Thread: Winches needing to buy one for my disco 1

*can of worms

If you have made the decision to buy a winch then I can recommend (for budget winches) both the Smittybilt X20 (approx $1000) and the VRS 9.5. Both come with synthetic rope and everything you need to plumb it in.

As you may have read, winches need a work out every now and again to make sure they are going to co-operate when you need them. Just spool it out and in again every other month or more if you do a lot of mud plugging. most good 4x4 centres will also service your winch for you when you get to that stage down the line.

Enjoy it, winches are fun

G

We decided to fit a winch prior to heading around Australia.
I knew that we probably would never need to use it in anger but as we are solo 4x4 hitting some remote places I thought it would give us some piece of mind.

It has turned out to be a handy thing to have as we have used it 3 times now to get us past obstacles and out of bogs and I have had more confidence to tackle harder tracks knowing I have the winch to mack me up.

I have also used it twice to pull others out of bogs.
I find it's a little more controlled then a snatch especially when they have no appropriate recovery hooks/points.

We went with a cheaper winch as we knew we weren't going to be getting it out much.
I bought a Runva 11xp winch on sale for 600 bucks and it has proven it's worth.
it's cheap and Chinese but I think it's one of the better ones.
Runva 11XP « Runva Winches | Your premium supplier of Electric and Hydraulic Winches
haha it comes in ****** red with blue rope and I see they now come in black with ****** red rope

I had a Tigerz 11 12,000lb on my old Pajero and then Gu patrol and it was really good, not super fast but it pulled really well. We did a winch training day and it had no issues pulling 2 cars up a hill using a double line pull. The next winch id like to try will be a Runva Q evolution based in its speed.
Most winches do just sit there for most of their life that's why you need to give it a run every now and then. Apparently you shouldn't leave winch rope exposed to the weather all the time so it can be good practise to remove the rope after a trip, wash it and store it then when you are planning a trip refit the rope under tension that way your winch gets a work out and you have piece of mind that it still works.

Originally Posted by gossamer

I had a Tigerz 11 12,000lb on my old Pajero and then Gu patrol and it was really good, not super fast but it pulled really well. We did a winch training day and it had no issues pulling 2 cars up a hill using a double line pull. The next winch id like to try will be a Runva Q evolution based in its speed.
Most winches do just sit there for most of their life that's why you need to give it a run every now and then. Apparently you shouldn't leave winch rope exposed to the weather all the time so it can be good practise to remove the rope after a trip, wash it and store it then when you are planning a trip refit the rope under tension that way your winch gets a work out and you have piece of mind that it still works.

Or make a cover for the rope. I know that with the two cars I've had winches on, they have been used a lot more for non recovery situations when I wasn't on trips than when on trips. If the rope isn't on, you can't use the winch for other things like pulling tree stumps etc. Most of the good ropes cope with UV anyways.

I had a cheap no name brand 12000 pound winch on my landcruiser it did a lot of work as I used to go out with my 4wd club a lot never had and issue with the winch it's self just had to replace the solenoid s at one stage as I had filled the control box with water and rusted them up. I replaced them with water proof ones , somthing I would recommend from the start. I left it on the cruiser when I sold it as it was thrashed anyway and have been meaning to get one for the disco but never have. It never seems to get bogged anyway . Thers is a warn 9000 on my work Ute most of the time it just gets used for moving logs and big tree branched off the track handy.
Advice I would offer

Get rope it's safer and easier to handle.

Look at replacing with water proof solenoids.

Always check it works before you pull all the cable out ( been here )

If buying cheap buy the bigger one if you can.

Budget in a kit with extension strap snatch block ect.

Enjoy the security of having one




Sent from my HTC_PN071 using AULRO mobile app

I did a fair bit of research and when you are buying something cheap (pretty much anything that is not WARN) then it comes down to waterproofness, warranty and customer service.

The attached link below was a great read and enforced my thoughts to get a RUNVA. The forum is self explanatory and goes into great depth on warranty and customer service. its 35 pages but its been grown over some time and a fair few winch manufactures have changed their policy and contributed to this forum which was assuring.

WINCH WARRANTY'S,who to support and when to walk - 4x4 Earth

Hopefully this read can help you make your decision.

(PS. I hope i am allowed to reference other posts/forums like this)

I have an "I MAX"[NOT T MAX!]12000lb on my 130.Cost about $480 delivered about 4 years ago,no real problems so far.Wire rope,new ones have synthetic.

I have had a couple cheap winches and only problem is water make sure you regrease them before you install and as said replace the controller with a solid state one a little bit of care and no problems. I also have a warn in the shed never installed it didn't need to