Help buying a winch

I prefer Warn.

The new T-maxx winches are supposed to be good. They are out of Aussie land. I do not know anything about them tho.

Get one that is at least 1.5 times the weight of your rig. So if you rig weighs approx 6000 lbs, get a 9000 or 12000 lb winch. If your rig weighs 3000 lbs then a

6000 or 8000 lb winch is sufficient.

Oh yea, get or make up a winch kit with the neccisary tools in it (tree strap, chain, gloves, etc), and get someone who knows what they are doing to take you out and go thru the basic rules of winching and how to and not to do it so that you are doing it in a saafe manner.

Depending on your location, you may want to look at winch rope instead of cable too.

Just a side note, you can buy a used winch (with caution) and it often is fine. I picked my W9000i up at a swap meet and its been a great tool. All I did was e-mail warn for the wiring specs and buy some cables and it was good to go.

Although I don't know much about winches either, I go out with a bunch of hard core 4 wheelers, they all say the best is the Warn 8274, I didn't know why they liked that one till one outting about 6 vehicles had to be winched,

5 with the 8274 and the other with another model, but still a Warn, the speed of the 8274 was probably 3 times the other one, not only on the pulling speed but just getting the line out, I would say it was about the same amount of time spent on the one jeep as it took the other 5 with their 8274. Also comes with a longer line then other models.

For a Wrangler, get a winch rated anywhere in the 8,000-10,000 range. (Anything less won't give you enough pulling power when you need it most, and isn't worth the price savings.) Brand is personal preference. I like my Warn 8274, and have found Warn customer service to be great. I do not like Ramsey. Milemarker hydraulic winches will pull all day, but they are slow, require you to use your power steering system to make them work, and won't work at all unless your engine is running, therefore not the best choice for self-recovery.

As noted above, get the proper accessories such as shackles, chain, tree strap, tow strap (loops at each end, no hooks), snatch block, heavy leather gloves, etc. (Both Warn and Ramsey sell these in a kit.) Be sure your jeep has adequate tow hooks and/or D-ring shackles at both ends (all four corners is better), secured with the proper hardware. Most important, learn how to use your winch safely and practice using it before you need it.

You also want to give attention to your electrical system. A winch draws a lot of current. Be sure your charging system is up to snuff, all cables are fresh and connections clean and tight. You may want to consider a dual battery set up with a battery isolator between the two. That way your starting battery cannot be drawn down by your winch. (I once watched a guy on the Rubicon Trail use his winch for less than a minute when the engine was not running and drain his battery down so far that he couldn't get the engine started again. By the time we pulled a battery from another jeep to get close enough to use jumper cables, he had backed up nearly 30 rigs and became the butt of some very nasty comments on the CB.)

Oh, I almost forgot. Sometimes months can go by between winch uses. After any trip where you use your winch, let the cable out and re-spool it, making sure there are no kinks or signs of damage, and that the cable is clean. Also, it's a good idea to make sure your winch is working just before you hit the trail. I once found myself in a "predicament" requiring quick work only to discover that the ground connection for my winch, which hadn't been needed for 5 or 6 months, had developed some hidden corrosion which prevented the winch motor from operating. The problem could have been fixed in camp in less than

5 minutes had I bothered to check winch operation that morning.

The 8274 was the fastest, but now the Warn 9.5ti is right up there too. It also has the thermometric indicator (TI). A light on the remote that tells you if the winch is getting too hot. This thing is very nice for the price...I've seen them for as low as $860 . I really like mine. -- Rob "When you decide something is impossible to do, try to stay out of the way of the man that's doing it."

I don't work in the nicest area, so I want to be able to leave my winch at home when I have no need for it. I'm saving up now for this:

I've got the receiver on the front and back of my Wrangler already. All I need now is the winch and wiring kit.

-Kevin C.

You could tack-weld the mounting bolts perhaps ?

I just checked out a couple sites, but as for price, both sites showed it being just over the price of the 8274, and 10 ft/per/minute less speed, 25 less cable, but one thing it does have going for it is 20 lbs less weight.

Bumper mounts for a winch, especially Jeep-size bumpers (receiver hitches) are a really bad idea for mounting a serious winch. At the biggest, you could install a 3500 lb. capacity receiver hitch.... now do you think that's adequate for a winch rated at somewhere between 8,000 and 9,500 lbs? I sure as hell don't. Mount it onto the frame via standard winch mount and tack-weld a barrier over one or two of the mounting bolts so it can't be stolen.

Jerry

Kev>