Winch opinions please.

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I'll second the Winch Solutions stuff - had one for the last 4 or five years with occasional use (ranging from pulling trees around to self-recovery on the farm).

The one I have is quite an old model but rated at 10,000lbs and never had trouble with pulling my fully-laden Series III. Didn't get the chance to see how it managed with the 110 (not fitted at the moment).

My one comment would be (if you do get a winch) to replace the wire rope with a synthetic one. I've never personally used them so can't vouch but I'd imagine a synthetic rope would hold up much better in your situation (i.e. salty occasional use). You don't want a wire-rope snapping just when you want it.
 
I'm new to this forum, but have seen this conversation about winch safety a few times.

Winches are good and I've had a few on other 4x4s I've owned. There are certain common sense things to do; dont overload your winch, replace the cable when its worn, and keep people well out of the way when winching.

Thats pretty much it, apart from obviously dont try and winch off piers or a tomato plants.
 
My one comment would be (if you do get a winch) to replace the wire rope with a synthetic one. I've never personally used them so can't vouch but I'd imagine a synthetic rope would hold up much better in your situation (i.e. salty occasional use). You don't want a wire-rope snapping just when you want it.

Good point,

BUT, he also needs to consider that using a synthetic rope over a rocky/stoney foreshore can shred a synthetic rope on its first use if appropriate care is not taken!!

Also synthetic ropes are pretty expensive for occassional use, a wire rope can be very durable, but like most things it will need to be maintained particularly considering the harsh and corrosive environment that it will be used in.
 
Good point,

BUT, he also needs to consider that using a synthetic rope over a rocky/stoney foreshore can shred a synthetic rope on its first use if appropriate care is not taken!!

Also synthetic ropes are pretty expensive for occassional use, a wire rope can be very durable, but like most things it will need to be maintained particularly considering the harsh and corrosive environment that it will be used in.

Good point :rolleyes:
 
I'm new to this forum, but have seen this conversation about winch safety a few times.

Winches are good and I've had a few on other 4x4s I've owned. There are certain common sense things to do; dont overload your winch, replace the cable when its worn, and keep people well out of the way when winching.

Thats pretty much it, apart from obviously dont try and winch off piers or a tomato plants.
nothing like stating the obvious then;)
 
And if its an opinion on the bumper & winch you want - then they are both jolly good vfm

I've got the bumper and its A1 with my Goldfish winch on it - my chum has the winch and he is a happy camper (well boater actually, he drags his 8mRIB in from the Solent with it...)
 
No worries, with that in mind I'd put you down as an "occasional user" of a vehicle winch, and as such the one in your original post would be more than up for the job. In fact, I have the same budget winch, I purchased mine from Winch Solutions (Google for their own website, or eBay seller winchsol). I know of lots of others on here and elsewhere who have bought the same winch, many off the same company and generally it does a good job. Obviously, bear in mind its at the budget end of the scale.

The only cautious observation I'd made is the winch bumper has fixed loops and D shackles. Some winch bumpers don't come with them at all, but are pre-drilled with the (standardised) 36mm hole, to fit (ideally) swivelling shackles. Some come with the swivel shackles too. Mine didn't (but once again, was a bargain) and a pair of swivel shackles including mounts etc are surprisingly expensive, at around £45-50. Swivel shackles are going to be technically better than the non-swivelling ones on that bumper in the eBay ad, but I dare say the bumper is solidly enough constructed to make no difference in practice. If you need to do a pull from a significant side angle, you risk bending or fracturing the fixed mounts.

The only other thing is, you might need to buy an isolation switch and electrical connectors, probably another tenner or so and you're all sorted.

I'd say most likely a possible one off use at some time in the future, or at least I hope this to be the case. However, thanks for your info as this has helped a lot.

the problem is a catch 22. I dont need a good winch cos i dont use it much = This cheap winch ive got failed the one time ive used it.:doh:

Yet another very valid point and pretty much the reason I started the thread in the first place. I'm the kind of person who would make a point of using the winch in a non-emergency practice session a couple of times a year. Partly to keep it checked out for defects and partly to practice safe techniques for the kind of thing I'd maybe need it - I.E. a straight pull, I'd probably even test out my ideas on the actual beaches to make sure I could manage it. I wasn't sure about going down the "top end range" for what I might one day need it or go down the mid price range and maybe suffer on reliability and functionality. I suspect I'd probably go down the mid price/functionality route. Thanks for your input and thoughts.

Ah but with enough line and pulleys it could ;) ( and good anchor point/s before someone points it out )

I suspect the number of pulley required and length of line would make it somewhat slow and the tide would be overtaking me lol.

I'll second the Winch Solutions stuff - had one for the last 4 or five years with occasional use (ranging from pulling trees around to self-recovery on the farm).

The one I have is quite an old model but rated at 10,000lbs and never had trouble with pulling my fully-laden Series III. Didn't get the chance to see how it managed with the 110 (not fitted at the moment).

My one comment would be (if you do get a winch) to replace the wire rope with a synthetic one. I've never personally used them so can't vouch but I'd imagine a synthetic rope would hold up much better in your situation (i.e. salty occasional use). You don't want a wire-rope snapping just when you want it.

The wire rope is one of the first things I'd replace if it came with one, as said, the cost isn't the most important factor and to honest cost simply would not come into the equation if it saved my landy from a dousing in salt water. Thanks for your thoughts. I would have been seeking advice on that when the time came.

Forest of Doom, thanks also for your thoughts. Fortunately, tomato plants are rare in highland Scotland and I'd probably have eaten it before I got stuck anyway.

Good point,

BUT, he also needs to consider that using a synthetic rope over a rocky/stoney foreshore can shred a synthetic rope on its first use if appropriate care is not taken!!

Also synthetic ropes are pretty expensive for occassional use, a wire rope can be very durable, but like most things it will need to be maintained particularly considering the harsh and corrosive environment that it will be used in.

The bad environment (salty air & water) would be my major consideration, rather than the ground conditions, but as said above, if it got my landy outta da poo, the expense would be relative.

And if its an opinion on the bumper & winch you want - then they are both jolly good vfm

I've got the bumper and its A1 with my Goldfish winch on it - my chum has the winch and he is a happy camper (well boater actually, he drags his 8mRIB in from the Solent with it...)

Thanks very much to everyone for their input, you've been busy while I been asleep.

Excellent slomofo, this is exactly what I needed. You've answered my original post. As did some of the others.

So now I have to think it all out and come to my own conclusions whether to go the way of the winch or to stay well out of the water's reach above the high tide line until I have more experience of my landy's capabilities (& mine too of course.)

The funny thing is, I drive an artic on a daily basis and the job I do involves a lot of off-road work up lanes, down tracks, across fields, flat and sloping and in all weather conditions too. What we consider to be unladen is approx 22,500kgs (empty bird cages on board) and a normal fully loaded train weight of around 35,000kgs. Add to this the occasional 3 tonne forklift mounted on the rear of the trailer (though usually removing it is the first thing we do when we go off-road especially in snow/icy conditions) and I think nothing of it. Yeah, we often slide down the wet grassy slopes side-ways, yeah, we get stuck, yeah, we sort it out and very often need help to do so. Hell, we often help others too, but the big differences are two fold. The lorry aint mine (neither is the bill) and we don't go into the salt.

Thanks guys, one and all, for your help.

Ron
 
Should anyone be interested, on the subject of getting stuck and needing help. January of 2010 was the worst situation I'd ever found myself in. We had to be towed in off the main road by one of those dirty big John Deer tractors. I was the second vehicle to this particular farm up close to Fraserburgh. The farm is probably about 5 miles from the main road and the way we were going in was the route we usually only used for an exit as it is very tight and close to impossible with an artic. However, the route into the farm is about 12 miles long and was in a worse state than the exit road. A return journey to this farm and back to the factory is usually timed at about 9 hours including loading time and break times.

The wagon in front of me ran into difficulties while being towed back out to the main road by TWO John Deers in tandem, sadly the farmer and his father mis-judged the artic's capabilities on such a tight bend and he had to be winched out of a deep ditch on a tight bend. I wont go into details 'coz it would take too long.

In the end, a car was sent up with three spare driver's to take our vehicles back to the factory, the one in front, mine and the one following me, who never got to the farm in the end. By the time our supervisor got us back to the yard, my day worked out to be 22½ hours long.

I know many will think this crazy, but these birds had to be harvested (all to do with bird sizes, weights, population in the sheds and animal welfare etc. - the bloody birds have more rights than we do) Also, and thankfully, this was the final crop from this particular farm and we'll never go back there again as it changed to a hatchery for egg production.

I mention this because, I'm not a total half-wit when it comes to off-road, recovery techniques, how to stay safe and avoiding hazardous situations. But I am a total half-wit when it comes to protecting my belovéd defender and keeping her out of the salty stuff.
 

Yep Drewster, that's the thread I'd read through and from which I found the winch on Ebay I was wondering about. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing. I guess if I'd posted my query on there it might have made more sense, but I know there are a lot of people who dislike seeing old threads brought up time and time again then there are people who detest seeing the same questions being asked in a new thread also. So it was the lesser of two evils when I decided to start my own thread on the subject and I knew I might have to take a little critisim in the process, but as always here on LZ, the good stuff far outweighs the less than favourable.

Cheers.
 
You mentioned that you didn't like the look of a winch on the front of your landy before... Not sure if you've seen these before: http://www.baillies.co.za/images/steering guard baillies2.jpg its a steering guard with an adapter so you can fit a winch plate to it. That way you can take it off when you don't want it there... Better security for it too I guess.

Looks quite good imho, but I'm a lazy bugger and forgetful in my old age so if I didn't have the winch mounted I'd probably forget to bring it. I didn't actually mean I thought they were horrible looking, (although that is what I typed in the heat of the moment,) I was more trying to convey that I wouldn't be buying one for aesthetic reasons, I'm not a poser, which you would understand better if you saw me.

I have seen a few ugly looking monstrosities on the front of some landys since I got mine and started looking at them. The one thing that usually stands out in my mind that detracts from the look of the vehicle is some of the winches on them. But the same opinion applies to the looks as it does to the cost, if it saved my landy from the sea, to hell with what it looks like or cost me.

My landy is the love of my life, not my vanity (I know I need to get out more.)

Time to eat then off to work.
 
Looks quite good imho, but I'm a lazy bugger and forgetful in my old age so if I didn't have the winch mounted I'd probably forget to bring it. I didn't actually mean I thought they were horrible looking, (although that is what I typed in the heat of the moment,) I was more trying to convey that I wouldn't be buying one for aesthetic reasons, I'm not a poser, which you would understand better if you saw me.

I have seen a few ugly looking monstrosities on the front of some landys since I got mine and started looking at them. The one thing that usually stands out in my mind that detracts from the look of the vehicle is some of the winches on them. But the same opinion applies to the looks as it does to the cost, if it saved my landy from the sea, to hell with what it looks like or cost me.

My landy is the love of my life, not my vanity (I know I need to get out more.)

Time to eat then off to work.

I think winches on the front of landys look ****e no matter how fitted ! But they are a handy bit of kit though :D
 
Looks quite good imho, but I'm a lazy bugger and forgetful in my old age so if I didn't have the winch mounted I'd probably forget to bring it. I didn't actually mean I thought they were horrible looking, (although that is what I typed in the heat of the moment,) I was more trying to convey that I wouldn't be buying one for aesthetic reasons, I'm not a poser, which you would understand better if you saw me.

I have seen a few ugly looking monstrosities on the front of some landys since I got mine and started looking at them. The one thing that usually stands out in my mind that detracts from the look of the vehicle is some of the winches on them. But the same opinion applies to the looks as it does to the cost, if it saved my landy from the sea, to hell with what it looks like or cost me.

My landy is the love of my life, not my vanity (I know I need to get out more.)

Time to eat then off to work.

You can always leave it in the back of your landy when not using it.. Just another option :)
 
billody ell thats crap the more weight you put on your car just adds to the strain put on the winch
might pay you to look at how other people have set there winches up will you run a twin batt sys what batts will you use optima numax what split charge sys do you want to use what extra recovery equipment do you think you need ie portable tree shackles strops ect and then find some one or a center to show you what it all can do
 
Looks quite good imho, but I'm a lazy bugger and forgetful in my old age so if I didn't have the winch mounted I'd probably forget to bring it. I didn't actually mean I thought they were horrible looking, (although that is what I typed in the heat of the moment,) I was more trying to convey that I wouldn't be buying one for aesthetic reasons, I'm not a poser, which you would understand better if you saw me.

I have seen a few ugly looking monstrosities on the front of some landys since I got mine and started looking at them. The one thing that usually stands out in my mind that detracts from the look of the vehicle is some of the winches on them. But the same opinion applies to the looks as it does to the cost, if it saved my landy from the sea, to hell with what it looks like or cost me.

My landy is the love of my life, not my vanity (I know I need to get out more.)

Time to eat then off to work.
i sed tirfor in that thread too.Int i boring:cool:
 
i sed tirfor in that thread too.Int i boring:cool:

Yep, you did, you were first to mention the Tirfor I think. I watched the Ask an Expert vid (and a few others) and it does certainly seem to do the job very well, especially if using the block (or even more than one.)

So, as I was being loaded tonight, I was nattering with the catch team foreman and as I know he's into his 4x4's and wheeling and dealing, I mentioned I'd been considering getting a winch. He reckons he knows of about three definites and another couple of possibles which are just lying about going spare. He's gonna try and find out about one which came off an ex-AA recovery vehicle which he claims has been used to move a loaded artic on one occassion. Sounds like a good un if the price is right.

I'll let y'all know what transpires from this. I might even try to bag more than one if anyone on here should want them at the price I pay for them.

A bit tired this morning, it was a long night driving through freezing fog, snow and black ice, but thankfully no off-road stuff, just dirt farm track.

Off to bed.
 
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