Thread: Choosing a Winch

Originally Posted by Tombie2

You shouldnt hang your winch on the second battery for this very reason...

Unless running two alternators I'd suggest no-one wires the winch to the aux. battery.

For the occassional use it has been fine, but yes i have identified that this set up will not tolerate extended high current draw from the second battery, the DBS just does not kick enough juice across. I will re-wire one day

Originally Posted by Vern

Why?

if your second battery goes flat from the winch drawing from it faster than the dual battery system can charge it then as the voltage drop the motor draws more amps and wires can go melty, not to mention the potential for damage to some dual battery chargers from trying to charge a flat battery and drive the winch.

That said, I think youd be mad to hook up your winch to your primary battery on an electronically controled engine, say a td5 or tdv6 or any of the others like them as if the primary battery gets so far down that you cant get the winch to work correctly the odds are strongly tipped in the direction of the engine stalling out from low voltage dropping either the computer or the fuel pump off. When that happens you might find that you dont even have enough to get a restart to charge the batteries.

again all of that is going to depend on what batteries youve got going where, doing what and how often your going to be winching off of them.

if its only for occasional use and you know the limits of your setup you dont even really need a dual battery system.

Originally Posted by SPROVER

Thanks everyone for all the input.I guess if i had the money i would get a well known brand name winch.So i guess if i was to buy one of these i will have to strip it and re pack it full of grease.Just to pick your brains again if you had to pick between the 2 winches above,what would be the best one to choose? The only reason i ask is because i really want to get one so i can go and play in the mud occassionally

The Tiger winch is too high geared, 187:1, the other is 256:1, a bit slower but more GRUNT, otherwise they are identical, Regards Frank

Your comment of wanting to play in the mud, and wanting a winch to let you do so suggests to me you play alone.

I was in the same boat, and bought a hand winch ($680) Which will pull far harder than those to winches combined (The challenge is out!)

If Im right in guessing you are 4wd'ing alone, you cant really argue with the versatility of a hand winch. They aren't that hard work... packing the the 17mm wire cable away works the forearms. Its all part of getting out there I guess.

Tirfors only come with 20m of cable generally, so you winching points could be limited. Yes you could rig up a 50m cable, but better you than me. It'd take me all year to handwinch that far.

There are some solenoid based dual battery controllers around, my IBS system has been faultess.

What hasn't been mentioned is maintenance. Service the damn thing regularly. I get mine pulled down every year - one time apparently there were remnants of NSW's last locust plague in the solenoid pack..

Regards
Max P

I usually get out 4wheelin with a mate in his Rangie lol....But he only has a slight lift and some muddies.So i thought one of us should have some sort of recovery tool just in case.Thought about a hand winch but im just to damn lazy for that
Also one more question,just to bug you all again.Would a gear reduction of 187.2:1 or 265:1 be better suited for the Disco? Or wouldnt it make much difference at all? As you can tell i dont know to much about winches so every bit of help on here is great.

187 : 1 is like top gear in a gear box, 256:1 is like 1st gear, what do you need Speed (187:1) or pulling power (256:1), Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by Tank

The Tiger winch is too high geared, 187:1, the other is 256:1, a bit slower but more GRUNT, otherwise they are identical, Regards Frank

Not quite, the 256:1 winch is 5.5 h/p not 6.6 h/p so the Tiger is 20% more powerfull to make up for most of the higher gearing.
I have the Tiger winch for my project vehicle, but yet to use it.