winch advice

[Cambridgejohn]

Hi - anyone got advice on winchs? Which brand for reliability. Mounting advice etc etc.
Ta

[ELVIS]

When I had LRs , I always stuck with Warn stuff as easy enough to rebuild,service and get parts for. If one bit goes then you can rebuild it- not fork it for a new winch.

You pay for the privilege but quality costs I guess.

What you do need to do is calculate what vehicle it is going on and its useage. Ie self recovery, recovery of other vehicles, pulling logs from woodland, recovering boat onto trailer etc etc

For self recovery purposes (obviously same applies to recovering others) Your (choose vehicle) weighs x tonnes on the VIN plate so some ,wrongly, are of the belief that this is what is needed.

Your vehicle might way x tonnes to pull on a flat Tarmac surface with inflated tyres, start factoring the vehicle having 1/2/3/4 flat tyres, loaded to max axle weights, is on varying degree slopes (being pulled uphill) and is up to its axles in thick clay.

Your x tonne vehicle suddenly 'weighs' multiples of its actual weight for recovery purposes.

Then you start getting into pulley blocks to increase pull (but the angle it is pulled at in relation of the line from the vehicle to pulley also affects calculations) , the 'pulling power' given is calculated on the first layer of 'rope' on the drum, as the layers build , the power decreases.

Etc etc etc etc etc

Long answer short, what vehicle is it going on, what do you plan to use it for , max weight expected to be carried etc etc?

[volks_womble]

All excellent advice. What vehicle and what you want to do with it are the biggest of questions to answer.

Other things to consider:

New or second hand
Can you fabricate your own mount?

Assuming this is for a t25 I assume high line winches are not in contention?

Similarly I assume you are looking at electric winches rather than hydraulic or mechanical ones?

Happy to advise, just need to know where to start

Cheers
Mark
(Ex-winch challenge competitor...)