My Wonderful Wife...

El_Cid_2000

El_Cid_2000

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2004
570
0
Charleston, South Carolina
My wife wants to get me a winch for Christmas. I've never had one before and only used one a couple of times, but now that I've got the Disco my offroading trips are going to increase and I'm going to need one for myself or someone else.

Here are my questions. What winch should I ask for and why? I think I'd prefer to stay away from the hydraulic types as I don't want to bother with the extra install hassle and Lord knows I don't need something else leaking on my truck. ;)

Now I?ve got to research some bumpers too. Woo Hoo!!

Thanks, Michael
 
F18Guy

F18Guy

Well-known member
Mar 30, 2004
2,185
0
54
Down by the big rock
Mike,

There are tons of winch discussions that have taken place here at Dweb. The winch is definately not something to skimp on. Some people will say you need a winch capacity of 1.5 times your vehicle weight and others say bigger is better. It's all going to come down to what you are really going to do with it and where you are going to go.

One more thing to factor in is weight. If you add a bumper and winch to the front of your discovery, you could end up with spring issues.

I ordered my WARN 12k from http://www.clemson4wheel.com/ From time to time they have specials like "Free shipping" with your order. The UPS guy was not pleased when he dropped a 132 lb winch off at my office :D
 
El_Cid_2000

El_Cid_2000

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2004
570
0
Charleston, South Carolina
Paul,
Clemson 4X4 is here in S.C and its only about 30 minutes away from my grandmothers house. I was thinking 9.5k or bigger as I'm not sure what vehicle I'd be winching out and down here we have red clay mud like nobodies business and it will really stick you. BTW, I have the RTE HD springs.

Keep the info coming,
Michael
 
traveltoad

traveltoad

Well-known member
Sep 4, 2004
991
0
SoCal - USA
Do at least a little research into how you plan to mount the winch. You will find that many mounting options will have limits as to what winch you will be able to fit.
 
Eric N.

Eric N.

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
3,980
0
Falls Church, VA
Well, what knid of bumper do you have or do you want? Not all winches will fit in all the bumpers. So you will need to think about both at the same time.. Unless you have a bumper already then you will need to buy some thing that will fit into that bumper..


I personally like any winch that has a worm gear (Husky or Ramsey RE). In my opinion they are stronger and will last longer and won't turn into "little smokers" like you will read about in lots of those archived winch discussions. Only problem is that there aren't very many choices of bumpers that fit those winches.. I think you would have to either get a Rovertym or Rover Solutions bumper if you wanted one of those winches. That or you would have to mod the other bumpers yourself which isn't an easy task.. Well, for me it wouldn't be. You may be a mod wizz.
 
R

Rocky

Well-known member
Apr 23, 2004
2,180
7
Red Sox Nation
Before deciding on winch, decide on winch bumper as that will push you in a particular direction in your selection of winches.
Winch line wire cable v Synthetic (most likely to see wire cable when new)
Capacity. Understand that manufacturers ratings are based on different standards. Superwinch x9 is actually stronger than Warn or Ramsey equivalent. Look at Stall ratings.
Good luck
 
Mike_Rupp

Mike_Rupp

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
3,604
0
Mercer Island, WA
If you plan on going in mud, and you are dead set against hydraulic, then look to the Husky or Ramsey worm drive winches. Planetary winches are ok for small pulls like getting yourself over an obstacle. Getting stuck in mud presents a completely different scenario. You will be looking at much longer pulls. Planetary winches aren't called smokers for no reason.

The Husky and Ramsey RE are geared down quite a bit from planetary winches and will be much better at long pulls.

I know this is beating a dead horse, but I think that hydraulic winches are a better option than electrics for winching in mud. Hydraulic winches motors have a 100% duty cycle. when I winch, I don't have to worry about listening to the winch motor load up and worry about if I'm pushing too hard. As far as the install, its not a big deal. If you can tighten a couple fittings together and tighten a hose clamp or two, you can install a hydraulic winch. Installing the MM was my first project on my disco, other than installing the bumper. It only took me a few hours to get it installed. I wrote up a install page in the tech section if you're interested, which also includes installing a higher psi pump and relief valve to get the most out of the MM.
 
Randy

Randy

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
613
0
Easton, Pa.
One thing to keep in mind if you are thinking hydrolic is that with a hydrolic winch you have to have the engine running to use it. While you WANT the engine running with an electric also, to keep the battery from draining down, it isn't absolutly required. If you run dual batteries with an electric winch you MIGHT get one shot at extracation if the truck is stalled out.
 
DeanBrown3D

DeanBrown3D

Well-known member
Apr 29, 2004
765
0
www.discoweb.org
Michael, if you do a lot of wet stuff (like dipping under water), the Warn 9.5Ti is great, strong, fast, and seemingly waterproof as far as I have seen. Its got good outer-layer pulling power too.

Dean
 
CaptainSpalding

CaptainSpalding

Well-known member
May 2, 2004
66
0
Warn and water don't mix.

DeanBrown3D said:
Michael, if you do a lot of wet stuff (like dipping under water), the Warn 9.5Ti is great, strong, fast, and seemingly waterproof as far as I have seen . . .
Click to expand...

Be advised of this tidbit from the Warn 9.5ti manual (page 7): "No lubrication is required for the life of the winch, unless the winch is submerged in water. If this occurrs, a qualified service center must complete service as soon as possible to prevent corrosion damage. If the control pack is submerged, it must be replaced when the winch is serviced." :eek:
 
Andrew Homan

Andrew Homan

Well-known member
Jun 7, 2004
3,682
0
Alaska
Love my Ramsey but suggest Warn.Sorry its an Oregon based company so trying to spur the economy. Ya I know I didn't by a Warn but its a long story :D
 
Jaime

Jaime

Well-known member
Apr 29, 2004
641
0
NJ
CaptainSpalding said:
Be advised of this tidbit from the Warn 9.5ti manual (page 7): "No lubrication is required for the life of the winch, unless the winch is submerged in water. If this occurrs, a qualified service center must complete service as soon as possible to prevent corrosion damage. If the control pack is submerged, it must be replaced when the winch is serviced." :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have a Warn 9.5 Ti and read that in the manual....of course, all the marketing stuff tells you about how its the most waterpoof Warn going..... Seems to me like the lawyers got their hand on the manual, because there is no way anyone is going to tear a winch down and have it serviced after a water crossing.

I just started using the Warn, and I do a LOT of water crossings through silty/sandy/muddy slop. This crap crept into the engage/disengage ring of my old Ramsey and prevented me from being able to freespool. The Warn is sealed waaaaay more than the Ramsey, so I'm hopefull it will last a lot longer in this environment
 
CaptainSpalding

CaptainSpalding

Well-known member
May 2, 2004
66
0
Jaime said:
. . . I just started using the Warn, and I do a LOT of water crossings through silty/sandy/muddy slop. This crap crept into the engage/disengage ring of my old Ramsey and prevented me from being able to freespool. The Warn is sealed waaaaay more than the Ramsey, so I'm hopefull it will last a lot longer in this environment
Click to expand...

I hope so too. I just got an XD9000, and the manual had the exact same thing verbatim in it. I didn't find out about the caveat until after I installed the little bugger. I have yet to use it in the field. The XD9000 has the electronics separate, and I'm considering getting the sealed MOSFET control pack, which is touted as all but waterproof. I would mount it high on the firewall.

Do you think that idea has any merit, or am I just falling for the hype?

- Spalding
 
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