Winches & Winching

[Mad Manny]

As for weight modern winches are quite light with the synthetic rope.
So that weight is marginal.

I dunno if I'd call 30kg 'marginal' & that excludes the plate/mounting.
So probably 36kg in total.
Right out at front...

Then add the steel bumper (because almost no one fits a winch without having fitted a replacement bumper).
Then you have somewhere between 66kg & 90kg - far in front of the front wheels.

[AndreasR]

It’s all about needs and wants.

You want one you get one.

You will need one if you use your vehicle in a way that is going to put it in danger of total loss. To spend that money and lug that weight around for the one time you might need it to save your vehicle rolling down a mountain is worth very cent.

To spend that money and lug that weight around looking for some idiot who puts his vehicle at risk without the necessary recovery equipment is your choice.

Personally I prefer not to place my vehicle in such perilous situations. I like to get to where I’m going.

[grips]

Have done lots of winching in my time.

Not a necessity but convenient to have.
Can think of quite a few recoveries that would have been almost impossible without a winch.

Also there are so many other uses for a winch. Just make it easy to load game when hunting. Have used it numerous times in my business as a tool to install heavy cables.

Handy tool to have


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[Bugjuic]

Great Question!

1. I do NOT have a winch

2. If get a winch for free or under R1000 I would probably take it and install it.

I have never been recovered by one, mostly recovered by ropes/snatch, or dug myself out. Only ONCE I really wish I had one, and it was the last part of Hells Hoogte. Got Desmond up and with a short tug of a rope I was over also.

Anyhow I believe if you travel SOLO a lot, a winch is a good idea and would be the only reason I would fit one. Not too sound too selfish, but as I see it, if you have a winch, is like having a bakkie, although you use it, everyone else also wants to use it, and if damage occurs, it’s my responsibility irrespectively…

Also having to carry around an extra 40kg as your daily drive is not very clever…! Have played with the idea of a removable winch which can slot into the front or rear 50x50 towing attachment, when you ‘know’ you might need it…

[Mike-PS]

If you intend to use your rig for proper 4x4 ing - YES
If you intend to use your rig for overlanding - NO


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[Martin de Jager]

Well apart from my own recovery, I personally recovered quite a few people. I remember when Bugger and myself recovered Renier. We did a tandem pull.
Having sold the Fortuner, my Jimny still has a winch fitted, even with this I have recovered myself and others.
On the last tour in the Namaqua I got stuck in the Tuna towing the Invader, even the Cruizer got stuck, eventually pulled against each other and got unstuck.

[NINJA]

I say better to have it and not need it, then need it and not having it

[Jadranko]

i have one.
2500 lbs. ( 2500lbs winch have pulling power of 12 man.)
portable,in a ammo box.i pack it and take it with me only when travel or do trails.
it can be unpacked and attached at a front or rear in less than 5 min.
i get stuck every second month plus i do 3 weekends a year as recovery weekends.just for sake of practice.
2500 lbs winch + 1 pulley recovers bakkie on a trail up the 20 degree incline with no sweat.
2500 lbs winch + 1 pulley pulls bakkie trough knee deep mud.


safety factors for shackles and mountings are important,as they cab break and cause injury if misused.
winch - when over loaded- just stops.in this case i dig little or add another pulley......

unfortunately this setup does not come with "cool factor" to brag about around camp fire....
but it works for me.

PS
my setup,all together, weights about 10kg packed in a box(winch,pulleys,rope...etc)

[Mad Manny]

2500 pounds is small, about 1200kgs....

[PsyPhin]

I do the math's every time I need to get winched out by someone else (looking at you Ratchet) and the numbers never work out looking at cost of winch, bumper and suspension that is needed.
Maybe once a year it would have been needed, 3 times a year it would be convenient.
But with new car, I now have one and I intend on getting a lot of practise with it and playing with pulleys systems and whatever.
I have a winch ring on the way which I am excited to experiment with.

[Jadranko]

yes it is small.
think of it this way:
park fearless on flat surface and try to push.
it will move.
because you don't need 2500kg of force to make 2500kg vehicle moving.
as long as object rests on a ground gravity takes most of its weight.

[Jadranko]

paste old post:

possible,inexpensive, solution for recovery as one in your case and many other similar where not much
power is needed which makes 99%:
2500 lb winch R2000-R2500
30m of 5mm synthetic rope R700 with delivery to krugersdorp
2 soft shackles,2 bow shackles R500 for all.
no recovery points necessary.tow points will do.
what i did is as follow:
winch-remove steel cable and throw it away(i kept hook ,not sure why)
synthetic rope -one side cut on acute angle and tape it as makes it easier to insert in to winch when needed.other end splice in to eye.
rest is easy.
tow point,shackle,winch,rope,soft shackle,anchor point.10 min setup at slow pace.

to consider:
2500lb winch have more pulling power than 10 man but it is still weakest link in whole setup.
naturally if one turn wheels slowly while winching there is less load on winch.


this is from safety side:
before anything else fails winch will stop if overloaded.
if rope fails(second in strength) there is nothing to fly around and cause injury.
whole setup can be moved to rear of vehicle if 3m of the proper electric extension is used(this is very important "the proper")

simplicity is that all this fits in to mid size tool box,can be carried only when needed and packs easily.
less than 10 kg for all in comparison to 30-40kg,for 'good" winch only, permanently attached .


i do not make videos but i do test everything in real life before post it here or tell it elsewhere.
some believe it some not.

[Saxj]

Mostly mine gets used for pulling other vehicles e.g. Ford Rangers.

It has however been used to get me out of some serious dwang.

At 3P Tierkloof trail, I took the wrong route, which put me sideways on a grassy slope, and if I tried to move, the car started sliding closer to the edge, which was a one metre drop to the narrow track below, which led to a long steep slope. I had to get someone on the correct route above me, then winched myself so that i was 90 degrees to the slope. I could then drive back onto the correct route.

In Savuti, on a solo trip, we were very close to getting stuck in mud, the winch would have been our only option if we had got stuck. Later on the same trip we had to pull a fallen tree out of the way with the winch.

[Bugger]

Yip mostly for others

Tiny I used it At Carnage and winches Manny up.a river embankment where Rynier was winched
Syncro I Winched Chaz up

I was stuck on a farm for 2 days with Syncro.and if I had a winch at the time it would have been nice

Off road toy = Winch= Yes

Overlanding =Winch=No. As long as you do your trips in dry season

Our Past Botswana trip we saw lots and lots of deep tracks from wet season
I would not have liked to be there without a winch

[Hyades]

I don't have one on my car.

My sister had a 76 before they moved to the UK. They had a winch on their car. Used all over Southern Africa. The winch was used almost daily by us when on trips. To hang our laundry.