Thread: How do winches fail?

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

How do winches fail?

And how likely is the failure to be catastrophic?

Is this a serious question? Or just a question to explore "what ifs"?

Firstly think of when you use a winch. They are often in very dangerous situations - Steep hills perhaps with over 2tonne of 4wd hanging off them?

Solenoids are a weak point. If they fuse on the winch will just keep spooling until you disconnect the power. This can obviously create some interesting scenarios. All winches should have a relatively accessible kill switch/isolator.

Gear sets on cheaper winches can strip easily as shown in comparos.

If the internal brake mechanism over heats/fails

Built to an extreme budget for the masses, maybe use lower grade steel and anyone can stamp/cast a rating on a piece of steel.

I don't know, I have seen lots of winches fail on winch comps etc, and they spend thousands on their winch. Seen many winches fail by overheating in real life too. Mainly due to not paying attention to the duty cycle and allowing some cooling time.

The "catastrophic" part is if someone is inside the vehicle or behind the vehicle when something goes wrong. Of course no one should be behind it in the first place. If you are out by in remote place by yourself and relying on your winch and it fails then you might get stuck for just a wee bit longer than is comfortable.

A gazillion what ifs in the world. If we were scared of all of them we would never leave the house

Be prepared as best you can, keep up maintenance, try to keep safe, stay within limitations, and enjoy getting out there!

I don't think there is a single most common mode of failure, unless it is through internal corrosion resulting from a combination of lack of use, lack of maintenance and waterproofing that is not perfect.

John