is.

We are volunteers, not professionals.

Nobody here is a certified recovery operator, a mechanic or a medic unless they tell you they are, and we do not check. This is what the group has learned, offered freely. It is not training, not a standard, and not a substitute for hiring somebody who does this for a living.

Call 911 first if

  • Anybody is hurt.
  • The vehicle is in moving water, or water is rising.
  • You are in a traffic lane or anywhere a vehicle could hit you.
  • You cannot stay warm enough, or cool enough, to wait several hours.
  • Winch Up is volunteers. Nobody is on shift, nobody is obliged to come, and nobody here is an emergency service.

Get your location into a form somebody else can use

  • The request page takes it from your phone, and shows you how accurate it is.
  • On a borrowed phone, read the coordinates out of a maps app and type them in.
  • A dropped pin you cannot describe out loud is not a location. Numbers are.

Make the phone last

  • Brightness down, data off between messages, nothing streaming.
  • One charged phone is worth more than three flat ones — pick one and put the others away.
  • Send the important message before the battery gets interesting.

Stay with the vehicle

  • It is far easier to find than you are.
  • It is shelter, and it has lights.
  • Walking out in the dark in unfamiliar country is how a recovery becomes a search.

What happens after you send a request

  • We text volunteers near you with what you need and how far away you are — not your phone number.
  • The first one to answer takes it. Nobody is dispatched; they are choosing to drive out.
  • You get their first name, their vehicle and an ETA, and a link you can watch and share.
  • If nobody answers within about twenty-five minutes, we tell you, and we show you paid operators instead. That is not a failure of yours.

Nobody charges you

  • No money changes hands for a Winch Up recovery. Not a fee, not a tip, not fuel money asked for on the spot.
  • If somebody asks you for money, that is not how this works. Report it, and we will deal with it.
  • Buying somebody a meal afterwards because you want to is your business.

If somebody is hurt, call 911 first.

Injury, a vehicle in moving water, or anything in a traffic lane is an emergency call, not a recovery request. We are volunteers with trucks. Nobody is on shift and nobody is obliged to come.