Thread: How much use does your winch really get?

Im a big fan of the more portable stuff.

mattracks, tirfors, better shovels, airbag jacks, highlifts, jacks and base plates. compressors.

Theres also a nice line on detachable medium duty winches available sure they only pull 2T But with a snatch block and some smarts that should be plenty.

take it when you need it, dump it when you dont.

Originally Posted by Yorkie

these guys got by without a winch so unless you are doing more deep poop driving than these put the money into other stuff.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa - Expedition Portal Forum

if they had had a winch they would most likely have avoided having to replace 2 x diffs and associated recovery costs . most likely a lot of $us still in their pockets
in saying that it was a terrific effort and i applaud them.
cheers
howdy

My Disco1 has a Warn winch that was on it when I bought it.
I've used it 3 times I think.
Once to recover a rolled vehicle still on a hill. I got to sit in the car and control the winch while the rest of the club ran around attaching and running the show so that worked well There was a handwinch used too to steady it.
Once to winch Blknights hills hoist out of the ground. That was interesting.
Once to winch my camper into a better spot using a double line pull in the sand.

So not a whole lot in 4 years.
I've also had a rear air locker fitted which I use nearly every trip.

If I had my time again and was starting with a stock vehicle I'd spend my money on twin lockers (at least one), suspension and tyres. Plus a handwinch.

My last job had me running around in a stock new Hilux. It was awful offroad but you just drove to the conditions because you knew you had nearly no self recovery gear and no one was going to be coming to find you (I had a satphone though). We tried to get a winch fitted but Toyota said no way even though it had a Toyota winch bar on it which they did fit New office is getting a kitted out 70 series wagon though so that should be interesting.

Having said all that. Buy something else

I had a winch on the first three Landrovers I owned (two had them when I bought them, the last one I transferred the winch from the previous one), and on the government one I drove before that. In ten years of driving including much offroad, wet seasons in inland N.Q., plus Simpson Desert for two years, I used the winches maybe four times. I have not even considered getting one since, despite having done the odd bit of hand winching.

If you are sensible, it will be used so rarely for self recovery that it is hard to justify. Of course, if you have an application that needs a winch, you need one.

John

I have never used mine except to pull out a small tree root and hang wet towels on.

Originally Posted by Yorkie

these guys got by without a winch so unless you are doing more deep poop driving than these put the money into other stuff.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa - Expedition Portal Forum

They didnt need one because they had a TOYOTA

FWIW there are times and places where dynamic recoveries, digging and max trax will not recover a vehicle.
I seem to keep finding myself chained to a tree with 100m of string in the breeze dragging somebody out of just such conditions. Maybe its just the places we visit!

We recently got back from Bathurst Heads, just.
Drove in the roads were bone dry. Couple of hundred mils of liquid sunshine during the week and we knew the tea tree swamps would be a challenge. Luckily we only had to perform three vehicle and two trailer recoveries but each one required every bit of kit linked to a winch vehicle. Generally the winch vehicle was chained to a tree.

The best effort involved a mates disco driving along the swampy road towards the sunken trailer till it was lightly bogged, he was attached to my winch. My tow bar was attached to a tojo winch, cables at full length. Then the disco winch was run out with all the straps attached to get to the bogged trailer. ONLY with three vehicles all winch equipped could we extracate the bogged trailer some 200m through slop and gruel.

My christmas present to the guys is gonna be 75m lengths of 8mm winch rope!!!! Will make it easier next time!
Obviously if we travelled when there was no risk of rain, and didnt take trailers then we wouldnt need winches. But then we would be just like the terroists in July

Horses for courses - when stuck in the long swamps Id trade any other bit of kit for a winch and some extensions.

Steve

Hi guys,

Winching eh? Wow what a subject. There have been some thoroughly hair raising experiences had whilst hanging from ye' old perentie winch.

In the last 3 years I have used the ever reliable pto thomas on the front of the old girl for jobs such as reefing out argumentative silky oak stumps, to swinging off the cable whilst clawing up Mt Misery just south of the lions den in the wet season up near cooktown. (done for nothing more than fun and curiosity)

Since moving down to Maitland the poor old cable hasn't seen much action. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough?

I'd echo what has already been said. If your not gonna use it, don't buy it. There's plenty of other valuable 4WD gear that will greatly aid recovery.

Just my 2 cents,

Brian.