winch?
JK Super Freak
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,623
Likes: 5
From: Lawrenceville, NJ
The old rule of thumb is to get one AT LEAST 1.5 times your GVWR (The max weight listed on the placard).
90% of the time, for rocks/hill climbs, thats more than enough.
If you do a lot of sucking mud though...the double the GVWR or more that your husband sounded like he was referencing would be about right.
Your limiting factors are of course the rating of what you're mounting it to, and the type of use you're projecting for it.
If the Jeep has a GVWR of about 5,300 lbs, 1.5 x that = 8K lb winch
@ 2.0 X that = 10.6 K, and so forth.
There's not much harm in a larger winch than those calculations if your winch mounts, and suspension, can handle the weight, and load, etc....but the larger winches can be slower, due to deeper gearing, and heavier, due to thicker wire rope, larger motors and housings, etc.
With few exceptions, anything from 8K to 9.5K winches will handle the vast majority of what you'll see....but look at the stats for the winch in consideration...the rating is only for the pull power when the line is played all the way out....as the line comes in, and the spool gets fatter, the capacity drops, and less weight can be pulled...some winches suffer from a very large loss, some a reasonable percentage.
Also - Some winches are fast with no load, but slow if there's any resistance....some slow ALOT, some are fast under load, etc....so, think about how fast you want it to reel in, as well.
Hope that helps!
90% of the time, for rocks/hill climbs, thats more than enough.
If you do a lot of sucking mud though...the double the GVWR or more that your husband sounded like he was referencing would be about right.
Your limiting factors are of course the rating of what you're mounting it to, and the type of use you're projecting for it.
If the Jeep has a GVWR of about 5,300 lbs, 1.5 x that = 8K lb winch
@ 2.0 X that = 10.6 K, and so forth.
There's not much harm in a larger winch than those calculations if your winch mounts, and suspension, can handle the weight, and load, etc....but the larger winches can be slower, due to deeper gearing, and heavier, due to thicker wire rope, larger motors and housings, etc.
With few exceptions, anything from 8K to 9.5K winches will handle the vast majority of what you'll see....but look at the stats for the winch in consideration...the rating is only for the pull power when the line is played all the way out....as the line comes in, and the spool gets fatter, the capacity drops, and less weight can be pulled...some winches suffer from a very large loss, some a reasonable percentage.
Also - Some winches are fast with no load, but slow if there's any resistance....some slow ALOT, some are fast under load, etc....so, think about how fast you want it to reel in, as well.
Hope that helps!
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 199
Likes: 0
Remember that the "RATED" pull of a winch is only on the 1st wrap.
AS it winds up around the drum the gearing is changed and so you lose torque.
Also remember that really you do NOT want to ever use it.
You don't.
So get big tires instead....
lol
nah
What I mean is think about usage.
How often will you need it and how sever will it be used.
Most winching (all actually) that Ive seen has just been recovery stuff.
Quick little 3 to 8 foot trips to get out of a hole kind of thing.
There are folks that go places where they send somebody up and around the easy way (sometimes 2 somebodies) with big assed 12000lb winches and then winch a whole convoy one at a time up waterfalls and so on.
No kidding.
What you do this weekend?
Wahl we drank beer and winched all day Saturday. And then we fixed broken stuff all day Sunday....
It IS wise to get a good sized winch tho. It's even wiser to always use a D-Link ( pulley ) , too! Those help reduce the load to the motor by as much as 50% depending on how far around you are bending the cable path.
If I can, I always do a 180° bend and come straight back to home. But thats not always possible as it takes away 50% of your reach as you spend half going to the pulley and half coming back. And you have to keep at least 7 or 8 turns on the winch drum so you lose some of your cable length there.
I have a seperate 100' synthetic rope I use just for that reason. But even still out here in the desert there are often times where there is NO place to hook up to. Wrapping around rocks has worked, as well as burying a spare tire down deep in soft sand, ( that is an all day adventure right there and totally sucks and you do NOT want to go there).
Tho I gota say, SAND IS FUN!
I decided on getting a portable winch setup that I plug into a 2" reciever hitch at either the front or the back. This has proven to be a useful and reliable mod.
The real problem is the weight of the "portable" winch itself. Its around 110lbs and a bit of an awkward load so not for a smaller person. I did see one with a fold down bicycle wheel that would make it more doable for some.
Tight trails and very steep inclines can lead to situations where its very hard to get at somebody to help them out. Also not having a place to tie up to in front can happen a lot out here. So for me this was the way to go along with I don't keep the winch exposed to water crossings or wheather.
I can say if I had it to do it over again, I would get the 100' of synthetic rope and toss the cable. The cable is awkward as hell to use and very dangerous as well. If something lets loose or breaks they fly around like a spring loaded whip. The rope will just fall to the ground as it wont store any energy.
Also its way easier to handle even when just re-wrapping the winch when yer done. The wire also makes "splinters" which bite so really thick gloves are required.
I've seen a 4000lb winch take up a FULL Ford expedition that had a dead deer on the roof, out of a deep mud hole and straight up a 45° embankment. But it was going thru a D-Link and almost died near the end of that 20' trip too.
So what? Are you going to swing your Jeep from cliffs or trees like in that movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" ? If you have not seen that one you should as it is hillarious. It starts out like some weird National Geographic Documentery or something but pretty soon you will be in tears from laffing...
And NO I am in no affiliated with whoever made that film.
I hope you never need your winch.
Peace
AS it winds up around the drum the gearing is changed and so you lose torque.
Also remember that really you do NOT want to ever use it.
You don't.
So get big tires instead....
lol
nah
What I mean is think about usage.
How often will you need it and how sever will it be used.
Most winching (all actually) that Ive seen has just been recovery stuff.
Quick little 3 to 8 foot trips to get out of a hole kind of thing.
There are folks that go places where they send somebody up and around the easy way (sometimes 2 somebodies) with big assed 12000lb winches and then winch a whole convoy one at a time up waterfalls and so on.
No kidding.
What you do this weekend?
Wahl we drank beer and winched all day Saturday. And then we fixed broken stuff all day Sunday....
It IS wise to get a good sized winch tho. It's even wiser to always use a D-Link ( pulley ) , too! Those help reduce the load to the motor by as much as 50% depending on how far around you are bending the cable path.
If I can, I always do a 180° bend and come straight back to home. But thats not always possible as it takes away 50% of your reach as you spend half going to the pulley and half coming back. And you have to keep at least 7 or 8 turns on the winch drum so you lose some of your cable length there.
I have a seperate 100' synthetic rope I use just for that reason. But even still out here in the desert there are often times where there is NO place to hook up to. Wrapping around rocks has worked, as well as burying a spare tire down deep in soft sand, ( that is an all day adventure right there and totally sucks and you do NOT want to go there).
Tho I gota say, SAND IS FUN!
I decided on getting a portable winch setup that I plug into a 2" reciever hitch at either the front or the back. This has proven to be a useful and reliable mod.
The real problem is the weight of the "portable" winch itself. Its around 110lbs and a bit of an awkward load so not for a smaller person. I did see one with a fold down bicycle wheel that would make it more doable for some.
Tight trails and very steep inclines can lead to situations where its very hard to get at somebody to help them out. Also not having a place to tie up to in front can happen a lot out here. So for me this was the way to go along with I don't keep the winch exposed to water crossings or wheather.
I can say if I had it to do it over again, I would get the 100' of synthetic rope and toss the cable. The cable is awkward as hell to use and very dangerous as well. If something lets loose or breaks they fly around like a spring loaded whip. The rope will just fall to the ground as it wont store any energy.
Also its way easier to handle even when just re-wrapping the winch when yer done. The wire also makes "splinters" which bite so really thick gloves are required.
I've seen a 4000lb winch take up a FULL Ford expedition that had a dead deer on the roof, out of a deep mud hole and straight up a 45° embankment. But it was going thru a D-Link and almost died near the end of that 20' trip too.
So what? Are you going to swing your Jeep from cliffs or trees like in that movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" ? If you have not seen that one you should as it is hillarious. It starts out like some weird National Geographic Documentery or something but pretty soon you will be in tears from laffing...
And NO I am in no affiliated with whoever made that film.
I hope you never need your winch.
Peace