Thread: Cheapo hand winch

I used one of those come-along winches years ago to pull out a bogged G60 Patrol and the rachet arm bent. It just wasn't up to the load. Don't know if the modern models are made with the same soft steel

Steven

I have a tirfor in my garage, if you want to look at it, see how it works, or a play with it let me know.

As for hi-lift jacks got one of those as well, personally think tirfor is the bee's knees

A good Tirfor type winch is useful for many other things as well.
I pulled the old stumps from a couple of 6inch trees out of the back yard a few weekends ago - great saved hours of digging.
But you need something solid to winch off- luckily I have a big 50ft pine tree in the back yard.

Thanks for the offer but it was more of a curious question really.
I couldn't imagine one of those small winches having a 4 ton weight on them really. Sometimes things are just too cheap, that sort of sounds warning bells straight away. That's why I asked.
I think if I was going to lay out a few hundered bucks for a winch I would pay the extra and go electric. Well maybe.

Thanks anyway

Cheapest winch is to make sure someone else has one

Steven, electric winch $2500 plus, second battery set up, Bull Bar mounting for it, maintenance requirement, for how many times you actually get to use it. I had a 9000lb high mount winch on my Patrols, it got used mainly for winching old railway sleepers off the track for a mates garden bed wall in Macedon, pulling out stumps in my sister block of land and winching softroaders from where they shouldn't have been.

If it was me l would shop around for second hand Tirfor, more versatile in mounting points, not as hard to use as others claim and just another box in the back to carry as being its biggest disadvantage compared to electric winch.

If l was tempted to spend $2500 plus, would be looking at diff lockers front and rear instead and rely on somebody else to pull you out if you truly get stuck anywhere.

A month or two ago I pulled a Hilux out of muddy water in Beerburrum SF. He had one of those comealong type winches and he said he had broken it trying to recover himself. He had fixed it though and was still trying. Although he was very very happy to see me pull up and to have me snatch him out.

I didn't ask what actually broke though. We have them at work and I've used them to winch cars onto trucks/trailers before. No way in hell I'd use one for a 4wd recovery though.