Hey Beancounter, Honestly, both would do the job. Personally, i would go with the 9000k lb, only because its only a couple hundred more.

I dont know of any bumpers that accept an M8274, so thats not even an issue with the JK even though it is an awesome winch

As discussed...8K is the MINIMUM....and will recover you or your bud most of the time if you do not wheel were you will get more stuck than that.

People who DO wheel more in tougher situations WILL have experiences that tell then 8K is too light FOR THEM.

People who wheel where 8k has been adequate, will have no experiences where they needed more than that...so its right for THEM.

You merely need to decide what group you might want to be in...harder-core/sucking muck runners, or light duty dirt climb/un-high spotting fire trail/lt wheeling runners.

:D

There is no advantage to carrying more winch than you need, or your bumper can handle....so there is no shame in being in the light weight winch group if the description fits.


Analogously...there are people who would be constantly disappointed by an 8k winch, and getting one would NOT be a good idea, etc.

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Most winches load rating is with 1 spool of line around the drum. A good way to compare is to look at the specifications about how much load you will loase with each additional spool around the drum. Also if you use a snatch block and bring the line back to the winching vehicle you have just doubled your pull rating, and if you use another snatch block then you are tripling??? the pulling power. If you think that your winch may not be powerful enough just keep using pulleys and it will encrease the power. I have seen where the military has done this and 3 guys have pulled a humvee out of the sand that was burried up to the frame rails.

Speed.

If you use the same motor, and need to pull more weight with it, you gear down to handle it...but that means more weight, but at a slower pace.

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Littlejon

Most winches load rating is with 1 spool of line around the drum. A good way to compare is to look at the specifications about how much load you will loase with each additional spool around the drum. Also if you use a snatch block and bring the line back to the winching vehicle you have just doubled your pull rating, and if you use another snatch block then you are tripling??? the pulling power. If you think that your winch may not be powerful enough just keep using pulleys and it will encrease the power. I have seen where the military has done this and 3 guys have pulled a humvee out of the sand that was burried up to the frame rails.

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Again - the cavet is that to double the leverage, you need twice the line....or you end up with ONE LINE being pulled on at a potentially overloaded weight, etc.

If I have a stuck rig in muck 100' into a bog...I need 200' of line to double the pull....no spools cary that....most are closer to 100' in capacity.

So, lets say I have a 125' of line to use, but, I need to triple the run....I have to use my line to go 3 round trips to use a triple snatch block.

3 round trips is 6 single trips...so 125'/6 trips = ~ 20' range, etc.

In short, buy the time to spend $100/block and tackle set X 3 sets = $300, you could have just gotten a stronger winch.

:D

It also takes time to SET-up a compound recovery, even a single block set up for an off angle recovery is time consuming to do right.

A couple of weekends ago, one of the Cherokee's died on Yellow Jacket at Rausch Creek, in the middle of an off camber rock garden...and we had to turn it around with a multiple K-Turn, and then pull it down off the rocks...PITA to do it, but there was no choice...and we liked te guy too much to just leave him there, etc. :D

I don't know about YOUR wheeling trips...but loosing an hour or so to recover someone really steals from the time available to have fun, and, can kill the entire day if there are multiple stucks, etc.

A cheapo 2' per minute winch under load can really only pull for about a minute, and then it has to cool for a few minutes, rinse/repeat.

Lets say you have a 100 recovery...at 2' per minute...that's 50 minutes of pulling!...add the 3 minutes of coold down or so BETEEN those individual minutes of pulling, and that's ANOTHER 150 minutes down the drain.
:eek2:

If I use a decent winch with a even 10' per minute under load speed, and a 100% duty cycle so it can do the entire pull in one shot...that's 10 minutes instead of a few hours.

Time is money....how much is the speed worth to you?

For me...the Speed is WORTH it. If it was "Stay stuck in the mud vs get out, eventually", well, even the cheapo is worth it....

..But god help me I would NOT want to be in THAT group of stuck mud rats.

:D

The other isssue on long pulls with a cheapo...watch the amp hrs on your battery....a pull at a few hundred amps hrs that takes a few minutes is FAR less draining that an agonizing winch-a-thon that takes hours of battery drain, etc.

Food for thought.

:D

just get an M8274 with the 2 motor conversion :) All problems solved

They both use a 4.6 hp motor, but the HP has 156:1 gearing....and the HD uses 261:1 gearing....so, same motor, but lower gearing to pull 12k lb vs 9.5K.

:D

The other differences are the thicker line that has to be shorter - as the spools are the same size....so the HP has 125', the HD has 80'.

The compressors are the same.

They both weigh 100 lbs.

The HP is faster than the HD.

Essentially...the HD is a good idea if you have a 8k lb rig, etc....and Need a lot more pulling capacity.

The HP is better for JK's, as the 125' is a more useful line length, the extra speed is nice, and the bumpers can't handle 12k lb anyway.

:D

I'm getting ready to buy a winch and have looked at the 8274. It's expensive but apparently worth it. It was discussed on another forum and folks mentioned that it is from pre-bean counter days and built to a different standard. And also that it's 8000 rating is very, very conservative. And of course some mentioned the two motor conversion; but I was unable to find any info on that conversion.

But is a mute point? Is there any JK bumper that will accept one - I haven't found one yet? The big differenc is that the 8274 is a front mounted winch as opposed to bottom mounted. Is there a way to adapt? It would certainly look old school on a JK.

I am going with an 8,000 pound Warn on my 2 door Rubicon.

I have a 9,500 pound winch on my F350 crewcab, longbox diesel truck, and find it to be enough.

So am confident that 8,000 is lots for a Jeep that weighs just 4,100 pounds.

As a side note.
If you find that mud suction is holding you back, put it in low range, and spin the tires as you get winched out.
The tire spin breaks most of the suction caused in the mud, and allows it to be pulled much easier.
I see lots of guys just dragging their 4x4's out with the winch, and not getting any help from tire spin.
I figure especially with the low 4:1 transfer case ratio, and the low first gear of the 6 speed manual tranny I have that i can easily spin the tires in mud, and that will make winching fairly easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feq-J8wzG00

Here ya go. This is a short video of the twin motor conversion. Only practical pretty much if you are in competitions where every second matters. But its pretty cool

WOW :eek2::eek2::eek2: that is fast.......:thumbsup: