STYLE with Substance
Warn Epic Recovery Kit gets the job done in style
There are many different types of offroaders in this country. There are those who take pride in having the most wrinkled and filthy rig on the trail. Then there are those who demand quality over quantity, take pride in having high quality (and usually expensive) gear, and do their best to keep all the shiny bits looking… well… shiny.
However, both these groups share a common issue, sooner or later they’re going to get stuck, and when they get stuck, they’re going to need to dig into the back for the all-important recovery kit.
For both groups, the recovery kit is a pretty standard piece of gear. Usually a mangled old tool kit with all manner of shackles, snatch blocks and tow ropes tossed in; it’s a worn and abused kit to do a dirty job. The only difference being the cleanliness and organization between the two stereotypes.
We don’t take sides on the class levels of our lifestyle, usually, but we do understand the desire for highly engineered products that were made with pride. The recovery kit usually has no business being associated as such, until we came across the Warn Epic Recovery Kit last year at SEMA.
Featuring the standard issue bits one needs to extract themselves from Mother Nature’s grasp, each of the forged steel components has been treated to a multi-layered E-coat (or electrocoating) that protects from both corrosion and abrasion. Effectively, it’s like powder coating, without the thick shiny paint. Each part has been specifically designed to handle the rigours of vehicle extraction, while also acting as a nice bit of wheeler jewelry. Personally, with no bling factor associated with the Epic series, just the sense of a high-quality tool, I got in touch with Warn to have a look at the kit and have one of the heavy-duty versions onboard the Nissan Titan XD during our Arctic Expedition.
OUR KIT INCLUDED: Two forged 3/4” Epic Shackles (for 18,000 lb. winches and under) Epic Tree Trunk Protector, including forged end loops (4” x 8’; rated to 30,000 lbs.) Epic Snatch Block (for winch capacities of up to 18,000 lbs.) Premium Recovery Strap (3” x 30’; rated to 21,600 lbs.) Winching Gloves with Kevlar reinforcement and synthetic leather Backpack carrying case
In the case of the hardware, this is actually Warns second generation of the Epic series, as the first series had some flaws in the coating. However, so far, we can report that they got it right with this batch as the coating has stood up well to some decent abuse. Another well-thought out idea is the construction of the tree saver. This has a premium nylon strap with encased red warning marker to indicate damaged webbing.
While the hardware is attractive, it’s the bag itself that attracted me to the kit. Made
from ballistic material with modular interior, the bag acts much like a camera bag, keeping each part segregated from the rest of the tools, making for a cleaner and much more organized kit. No more digging around in the dark, everything has its place in this bag. Shoulder straps make it much easier to haul the kit over rough terrain or long distances (especially with this heavy-duty hardware) and side straps allow the bag to double as line damper. I’ve never been a fan of plastic side release belt clips, they always seem cheap and give way under load, however the units Warn used on this kit are solid and strong, easily holding the kits weight on a winch line. And for those who haven’t winched in some time, or never at all, some helpful instructions are printed on the inner flap.
Do you need the Warn Epic Recovery Kit over a regular kit? No, but if you have the funds to warrant high quality equipment, this kit has proved to handle the nasty business of extraction, and looked good doing it.
Part Number: 97565 (medium duty), 97570 (heavy duty) www.warn.com