Do a search on this bbs on winches, there have been a zillion posts concerning them. Also, for my point of view, read my post on Bragging Rights, I winched out a Hummer, Warn will pull far more than rated.

Brad
ORC Land Use Section Editor
http://www.off-road.com/land

 

Look around and find a used one, preferably a ramsey or warn. There are also different drives to each one, worm gear and planetary gear (if I remember right) so you'll want to do some research. At full draw when winching they can draw up to and beyond 450 amps, so you'll want a high amp alternator and a good battery (preferably two). A good investment is a pully block also, this aides GREATLY in winching and they run about fifty bucks. I have a ramsey pro9000 that I used to run on my wrangler with a single optima battery and a 90amp alternator. This works okay if your just getting yourself out of mud and such and will get you by until you can get an extra battery. Hopefully teamrush and cjdave see this post, they both have some good insight into alternators and winching. later ken

 

What kind of rig are you driving? Spend that money on the lift/tires/axles... hehe you wont need a winch

 

You want to know what rig well here you go. 1980 cj7 stock 304, an auto shifting for me, 4in superlift, 33x12.50x15 superswampers tsl's, and well axles i havent touched them i am still not sure what i want to do with the rears yet. The hole was ankle deep in the middle and waste deep in the ruts. can i say bottomed out.

 

lift / tires / lockers / axles will just get you further into the bottomless pit, but only a winch can get you unstuck. I'm getting to the point where I can go so far before getting stuck that its hard for everybody else to get me out, so I think its time for a 150' of cable attached to a milemarker... /wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif

Florida Mud CJ-5
'77 RB304, t-150 D20 4" 35" swampers

 

I can't believe someone said you don't need a winch. In the last 2 days during our rock crawling competition I winched out a Hummer, a VERY built Toyota, and a VERY built CJ-7, all on the same obstacle. There are some places that the ONLY way out is a winch, and you sure as heck better have one or have access to a big helicopter. If you are going to do any serious wheeling, a winch is MANDATORY, or you better have friends with winches. I guarantee it you WILL get stucksooner or later.

Brad
ORC Land Use Section Editor
http://www.off-road.com/land

 

Yeh i really couldnt believe they said that either. I was laughing my but off when i read that.

 

Any winch is better than none, but I'd get at least an 8,000 pound one. I have a cheap winch, bought it used, but it works well. When I decide to upgrade, it'll go on another jeep, but you could also sell it and use the money towards a larger one. An 8,000 pound winch will work in 99% of the situations, I have only seen them stall out once, and the second 8,000 pound winch we hooked to it was straining as well, so he was STUCK!

JEEPN
'81 CJ-8 Scrambled!
GM151/SM465/NP205 twinstick/7" Lift/33"Swampers/REP 8000/RS9000's/Scout II D44's w/4.10's & Lockrights

 

There is one for sale at dirtroad.com. Look in the classifieds. They are asking 275. Its a pro9000 and they say it needs a little wiring work.