Platypus 4x4 are a new company in the 4x4 accessories market and they primarily deal in Black Rat recovery gear. So who manufactures the Black Rat product range?

A firm called Beaver Products, situated in Sydney, Australia. Beaver specialise in lifting, rigging and mooring equipment, and are NATA - registered mechanical testing laboratory. Beaver are trusted by the Australian Armed Forces to conduct testing and manufacture of safety equipment, including shackles for the Navy that retail at £370.00 each (although they are used to secure frigates anchor chains). While manufacturing this serious type of kit one of the managers, a keen off-roader, decided to scale the size of the products down and start their own range of off-road products, 'Black Rat'.

Why do I need a 4WD Recovery Hoist?

Many of us would love an electric or hydraulic front mounted winch, but cannot justify the cost. A manual hoist is a better value solution for those of us who find ourselves in a tricky situation now and again. A front mounted electric or hydraulic winch is great if you need to winch forwards, but not so great if you are winching yourself further into the mess you have got yourself into. A manual hoist can be attached to any part of a vehicle there are suitable points. Winch from the front, the rear and the sides and even use it to pull yourself back onto four wheels if it has all gone very badly wrong indeed. A hydraulic winch is useless if your engine fails, say you have flooded it while wading, a manual winch as a back-up can always be relied upon. The hoist can be moved from vehicle to vehicle, an electric winch is not much use if its on your mates vehicle you have left at home that day. The hoist can also be used for lowering your vehicle down a particularly steep slope.

Using a manual hoist to extract a stuck vehicle is obviously going to require more manual effort than a hydraulic or electric winch, but you don't need to be able to run a marathon to use one either. The actual speed of the winching process depends on how fast you move the lever backwards and forwards, two people on the winch handle at the same time can really speed it up. Setting up a manual hoist also takes longer than using a mechanical winch, getting it out of your vehicle and set up is never going to be as fast as spooling out a fixed unit. The benefit is that you don't need to fit a winch bumper, worry about upgrading your front suspension or about the winch sitting on the vehicle constantly exposed to the elements and vandals. All that is needed are some decent recovery points to attach the unit to.

Your Black Rat recovery hoist can be used for far more than just extracting a stuck vehicle, common uses include; construction work, work in the garden, pipe laying and jointing, loading and unloading heavy equipment, clearing trees, tightening fences, as a workshop hoist and for any other job you can think of when something needs pulling, lifting or lowering!

1600 kg capacity doesn't seem like much when my 4x4 weighs 2150 kg (Discovery).

1600 kgs refers to the direct 'lift capacity' - that's why its referred to as a 'hoist' rather than a 'winch', which refers to pulling. To understand that better if you were able to find a strong enough cross member the hoist would be able to lift a Subaru Forester or Toyota Rav4 straight off the ground (although we would not recommend suspending your own vehicle from anything). When using the hoist as a 'winch' the necessary pulling effort is generally only a small proportion of the weight of the load. This pulling effort depends on the coefficient of friction between the load and the ground, and on the angle of the slope, if any. If the load to be recovered is very much bogged and is particular heavy the use of a snatch block or off-road block should be used to double the capacity of the hoist.

Why is it that the Black Rat hoist seems much better value than a well known French brand?

The quality of the hoist is excellent, we have already explained how well regarded Beaver are as a firm (trusted by the Australian Armed Forces) and all their products are ISO 9002 quality certified. The main reason for the Black Rat product costing less is that production costs in Australia are cheaper than they are in Europe. Black Rat is an extremely well known brand in Australia, their products are available from Toyota garages as dealer accessories. Billed as 'The Ultimate 4WD Recovery Equipment' they are used day in day out in the harsh conditions of the Australian outback.

What about the rest of the Black Rat range?

All recovery items available are made to the same exacting standards that Beaver applies to all its products. Everything you might need for off-road recovery is available be it folding shovels, a complete off-road kit, rated bow shackles, tree trunk protectors, recovery points, snatch-straps, snatch blocks, drying bags, power lifter jacks and ratchet straps for securing loads. If you would like to have a chat about any of the Black Rat recovery products and what would be best for your situation just give Platypus 4x4 a call and we will give you straight forward advice. Call us on 0870 765 7990.