winches

[baseshakers]

so what size and brand winch do people have? i need to decide what sort of power i need, and what brand lasts. has anyone had issues with a certain brand? has anyone been stuck and NOT had their winch be strong enough? thanks guys!

[ZAEDOCK]

I run a Ramsey REP 8000. It has a stall weight of 11,200lbs and has pulled just about the entire Baystate Jeepers club up a few hills at The Beacon, never overheating. It's going on 5 years old and still pulls like new. I will say that it's not the fastest winch on earth (I'll give that to Warn), but the most winches with problems I have seen(IMO), have been Warns with their solenoids. I think they're a little too fast which leads to overheating.
I think you'd be ok going with a 8K-9.5K lb winch. The 12K lb winches are heavy and are used by full size rigs. Which brand depends on you. Warn, Ramsey, Superwinch...they're all pretty good. Do some research online and decide which is best for you.

-Joe

[ddewar53]

Let's don't forget MileMarker in there, too. (I mean the electrics, Joe, not hydraulics) Solid winches at a reasonable price. Mine's about 2 years old, and has pulled me out every time I needed it. Like Joe said, not real fast, but then you may be looking at overheating the winch in exchange for that speed. Remember, TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)

[Kurt]

I've had my Warn X800i for two seans now.
Has worked perfectly every time and had plenty of pull for my YJ.

Only any electric winch be sure to keep the cap on the remote cable control recepticle on the winch when not in use. Also use dielectric grease on the contacts too to prevent corrosion. I had to fix a friends M8000 who's connector terminals corroded due to moisture.

[tjeff]

I've been looking at this too.
I've found a few talking about problems they've had with the 95 ti from Warn, but most are recommending it.
You get what you pay for.

Not familiar with MM, but also heard Ramseys were good too, just haven't heard from many that run them.

Jeff

[Kevin W.]

Who cares how it works... lets talk about how it looks.

You have decide one key element first:

Do you want an intergrated solenoid style like this:



Or a non-intergrated style like this:



On wranglers, I think the "I" series of winches typically looks better... but does depend on what front bumper / winch mount you use.

Then, it comes to cost. Lets say you decide to get a 8,000 lb with roller fairlead... you're somewhere around 600-700 bucks. Then if you start looking around, you think, gosh, for onlly 100 bucks more I could have a much faster winch. So now you're at 800. Then you read about the warn 9.5 ti, which is allegedly much better sealed against the elements then any other winch, and for about 100.... you go, ok, so now I'm spending 900 on the winch, but at least its the best one and will last a lifetime.

So, then your name is Kevin.... get ready for this.

My Warn M8000 winch I bought for my XJ cost be under 550 shipped.... bought a used roller fairlead.

Used it about 20 times in total and never had a problem.

Sold it cause I wanted in "integrated" style for a tj. Got the 9.5ti, which I used 1-2 two times and then it stopped working.... HMMMM... this is odd. It would no longer free-spool out, but did power in and out.

To cut a long story short, warn fixed it for free - totally covered under warranty. BUT, I'll never trust it 100% like I did my M8000, just because of this dark cloud hovering overhead Am I glad I bought the "best" winch... yea. Do I think its worth 300 bucks more... Yes, but only for looks.

The speed is nice... but is a pain sometimes too. It almost pulls too fast when you're feeding it in by hand. One little blip of the control and it takes in like 3 feet at a time.

Good luck with making sense of my blabber and in picking a winchy

KEV

[ZAEDOCK]

I'll take a non-integrated solenoid anyday. With my Ramsey, I mounted the solenoid on the inner fender well and extended the controller cable connection to the front grill. It keeps the solenoid clean and dry. I simply plug my controller into my YJ's grill and winch away (to pull someone up, never for myself...).

Check it out at the Nov run.

[Kevin W.]

Slick thing is to hardwire the winch controls also, so you can just control it from a little switch inside the jeep. Don't need to hook up the wire, unless you want to. This is especially nice when you're in a bad situation.

Someone even sells a controller, that lets you use the cruise control buttons on the wheel to control the winch, when you flip a switch to "winch control mode".

KEV

[ddewar53]

zaedock said:

I'll take a non-integrated solenoid anyday. With my Ramsey, I mounted the solenoid on the inner fender well and extended the controller cable connection to the front grill. It keeps the solenoid clean and dry. I simply plug my controller into my YJ's grill and winch away (to pull someone up, never for myself...).

Check it out at the Nov run.

Ditto

[ddewar53]

admin said:

Who cares how it works...

Lots of snipping cause people don't want to read all that again

Then, it comes to cost. Lets say you decide to get a 8,000 lb with roller fairlead... you're somewhere around 600-700 bucks.

More snipping for the same reason
KEV

My MM 9000# was $399.00 with the mounting plate, another $58, I think, for the roller fairlead

[jrcabbral]

I run a warn 8000 somthing. had it for a while. the only failure it has had was a broken cable and the paint is starting to come off. I have had it on 2 jeeps that were daily drivers and it has had a lot of salt on it over the years. most likely that is why the paint is coming off. I would buy another.

[Jon W]

Ahhh... the winch question...

So... I bought a winch earlier in the year. Before I did I spent some time on reasearch and asked around. Here is what I came up with as buying guide advice:

• Get a winch rated for 1.5x to 2x you vehicle weight
  
• Main difference between expensive winches and less expensive winches is line pull speed - a more expensive winch will pull faster under load
  
• Many people seem to feel the Warn brand is most reliable (this is anecdotal, but is popular opinion)
  
• Remember to order a 12v winch... The 24v versions won't work on a Jeep
  

So, for a jeep that weighs 3k-4k lbs you don't need much more than an 8k lb pull rating.

Regarding a built in or remote solenoid... Someone pointed out to me that you tend to mount your winch in front of your radiator... A lower profile winch (e.g. the kind with a remote solenoid) will block less air from getting in there when driving or sitting in the sun on a 90+ deg day on the trail.

After that, it is a matter of $$$.

I ended up buying a Warn M8000 (looks like the bottom one in Kevin's previous post, rely #5)... I've used it 6 times and it has worked reliably... I did manage to put a kink in the cable though.

If you take a look at the various models available on the manufacturer's web sites you can get all the line-pull speed ratings if you want to compare them.

My $0.02...

Jon W

[baseshakers]

so i ended up going for the warn M8000, as well as a viking trail line (synthetic winch rope). only 599 for the 8000 from offroadoverstock.com. i am going to try and make it work as a portable winch (front and back), but we'll see...

[DOUG®]

We bought the Mopar (made by Warn) winch when we bought the Rubicon. XD9000i.

We may have paid a little too much for it, but it came with the same warranty as the Jeep...3/36. And it was financed with the Rubi @ 0%.

For those that think they will not warranty a winch...let's just say they will, and they have. For chipping paint of all things.


I would buy Warn again.

[Kevin W.]

baseshakers said:

so i ended up going for the warn M8000, as well as a viking trail line (synthetic winch rope). only 599 for the 8000 from offroadoverstock.com. i am going to try and make it work as a portable winch (front and back), but we'll see...

NICE! Sounds like a good price. You will like that winch... worked great for me.

KEV