Thread: Hand Winch

Good Brand: My ancient "blackrat" has never let me down. When I bought I couldnt afford a Tirfor.

Pros:
1/ it will work as long as you have beer to power it
2/ on a few occasions even despite having vehicle mounted winches the hand winch has been the ONLY useful winching device - such as:
-You can carry it through a kilometer of mud and winch a stuck hilux from tree to tree to tree for a day or so to get them out of bother. No way I was going to drive the fender into that quagmire and even I dont carry enough dyneema for 1km of winching.
-You can use the hand winch to stabilise a fourby trying to have a lie down on its side and easily and slowly support it onto its feet whilst the front winch pulls it forward
3/It fits behind the back seats in the 130 cab so you would be crazy not to keep it at all times

Cons :
1/beer consumption can increase with repeated use.
2/really honestly there are no cons to having both - but if I was only allowed one type of recovery winch I would find it hard to give up a 12000lb winch and 200m of Dyneema.
Where you travel may be different to me - I dont even own a snatch strap for example.

s

I have had a good run with the TJM branded one.
Did not like the Magnum branded one - same size as tjm but rated at half the capacity and an absolute PITA to operate.

The good ole Tirfor branded ones were good, no recent experience with them tho.

Sent from my GT-S7562L using AULRO mobile app

"Tirfor" brand, original and the best, a good snatch block can halve the effort required to winch your vehicle, but only if attached to the vehicle with the Tirfor attached to an anchor point, (tree, etc.), run tirfor cable through snatch block and back to anchor point. An appropriate size wheel dia. and groove profile is necessary for winch cable used in a Tirfor, purchase from Rigging Supply shops, like Bullivants, much better array of stock and all rated, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by Crocodile Dundee

Good Morning, Looking to purchase a Hand Winch , can anybody recommend a Quality Brand and what to look out for and were to purchase from in Melbourne
and what are the pros and cons of a hand winch

I love my Tirfor.

AFAIK it is the only one rated by WorkCover etc to be used as a rigging device, suspending a person.

It can be used to support or right a rolled vehicle in a precarious situation while it is recovered by other power winches.

It is an easy operation and never stops because of a relay or hand control problem or dead engine.

I use it putting project vehicles/farm/barn finds onto car trailers all the time. It's slow controlled movement of the vehicle onto the trailer is much safer than a power winch in that situation.

I have an old 'Brano' (I believe a copy of early tirfor) it's never missed a beat in 30+ years, but then I try like buggery not to have to use it.

(there's one on Gumtree for $180 now)


Martyn

I have a tirfor I scored from a cash converters for 40 BUCKS! I have used tirfors a lot for work, sometimes for offroading and recovery but mostly for assembling bridges and emplacing large objects like concrete tetrahedrons.

A tirfor is only limited by your imagnation and length of available cable. Flip rolled vehicles, pull them sideways, backwards, off camber, whatever you want!
Use it as a crane if you have some sort of overhead anchor point, operate a captive raft/ferry. Seriously awesome bits of gear.

The only con is that if you have chicken arms you will find it hard. Also, if you mistakenly think youre some tough customer and pay off using riggers gloves while using the steel wire rope you can get some NASTY injuries. But thats no change from a winch really.

Go for a reputable brand, Tirfor, TJM, something like that. My tirfor is 16t flat pull, 8t verticle from memory.

My mind is now made up thank you everybody for there great advice
Now the fun begins to find a Tirfor Hand winch,
what size should l get does anybody know to pull out all the Toyotas and Mitsis
and were to purchase one from in Melbourne and what should l be looking for any recommendations would be appreciated , once l get it i will post a feww photos thanks to all
Long, Live, Defender
Crocodile Dundee

You will want a Tirfor TU16, rated at 1.6 T lift. The next size up is huge. I have an older Brano too which works just fine.