Ox Hydraulic Winches

[miker]

Have decided to sell a kidney and put a winch on the Fender. Have relied on the hand winch for years (very successfully) but it's time.

Can't recall any bad press in my travels compared to the electrics. Any first hand experience good or bad??

Miker.

[blitz]

Dunno if they are still made but the Bamford hydraulic winch made here in Australia could be bought in damned near any strength you want the Ox only comes in 10000Lb doesnt it?

Mind you that will pull christ off the cross anyway. They are a good unit from what I here, can shear pins if over loaded

Blythe

[miker]

Blitz, a big part of the appeal is there are no heating/rest period issues. I have heard that ultimately they may shorten the life of the power steer unit through extra load. As for load I'm chasing up the specs now. Will purchase within the next few weeks.

Miker.

[barney]

maxi drive were making an auxilliary hydraulic pump that ran off the pto of your transfer case, with a higher output for just such an accessory as the hydraulic winches running off the P.S pump can be painfully slow

[defenderbilby]

I have the Ox Hydraulic winch on my Defender. It is very low maintenece, will run underwater provided engine still going and pull all day BUT PAINFULLY SLOW. Consider running with hydraulic pump but then adds to big dollars.
For general duty I would recommend an electric winch unless you really feel the need for the big investment.

[streaky]

Our Dave has an OX winch on his Prado for the past five years. He's very happy with it and has no problems AFAIK.
He runs his from the power steering pump. Yes, very slow, but it's not used for comps so who cares...a fit and forget item.

[miker]

Thanks. I tend to agree with STREAKY, if a 20min winch becomes a 40min winch I'm not too perturbed. As I said having done many hours on the hand winch over the past few years it's all good here. Appreciate the feedback. Still look'n to go the hydro. If the defenders engine isn't running given a diesel with a snorkel and water resist ECU's I don't reckon an electric will be of much use either.

Miker.

[Blknight.aus]

you can have some real fun with the hydraulic units and the best part is if you do a couple of cheap mods to the lines during setup you can expand your capabilites fairly easily without too much expense

after its all done head to a truck wreckers and get hold of the hyd power pack that drives a tailgate lifter. theres your auxillery elec back up.

next get a hydraulic pump off of a forklift and do 1 of 2 things with it

1. fit it in place of the existing powersteering pump or 2, mount it on a stock rear driving PTO for your tcase type and theres all the flow you could ever want.

and to make all this easily feasable all you have to do is fit a couple of check valves and t pieces to the existing lines that will be installed.

(oh and once youve got the winch you can add a blade to the front on a set of rams so that you can lower that in place to take the load off of your suspension when you sit yourself on top of the hill and winch everyone else up whose elec winches have let their smoke out.)

[mcrover]

I dont think there is anything better than a Hyd. winch BUT if the engine is dead, so is your winch.

Depending on how often you winch, I would run an electric aux pump which can be cheaply built with a small starter motor and a power steering pump and some nuts bolts and a lathe this would mean you could run the winch with the engine not running.

Failing building your own, I may be able to source one for you and I would fit a PTO driven pump over running it off your pwr steer pump but thats up to you, it would be pumping oil regardless of weather or not you use it or not.

[Piddler]

Hi All,
I have worked as a Hydraulics Engineer Victorian Hydraulics in Melbourne can sell you pretty cheap a little "12v Smiths" Hyd P/Pack all intergrated we used regually on vehicle tippers. If you want a remote power pack these would work a treat at a cheap price.

Cheers

[camel_landy]

BTW - The Superwinch Husky works to similar specs... You can get a double seal for each end of the drum which will let it work underwater and with the uprated motor it'll pull much the same (this uprated version is what was fitted to a lot of the Camel vehicles).

The Husky may be slow but it'll chug along all day long without geting hot.

M

[Tusker]

I've only seen them in action a couple of times, & I wan't impressed. Worked ok, but not better that an electric. Even spooling in takes forever. And at least with an electric you can hear how hard it's working, & double line it if need be. You've really gotta have experience with PTOs if you're going to avoid shear pin issues. (does the Ox have a shear pin??)

Consensus seems to be a LandRover power steering pump is adequate for power steering, but not these things as well. Unless the pull is dead ahead, turning the steering wheel will divert fluid & almost stall the winch. You really need an auxillary pump to be reliable & bulletproof in all circumstances, something like the Maxidrive one Barney referred to.

Having said all that, whenever my Warn motor fails, getting a hydraulic conversion for the hi-mount is on the cards. Fast, reliable, only $6000 all up...

Regards
Max P

[mcrover]

$6000 all up, you could mount 5 low mounts on truck for that, 2 on the back and 3 n the front lol.

If your gonna go Hydro, you want both elecy pump and engine driven as if you just have a elecy pump you may as well buy an elecky winch.

Another advantage to a hydro pump is that you can mount a pressure guage to make sure you dont over load the winch, chassis or bullbar and when calibrated it will tell you acuratly what weight you were pulling.

Good for bragging rights.

By the way Tusker I would get in touch with Piddler before spending $6000 on your high mount converting it as he should be able to do it cheaper than that id assume if not then I would by an OX and just run a BIG pump as that is what determins your line speed on Hyrdo winches.

[Tusker]

Yeh a bit $$$y, it's still on the wish list.

Includes the Maxidrive PTO pump, & puts a hydraulic motor theough the hi-mount gearbox.

Only heard of one conversion, but by all reports works extremely well.

Regards
Max P

[Merv]

If your gonna go Hydro, you want both elecy pump and engine driven as if you just have a elecy pump you may as well buy an elecky winch.

Hydraulic still has advantgaes over electric.

A hydraulic winch with an electric pump still draws a lot less current then an electric winch and doesnt need to stop and have a rest after a couple of minutes.

[Utemad]

I had an Ox hydraulic 12000 pound on my Rodeo. It was way overkill for the application but I got it free. Just had to pay $210 for the Rodeo specific hydraulic hoses.

My Disco came with an 8000 pound Warne lowmount.

I had the Ox for around 3 or 4 years and barely used it. When I did it always worked but was the slowest thing you could imagine. However that is often a plus as if you are winching you probably need to play it slow and safe anyway.
From what I could tell the hydraulic was much lighter than an equivalent electric. I don't think I would have been able to put a 12000lb electric winch on the front of my Rodeo.

I've used my electric winch twice. Once to recover a rolled Hilux and once to pull stumps from the ground. Both times the electric winch sounded like it was working much harder. However it was rated to 4000lb less.

To add to what was said earlier the Ox does not have a shear pin. If you overload it it will just stop. It can't burn out but it must have fluid bypass valves or something. I know stuff all about hydraulics.

For someone that doesn't rate speed too highly then the hydraulic is probably the way to go with my limited use of both of them.

[Utemad]

Hydraulic still has advantgaes over electric.

A hydraulic winch with an electric pump still draws a loss let current then an electric winch and doesnt need to stop and have a rest after a couple of minutes.

This is definately a bonus with hydraulic but for the 4wd club type weekend warrior (like me:)) would you ever really reach the limits of your winch heat wise? When I've been involved with or seen winching you generally have to stop regularly and reassess and rejig your gear anyway.

[miker]

Jesus fellas! Ya'll gone given me a think attack now!! I understand what your're saying. And not being a tech by any measure I'm sure it's not too complex but my inclination would be to run with a stanard application. I've only used a hand winch in earnest 3 times in the last few years (albeit each occassion was a pretty full-on predicament). If this is a personal guide stanard dress would probably suffice. The tech talk is good 'cause it gives options - ta.

Miker.

[stevo]

how much for the power pack piddler? as I have the ox winch set up with the hyd pump on the back of the transfer case

[Bushie]

Around 7 years ago I with a mate had to winch the Defender and a Patrol up two hills approx 200 metres each, I had a Warn hi-mount he had the hydraulic, at the end of the day there was bugger all time between us, he just kept going I had to let the winch cool a few times as well as allow the battery a bit of recuperation. Sort of what ever takes your fancy, recovery is meant to be slow and steady and safe.


Martyn

[RichardK]

Have decided to sell a kidney and put a winch on the Fender. Have relied on the hand winch for years (very successfully) but it's time.

Can't recall any bad press in my travels compared to the electrics. Any first hand experience good or bad??

Miker.

I imported a Milemarker 12000lb winch from the US which is the winch that is rebranded OX in Aust.
An excellent winch, powerful, quiet, and will go all day and not overheat.
The optimum setup though is to fit a dedicated pump for it as connecting to the power steering is only a compromise and will not be as effective.
I imported a pump from Alfred Marks in the UK for this purpose, it is a Disco PS pump specifically modified for the Milemarker winch here is a link http://www.4x4winches.com/prices.htm This cost me around $700 with the mounting Kit. The winch cost me around $1800 to my door and included all hoses, solonoids etc.
I have recently removed it from my Rangie and have mounted it to the D3, only problem now is where to hang the pump on the front of the motor

[Piddler]

Not sure how much these days for the Smith's power pack as not in that industry now.

Contact Victorian Hydraulics for details in Melbourne.

Cheers