I just saw this:

h t t p://www.stu-offroad.com/suspension/sdw/sdw-1.htm

Pretty cool idea! Just wondering if anyone here has done it or seen it, especially on a JK.

 

its very common, I've just never seen it done that way. usually people just route their cable/line down to a mounting point on the front axle to suck down. Loosk like alot of extra hassle/expense.

 

Very interesting idea. I don't know that I would ever really need it, but it is definitely a cool concept.

 

I think there are plenty of suck down winches on the eyeful a day thread.

 

:rotfl mao2:

 

Stu (author of that site) actually lives out here and runs with some of the guys I wheel with. This guy knows his stuff and he has some really good info on his site. Anyway, suck down winches are used all the time in more challenging rock crawling. We were climbing a waterfall on Sat and 2 guys used it. If the climb is really steep, you have very little weight on your front tires. In this case, the rock was slicked out from tires spinning on it. Traction was hard to come by to not only climb, but there was a cross slope that pushed every Jeep into the wall on the side. Anyway, it can be very helpful and give you just the necessary added traction you need. Good tip to have in the back of your minds...

 

In competition it is a standard, both front and rear. It is used to help keep the suspension (coilovers mores so than airshocks) from unloading on a side hill and to limit the recoil of the shock when you are climbing a vertical wall. This is especially the case when you need to get a run at it which causes the front suspension to preload the push away from the surface you are climbing... in that case we ran the front winch line with a little (approx. 2-3") of slack depending upon the speed of approach to control that recoil, on the other hand if it were winched all the way down there is no suspension absorbing the force when you go to the vertical wall which slingshots the front end up and usually over backwards.

Nick

 

You learn something everyday. I don't even have a regular winch yet...

 

I would keep this on the backburner....ALOT more useful mods to do for the average Jeeper before going and installing a small winch under the fender in my opinon. But it is a cool idea.

And for the Jeep that already has everything(though it never ends...)? Could be an interesting project.

 

I wouldnt go get a special setup or anything, for sure. It is more common for guys like us to just use their std winch on their front bumper to suck the front end down to the axle...