Winch: do I need one?

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

It was running left off the main track when heading east towards Ballandean. It was on an unmarked loop track that led to the steep zig zag Melidnium mine track. Me and my work mate mentioned it to another bloke at work during the week after and he knew of it. He had a 6 inch lifted GQ Patrol and lived Ballandean for 4 yrs and had been to Sundown a lot.

[Mule Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mule]

Thanks for the heads up

[Yo no soy un pajero Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Yo no soy un pajero]

Thanks Brett, that is really useful advice and thanks to all others who replied too. I'm now actually no closer to deciding either way but this all gives me plenty to think about.

One more question: is a really lightweight winch worth bothering with?

cheers

YNSUP

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

If you're meaning along the lines of a lighter weight capacity winch = a lighter weight winch in general then that's not really the case for electric winches for mid sized 4wds.
The actual weight difference between an 8,500 lbs winch and a 10,000lbs winch for example may only be 3-5kg. Sometimes the 8,500 lbs ones weight 2kg more than 9,500 lbs ones for some reason.

As for actual capacity, for your car I wouldn't really want to go less than 9,000 lbs. Mine's 8,500 lbs, but the kerb weight of my car is slightly less than yours. So with both our cars being fitted out with the exact same gear such as bull bar, tyres, roof cage, 2nd battery, your car will weigh more than mine.

There a 2,000 lbs and 4,000 lbs capacity winches for example that are light weight, but not designed for your car. Anything less than 8,500 lbs would be hitting its load limit if trying to pull your car out of a deep sand or mud bog, and would most likely lead to failure when you need it most.

There is a product called a "Bush Winch" which is light weight but I'm not personally sold on it. For your requirements it may be perfect though. I just wouldn't like to use it on a steep hill. There may be people who can speak from experience on it though.

Hand winches can be rated to around 4-4.5 tonnes. I have heard their overall reliability is not crash hot. Plus if you used it once, with the amount of effort involved, you'd never ever want to use it again and would be super cautious about where you took your car after that if that was what you'd be relying on for recovery.