Aftermarket Winch

[m16ty]

I'll put my stock PTO winch up against a 18k electric any day. Let's hook both our trucks to a tree and then tie the winch cables together. I'm not 100% sure I'd win but I'm sure enough that I'm willing to try it.

Ok, I'll admit y'all make some good points. Electrics do have some good points. I'll also admit the learning curve on a electric is not nearly as steep as a PTO. You really have to know what you're doing to get the most out of your PTO winch.

I'd still like to hook my PTO to an electric. I could very well loose but atleast we would know which one was on top.

 

[joec]

We've tried that. The shear pin breaks. But if you double it it works good until the pin shears again. Single line even the 12k 24v over the pto the electric has won. Only winch better is the hydraulic.

 

[tm america]

Electric is great till your battery fries out or water gets in there and messes up the motor or relays..I have had all different types...All have good and bad..electric winches are a big burden on the electric system and dont hold up long under heavy use.There is a good reason tow trucks and commecial uses of winchs are hydro or pto......The stock winch when used properly kills everything else in durabilty..electric winches and hydro do not have safety devices built in to protect the winch and you from over loading it and this can be costly or deadly when not properly used....The stock deuce winch just breaks the shear pin... five minutes one dollar for a shear pin and a change to fix what you were doing wrong and you are out of the mud safely...Now i do think it would be nice to put a stronger pto winch on there and still use the shear pin settup...It's just hard to find another pto winch that holds 250 ft of cable and won't overload the front of a deuce?Maybe a better setup would be a centally located pto winch and a pulley system to run the cable to the front or back ?

 

[wldrbob]

actualy i have thought of puting an 8500 electric beside the pto winch on the front of my gasser it would be faster for pulling a tree out of the way or light winching,moving stuff,you know one of the hundred things you can find to winch when your out in the yard i supose you could hook both winches up and realy wreck things ha ha ha

 

[colelkhunter]

I really like the hydraulic winches, they run cool even under heavy loads. They have issues like every other system and they are not fool proof. Hydo winches are expensive! even compared to a big quality electric, unless you salvage one from a roll back or something similar. Then you also have to figure out how to drive it? PTO to hydro pump, then add a resevoir. PTO has a place for sure, nothing wrong with them if used properly, downfall of them is safety for a single operator. A quality electric rated to pull the weight you have is great median ground for me. An 18.5k will snatch a bobbed deuce out of a hole in a heartbeat, by myself. Now if I used it everyday, all day I would have something else. Most likely a Hydro winch. Ramsey makes a beast 20k hydro winch that I saw once on a semi truck wrecker. It has no problem righting a semi and trailer turned over on it's side. Then pulling them to the truck. What ever best suits your needs and desires is what is best for you. Not what someone tells you that you should get. Assess your needs, buy accordingly. BUT there is no such thing as too much winch, eventually something will happen and you will need it.

 

[tennmogger]

What about mounting the stock winch behind the rear axle, and snaking the cable forward to the front bumper within a tube, probably running down the driver's side? mid-mounted winches work? Talking about the cables are routed so they can pull from the front or rear. Doubled back on themselves so that it would be a double-line pull from the front and a single-line pull from the back? Re-route the winch cable as needed? Never really seen a vehicle with a winch setup like that up close enough to figure out how they make it work.

You can check out this site:

Rocky Mountain Moggers - Bob Ragain's Frenchie - Moglite

to see one way to mid-mount a winch and use it to the front or the back. This is my 1957 404 Unimog. The pictures were from several years span as the truck evolved. This setup has done a lot of work (as you can see from the worn out paint).

All the components were aligned so that the winch self-spools from the center rear feed point. Extra rollers allow either end to pull off to the side.

With this winch setup the pull to the rear is always double line. Just run a little cable slack, insert sheave/snatch block, and hook to that. Pull from the front can be double or single line. Using a double line setup on the front, and on the rear, both the front sheave/snatch block and the rear sheave/snatch block can be anchored to immovable objects, winch in to tighten the cable, then the truck can be driven "along the cable". That has worked fine for us to traverse a steep side slope and not roll sideways off the mountain.

Also, by using double line on both ends (and a good anchor on whichever end is convenient) another vehicle can be pulled out with little strain on the truck. The truck just sits there and the winch does all the work.

BTW, I much prefer a hydraulic winch (which my other Unimogs have) but this '57 truck had no hydraulics available.

Bob

 

[m16ty]

Hydo winches are expensive!

There not too bad if you already have a stock winch. I debated going hyd when I installed my winch ( I already had a hyd pump installed for my dump bed) but I went with the PTO just because it was a bolt on setup and I don't use the winch that much anyway. I may still go with a hyd winch if I get tired of the PTO. Best I remember a hyd motor to drive the stock winch was around $300. Of course you still have to buy a pump, pto, valve, and whatnot.

 

[srodocker]

im curious aswell on this so im tuneing in.

 

[wldrbob]

old farm grain trucks usualy have pto driven hyd pumps complete with resevor and there cheap at auction or wrecker yard some of the ones ive seen drive a seperate pump with a roller chain to run drill fill augers for seeding

 

[shovelheadmike]

Choosing a winch based upon cable length IMHO, is not very good logic as extension cables and straps are very reasonable in price. Unless you plan to use your winch for multiple recovers all day long, I would not consider the factory PTO driven winch at all. It is difficult to use, and is not safe to be operared by only.one person. The 18K Warn will give you the most bang for the buck, much easier to use, and is safe for one person to operate. For those really tough pulls where the vehicle is up to the axles in mud, just use a snatch block. Also, it adds less weight to the front end. I'm very happy with mine. It works great. Do a search and you will see pictures of the install. I.think that it looks much better than the Garwood PTO winch, or even the very hard to find hydraulic winch that was.the only original option on my A3. Also, it is very easy to wire it up to control at the bumper and/or from inside the cab. You could also easily put one at the rear of your deuce.

 

[shovelheadmike]

Oh, the Warn 18K is also much easier to install than a hydraulic.

 

[wldrbob]

i cant see the not safe for one person deal at all i use mine by myself all the time . its a worm gear you can stop and check it anytime you want take your time if your stuck your not going anywhere anyhow . i try not to winch on an angle and in my situation winching logs i can usaly pull straight on .on the auto all i have to do is slip it into park the winch stops turning .. on my hyd all you have to do is let go the hyd valve it goes to neutral and the winch stops turning im in the cab on both seemes ok to me

 

[mudguppy]

 

[joec]

Couldn't have said that statement better!!

The PTO winch I had on the back of the M543 was kinda dangerous to use as opposed to hydraulic. It has the Air operated clutch on the unit but there always is a possibility of it not disengaging.

My experience with cranes from 10T TO 600T hydraulic and Conventional lattice boom.


But for the money A electric will work fine. As they are commercial grade 24v and are made for severe duty. I understand if the Alt fails the winch dies. But if you have 1,000 amps of battery. It takes awhile to kill them. The 60amp kit will cure that. And run the truck at 850 rpm to keep the juice flowing.

 

[jesusgatos]

Running the winch from inside the cab seems like the sketchiest part of the whole deal, regardless of what kind of winch it is. I don't want to be anywhere in the path of a broken winch cable whipping back towards the truck.

 

[jesusgatos]

This is my 1957 404 Unimog...

Thanks for the link, and the info. That's pretty much what I was imagining. Cool to see how you put it all together though. Can't see how there would be enough room for the cable to spool onto the winch properly if it were mid-mounted parallel to the framerails, outside the frame. But rear-mounting the winch (behind the rear axle, between the framerails), running the line forward to the front bumper, and then doubling it back to the back of the truck might be an option, huh? Like how that would distribute the weight, and not add to the length of the truck.

 

[colelkhunter]

There are some very nice synthetic winch ropes out there that are not only stronger than steel cable, but relatively harmless should you break one. I have been looking at this for some time. I havn't made my mind up which I will get, but i will be getting one of them. You can also spool twice as much on a winch drum. They are smaller diameter than steel and light weight, non kinking. Look into that. No it doesn't look military, but when it comes to my safety and the safety of others around who cares. I have seen this stuff in action and was very impressed. It is pricey, but well worth it I think.

 

[jesusgatos]

Yeah, I've been looking into that too (synthetic lines). The weight savings could be substantial (hundreds of pounds).

 

[Squirt-Truck]

Be very very careful of drinking the synthetic rope kool-aid.

 

[wldrbob]

id rather be inside the cab than standing 10 or so feet from the winch hanging onto the winch controle , if it realy bothers you lift the hood nothing is going through the hood and if you have a weight on the cable like your supposed to a broken cable will be just that,broken and on the ground ..fix it and carry on