what winch to get ???

Superwinch and goldfish TDS winches looks like they are about equal in quality and speed. But Superwinch is around 100 GBP more.

At least, that's what i can read from threads found via google.

You're right TomDK - there's not much to choose between them, except one important difference! I had a Goldfish on my Samurai, which I have now sold, and it was an excellent winch. Worked well and poweful. However on my VVT Jimny I have a Superwinch EP9, and the reason is down to size. I have an ORA winch bumper and the winch mounts 'feet forward' rather than feet down. So the 'height' of the winch makes a difference if you have a car with aircon. The room for the winch is tight and, from memory, the Goldfish is about 20 to 25 mm taller than the EP9. This means that it would have interfered with the fan on the aircon rad, so I bought the EP9 which fits well. Just something else to consider!

great winch, comes with a cover if you don't like the colour



asked many people about them before we bought and no one had a bad word about it

goldfish is great, but with a winchmax you get a synthetic rope and 2 wireless remotes for less than the cost of a basic goldfish with a steel rope and if your not competing then you don't need speed

thats the exact winch i've been watching on ebay. thanks for all the info!

In addition to the above comments, I would also add that if you are new to winching, slowly does it is not a bad thing, so a more powerful but slower winch may not be a bad buy.

My understanding of some of the cheaper brands is that the contacts in the electrical components may not be made from the best materials - not copper connections etc, and corrosion can cause issues.

This is not the end of the world though if you don't mind a bit of maintenance.

You can replace the contactor / solenoid, whatever you want to call it with a better one - Allbright etc.. and you can take the motor off whilst it's in new condition and put electrical contact grease on the connections etc and do so regularly.

If it's only being used greenlaning etc, it's not like you're going to dunk it under water like i have in the past - but won't be anymore due to the results!

The only thing to think about with synthetic ropes with the in the drum braked winches that you'll be looking at is the heat build up if you pay out a long distance on the motor rather than freespooling it, as the synthetic ropes degrade with the heat. No great issue, just use the freespool.

Kirkynut