Winches

I'm wanting to put a winch on the front of my S3. They seem to be damnably expensive for what they are. The majority of the time it will be used to pull my boat oou of the water and onto its trailer so it doesn't need to be a particularly high pull rate, but it may be pressed into service for who knows what.

Does anyone have any reccommendations for good value winches? I don't mind paying a bit for one and I hate getting the cheapest of anything just to later find its made of liquorice and not really up to much.

Do I need to get a front bumper that is designed for a winch or will the bumper that is on there suffice? If it makes ant difference, the S3 is an ex-MOD 109.

Don't got one, but they seem to come with / fit on to a "winch bumper" (I've been looking & umming & ahhing about them too).

Have you considered fitting a capstan & using the PTO? A friend of mine had one on his III a few years back & I thought it was wicked. You can winch all day then using the hand throttle with no danger of a flat battery?

Found this for a bit of extra info - http://www.fourfold.org/LR_FAQ/Series/FAQ.S.opt.winches.Fairey.html

Hope that helps.

Best,
Marcus.