UTV Winch?

[Jonsdeere]

Aside from having a short duty cycle, many relatively inexpensive winches have very slow retrieval speeds which make them frustrating to deal with. I have a Warn 9500 ti on my Jeep that will pull the Jeep with all four wheels locked up. As others have mentioned, the quality of the battery makes a huge difference in winch performance.

 

[charles todd]

Rigging a tractor with a winch sounds comical. I've been around farming,ranching and construction over 70 years and never saw anyone rig a tractor with a winch.

I have thought about mounting a 8k-12k winch on the front of my P7010C. Battery is right up front.

Have had a few times I have got in a bind and it would have recovered itself. Can also use it for recovering other things too.

CT

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Anybody ever watch a movie called “The Gods Must Be Crazy”?

There is a scene in it where the guy gets the Land Rover stuck in the river. He wades ashore with the line from the PTO winch, and gets it hooked over a large tree limb about twenty feet in the air, gets the Land Rover unstuck. His lady passenger goes into the bush to relieve herself, and gets stuck on a “wait a minute bush”, and starts screaming. So, he charges off to see what’s going on, and leaves the rover idling with the winch still engaged. By the time he gets her unstuck, and back to the rig, it is hanging in the tree, with the winch all the way in, and the motor stalled.

 

[bcp]

Bruce

 

[MarblemountLane]

That was a hilarious scene. I used to laugh at the old Koenig PTO winch commercial showing a 4x4 winching itself out of deep water. The one place I do not want a PTO winch is where I may have the engine flooded out.

A word about winch ratings: a 10,000 lb. rated electric winch will pull 10,000 lbs. just before it stalls (or melts down), if it has one wrap of line on the drum, the battery feeding it is perfect, the cables are big and have no losses, and the stars align correctly. A 10,000 lb. PTO winch is rated to pull 10,000 lbs. but with a V8 engine driving it, the only real limit is when something breaks. My Badland 12,000 lb. winch is marked in the manual and on the winch: 1st layer of wire rope = 12,000 lb. 2nd layer = 9,550 lb. 3rd layer = 8,000 lb. I don’t think it has that many wraps, but the winch is also marked 4th layer = 6,800 and 5th later = 6,000 lb.

Had the opportunity to salvage some logs a couple days ago. Wished for my ex-Navy 1966 International 1300 4x4 with Ramsey 10,000 lb. PTO winch. But that truck has been down for a few years. I have a receiver mount 10,000 lb. harbor Freight “Road Shock” that I bought around 2013, when the Ramsey REP8000 was stolen off my car trailer. I also have the fresh “Badlands” 12,000 but did not try to use that. The newer winch has only 65 feet of line. The Road Shock has 100’ and we needed it. Give that some thought. The old Warn 8000 and 8274 winches carried 150’ of 5/16 (I gather the new and extremely expensive 8274’s hold 125’ of 3/8 line). My Ramsey PTO came with 150’ of 3/8, and when I broke that yarding logs I bought 165’ of new 3/8 line. Many of today’s winches keep cost, size, and weight down by carrying only 65’ of line. Take a hard look at your likely uses.

We did OK, salvaging five 33 ft. saw logs left from a truck accident, after cutting them into 16-1/2’ logs, dragging sideways a bit with a carefully placed snatch block (not one of the toys they sell in 4x4 stores, a real Young 6” block from logging days), then winching uphill to near the trailer where I could get them with the tractor and load them onto the 16’ trailer with tongs on the bucket.

Making a rear fairlead bracket so I could use my “loading winch” to winch off the back of the car trailer was fun. We did give the winch a few breaks to cool down. The first group 27 deep cycle battery got tired before we were done, but I had another.

I have a three point boom pole for the Massey Ferguson 204 (County Line brand from Tractor Supply), and I set that up with a little old 3,500 lb. Powerwinch VR192, a block at the end and a fall block so I can double the 7/32” line. Not ideal; those boxy little Powerwinches where intended primarily for loading boats onto trailers, and they have no power out. But I had the winch. So far, this “world’s smallest logging skidder” has worked fine for harvesting firewood.

Consider your application. Consider your budget. Get what you can, then know its limitations and don’t exceed them.

BTW some PTO’s actually ARE reversible, but that’s pretty much accidental in the case of the MF Work Bulls with Massey’s ReversOmatic ahead of the transmission.

 

[Username Taken]

Years ago, when I used to play in the mud with my poor old Bronco, I had a 12k Warn Winch with the brush guard, etc on it. It would pull like a bear but I couldn't keep the tires from dragging. Especially when I was hooked to a 4k lb Swamp Buggy stuck in 4 feet of mud.

So I started carrying a boat anchor with me. Complete with about 6 feet of heavy chain and at least 50 feet of line like you'd have on a boat. It was a 22lb Danforth, IIRC. But they've gotten stupid pricey because -- Well, they can. You can find them cheap online and if you use your winch often, I recommend having that anchor to tie off of your rear (or front, depending where your winch is.

The anchor will grab and let you pull whatever. When I was done, I'd run over the anchor to break it loose. Didn't always work so I sacrificed a few anchors to the mud gods. Cheaper than finding a front loader to pull you out. Not a front-end-loader, I mean a Front Loader.

 

[coast40]

Discussion of tools on TBN ultimately leads to Harbor Freight as the go to source. On the other hand I don't see professionals in the field using Harbor Freight tools. You would think pros that have to replace tools often because daily use wears them out would wise up and stop paying 3 and 4 times what they would at HF.

I was surprised to see HF winches in Matt's Off Road Recovery videos on Youtube.

 

[walhondingMF]

Just something quick to bring this thread back up...
So Rural King switched winch brands and the old ones were on sale. Picked up a 3500# X Factor for $75, so even if it gets ruined, it was cheap.
I have it mounted to a receiver on a plate I bought from amazon. All the wiring complete except 1 thing. The switch has a 3rd red wire that is labeled "key" which I am assuming is to run to the key switch somehow so the winch only works when the key is on. I would prefer to just have it run "hot" all the time so I do not need the switch on. Do I simply need to just NOT hook this wire up to anything or does it need to be spliced into the "hot" power wire for the winch?

 

[koshari]

I would suspect it needs power, just try it, can only be one of the 2 scenarios you mentioned.

 

[WranglerX]

I would suspect it needs power, just try it, can only be one of the 2 scenarios you mentioned.

Ditto.....