Thread: Winch - at front or rear of car?

I think the rear winch idea is really a good one for most situations, and if you're bobtailing a disco you're going to be fabbing it up so .. while your there....

but I don't like the idea of a 'portable' winch that you use front and rear because you're going to be using other things in the back of your disco more so it will either be in your way all the time in the back, or it will end up packed far away under everything else that you get out more.

Which is fine until you're stuck in a river and need it then have to unpack everything in the back to get to it while you're trying to look out for crocks and not drop the food or the camera in the water.... This is what happened to me with a turfur. Was a total pain in the backside.

I recon you should just get a cheaper winch or rebuild a second hand one and make incorporate a rear cradle when you bobtail your disco. It will be there when you need it.

The following applies to winches with steel cable from my experience.
A single centre mount winch works great for self recovery but can be slow if recovering lots of other people, ideally two centre mounted winches are best.
One dedicated front and one dedicated rear, no mucking around with double line pulls(pulley blocks and extra cable) and better speed.
No problems with side pulls when centre mounted, winch all day if needed and your cable will last much longer.
Winches are a major compromise when fitted to any end of a vehicle if you're winching from that same end, a rear mounted winch that only pulls the vehicle forward is fine so long as your fleet angles are good(Vice versa for front mounted).

Eric

My 130 had a winch at the front when I bought it, I had to do some rear bar work for double spare wheel carrier etc and I had a winch in the shed from a previous vehicle....the inevitable result was that I ended up with a winch at each end. I have to say that a winch at the rear of a vehicle is a super useful thing to have. I have pulled a huge number of things onto and off trailers with no effort at all, for example a big load of railway sleepers unloaded into a stack by placing a snatch block on a tree. If the trailer happens to be in a difficult spot to hook up, it just gets pulled into place. Used it yesterday to lower my camper trailer into a difficult spot and will use it again to pull it out and hook up. It gets used like this at least 20 times for every 1 actual recovery operation.

Originally Posted by POD

My 130 had a winch at the front when I bought it, I had to do some rear bar work for double spare wheel carrier etc and I had a winch in the shed from a previous vehicle....the inevitable result was that I ended up with a winch at each end. I have to say that a winch at the rear of a vehicle is a super useful thing to have. I have pulled a huge number of things onto and off trailers with no effort at all, for example a big load of railway sleepers unloaded into a stack by placing a snatch block on a tree. If the trailer happens to be in a difficult spot to hook up, it just gets pulled into place. Used it yesterday to lower my camper trailer into a difficult spot and will use it again to pull it out and hook up. It gets used like this at least 20 times for every 1 actual recovery operation.

How is your controller configured? I can see a plug at the rear convenient for your non recovery events but an in car controller would be convenient for recoveries. MLD

Originally Posted by POD

My 130 had a winch at the front when I bought it, I had to do some rear bar work for double spare wheel carrier etc and I had a winch in the shed from a previous vehicle....the inevitable result was that I ended up with a winch at each end. I have to say that a winch at the rear of a vehicle is a super useful thing to have. I have pulled a huge number of things onto and off trailers with no effort at all, for example a big load of railway sleepers unloaded into a stack by placing a snatch block on a tree. If the trailer happens to be in a difficult spot to hook up, it just gets pulled into place. Used it yesterday to lower my camper trailer into a difficult spot and will use it again to pull it out and hook up. It gets used like this at least 20 times for every 1 actual recovery operation.

Hello Wizard l have been looking at doing this to my 130 rear winch , would it be possible if you could take some photos and post them really interested how the set up looks please as my Mechanic has been talking about centre mounting my winch so l could go forward and backwards but unsure still, he keeps on saying rear mounted winches are not a good idea l am a bit confused as l like the idea of the rear mount as l am a beginner looking for practical options

I was planning on front mounted winch and hand winch for rear. I know it's horses for courses but can never tell what course you may be on in a months time. Have never tried using block to winch backwards from front mount and I always hear mixed reports on this so still unsure of amount of strain and safety doing it.