Size of winches

Iv had a search on the forum but couldn't really find what I was looking for. What sort of size winch best suits the jim is it just the bigger the better of can you get away with small and compact. It's a completely new area for me so be gentle.

I don't pretend to be the authority on winch selection but for normal self recovery 8 to 9 thousand pounds pull is plenty adequate in fact it's perfectly reasonable to use a 6000 and a pulley. The only reason for anything much bigger is if you are regularly recovering something heavy like a land rover and you are able to find a good rear anchor to pull against. That said when I was serious about off road driving I covered thousands of miles and never had recourse to a winch either needing one of my own or having to use someone else's.

Useful to have, but as Lambert says, not really needed unless you are wanting to go to competitions (many of which wont allow a winch anyway, and you could get a lockrite fitted for similar money and better overall effect).

But I cant talk, I have a 13500lb orange winchmax one bolted on mine :laugh:

Synthetic rope is important and much safer (even the chinese stuff is safer than a steel rope). Cheaper winches (like my winchmax) tend to go for headline pulling power specs, when really I think speed is more important. Look at the gearbox ratio in the spec of the winch. my winchmax is 265:1 and fairly slow with it, Goodwinch have 175:1, so much faster at a similar load rating.

Batteries - for an occasional backup winch I would be simply using the stock battery. Dual batteries are for competition use really.

It all depends what you want it for. If you are going to get stuck in deep ruts and have to drag it along on its belly or winch up steep inclines, you'll want a 9000lb.

If you might get lightly stuck on a green lane because you don't have big tyres, a 6000lb will tug you out. Is the cost much different though? I don't think so. As for speed, the more you pay, the quicker they get. Is speed important if it's just for a little tug to get you going on a lane?

Slow is controlled too. You're less likely to have an accident then.

Kirkynut

Expanding on this topic, I was wondering about any thoughts on the Winch-in-a-bag or other portable-type winches. I don't really want to fit a permanent winch on to my Jimny (and it will clearly be on the wrong end for whenever I get stuck or need to use it :laugh: ), and they seem handy to have in the boot when going off-roading. I am not intending to do anything heavy with them, but it would mean some light off-roading at the weekend would be possible without a second car ready to tow each other when needed. I have been cross-axled on embarrassingly small bumps that only needed a few inches of movement to get going again, and having that fallback would be great.
It also means it can be used to recover any friend's car as well in many combinations, so it would do a few of us who get together in different combinations.

Has anyone tried the portable winches with good or bad experiences?

Nick

I have a friend with a tirfir(sp) the manual lever action thing and he swears by it on his farm loads of usefulness. It just requires decent attachment points on the car.