Winch minimum requirements for off road use

[BadBoy]

I'm currently looking for a cheap winch and I'm not too sure what sort of minimum spec I should buy.
Don't want to spend out £100's of pounds on one at the moment. Ideally only around £50
What should I look for regarding capacities, or can any one recomend anything new that is ideal entry level?
Please no ebay bargins unless they have less than 1 day to run or are buy it now.

[Sir-Doris]

Minimum for both SWB and LWB should really be 9500lbs or even better yet a 12000lbs model as that will give you a good safety margin and the motor wont be running so close to its limit when in use.

Im sure a member or 2 have used a 8500lbs model but cant for the life of me remember who they are.

Make sure to get a proper winch, the ones on ebay are perfectly usable and several members have bought, fitted and used them successfully. Many being rebadged versions of better known brands.

I doubt very much a new winch could be had for 50quid, but for an ebay job budget around 200 quid.
For a brand name winch budget upwards of 300 quid.

Beware of trailer winches with capacities of 9000 or 12000lbs. Those capacities usually refer to rolling capacity and are used primarily for pulling boats onto trailers or say a quad bike onto a trailer. They are not recovery winches although Gregster used one recently to help him out of a sticky situation. They do however fall into your budget of about 50 quid.

[woodwizzard]

£50 is asking abit much for a suitable electric winch, might be better looking for a hand winch, tirfor style http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-Rat-Tirfor- ... 286.c0.m14

Have used one of these to pull a land rover 90 outa the goo. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-TON-CABLE-PULLE ... 286.c0.m14

Good thing with a hand winch is being able to use front and back.

[Retro Pedro]

Hi Paul - Just been through the process myself and Sir Doris is spot on the money.
I dare say you've been looking on ebay but it seemed to me the two main sellars are winchcol selling Extreme and autoliftuk a rebadged version of something.
Over the last few weeks I have seen a 12000lb Extreme go for £162 thereabouts (which p***d me off because I had my snipe set at £165 and it blew me out) and a run go at £175. All + P&P. But generally they do go for a bit higher.
In the end I won a 9500lb for just under £165 + P&P and then upgraded to a 12000lb for an extra £25.
That seems about average. They seem to come complete except for a mounting plate if you need one and a cut off switch.
I took on board what Greg advised me about steering clear of second hand ones. Chances are they would have been swimming under water at some time in their life anyway. I didn't see any second hand ones go for less than £150 all the time I was watching.
Wasn't that rabbit warren run that's prompted you was it. Best of luck anyway with it.

[gregster]

I think a lot depends on the make you go for matey....
If buying a budget brand winch I would go over the top on single line pull figure...
There are some 12000lb ones on ebay for around £200ish...

I think the branded ones like Warn, Superwinch, Goodwinch, Ramsey etc tend to put up with a bit more...
My yella fronterror has a Warn m8000 on it and I have abused the pants off it...killed 3 lots of solenoids, but the winch is still going strong...
I should add this winch has dragged the fronterror when dead, with all the extra weight of its cage 33's etc (and me ) up the cliffs which is not far off vertical before...granted with a snatch to get more wire off the drum, hence lowering gearing, and the snatch doubling the pull...
I bought a spare m8000 as it came up at the right price for bits for it, but it never broke, so that will be the rear winch on the chevybravafing as will tuck in the frame nicely...

I would go new, not secondhand (as they will be knackered), and get the most powerful that the budget will stretch to...best bet might be to check out Pedro's when he gets it fitted, and then see if his seller will do a repeat sale for the same price...

[BadBoy]

[Krusher]

[country_Est]

As above, but if the budget is £50(ish) then you are only looking at recovery of small stuck, ground outs ect NOT sunk up to the axels in mud.

What to look out for on the small hand winches is that they tend to only have 3m of cable so you need som adjustable way of connecting back to some thing to anchor your self to,

these are what I have in mind for such a thing


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-TON-HD-HAND-PULLER-WINCH-TURFER-FOR-CARAVAN-BOAT-Q52_W0QQitemZ270334537230QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Lifting_Moving_Equipment?hash=item3ef131ae0e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

and

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110393155748&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

That way you can use the strap to anchor and adjust and then the winch to move the truck, but as said above it will not really do heavy recover stuff.

Trev

[Frenchfarmer]

If money is a problem (but then isn't it just ) then I would kit myself out with some nylon strops and a pair of hand winches so you can pull one to its limit and then clip on the other and so on and so forth till you are out of trouble or your arm falls off.

[MyMu]