Winch Talk.

[matty]

Only winch i ever had permanently mounted to a 4X$ was a old fairey capstan winch driven off the engine pulley on my 1955 series 1 landrover back in the late 70s/ 80s. it worked well and i did use it a lot around the place dragging logs pulling cars and trailers around it was useful.
So fast forward to today and 4x4 / truck winches are prety much the requireed fittment to everything from loggers to off road wheelers to poser bro dozers you name it.
But here is my issue with winches on a 4x4, if your running it day in day out and want to try and get the best out of the MPG and even keep the weight down as much as practical, fitting a permanent winch not only leaves it there on the truck outside in the elliments open to dirt rust and dont forget the theft aspect too.
To my way of thinking a typical front mounted winch tray etc might be better if it was quickly mountable either from the front or rear and have say power leads either end and not only keep the winch away from thieves or weather dirt etc, but alow the versatility of pulling the truck into trouble or simply getting it back out the way it came if needed with no more effort than mounting the winch and coupling it up.
I Know such systems exist but have no knowledge of them in detail, any advice on this please thoughts or experience.

 

[Danno]

Front mount hitch and the winch mounted on a utility bar. A 2 prong connector from snow plows or marine use could be tucked into the bumper or grill. The winch mount could also be used on a rear hitch or both. If you feel like crafting the hitches, reciever tubes could be used and 2x2 square tube for the ultility. This is common parts here. Maybe it would be metric over there. Just heavy wall square tubes that one fits inside the other. And holes for a pin.

 

[matty]

Good. Just looked on the ubiquitous youtube and seems several doing exactly as you say, seems the ellectrical conections will be the hardest part the fabricated receiver and plate mount look straightforward. its a good way of not only keeping the winch clean and safe but the swapping ends but is practical too. Storing it inside the truck should be easy enough and if a storage reciever is mounted under a seat or floor section its safe too even in a roll over etc far from that ever likely to happen to me the type of use i put a truck too generally.
The older i get the more i need a helping hand its not just the physical push assistance, its the plain fact when i was younger not only was i much stronger, there always seemed to be a whole heap of folks around back then to help me, but now its more often just me or her indoors or one of the kids perhaps if lucky.
I even moved a skoda estate car ten yards up the padock away from the back gate with our little exmoor pony the other day , its time i sorted a few ideas out winching off the truck even car hitch or a post perhaps if i can work out a convenient point i can pulley the winch from to cover the main yard area, even one in the shop to pull stuff in there would be awesome. It sucks getting pold i must say but where theres a will there is a way. .

 

[matty]

Ideas in action.

 

[wvboy]

I have a winch in a cradle for a 2" receiver, I just used alligator clips for jumper cables on the cables. Having connectors on everything I use the winch on would be very expensive and it is used so rarely it just wasn't worth it.

I use the winch more to drag stuff up on trailers than anything else and for that I chain the winch tray to the trailer or to the front of what I'm dragging.

 

[Danno]

We have built similiar setups using the tow package charge line to 12v battery standard or deep cycle. Or off the vehicle battery through a 30A breaker. This would be typical in a dump trailer also.

A nice jumper cable system could be dual use. Aligator clips on one end and Anderson connectors on the other end. The winch would also have Anderson connections. Then a pig tail aligators and anderson ha... cant beat having a breaker added. So the jumper cable could be Anerson connections both sides. From breaker to winch. Then have two or even one aligator pig tails for vehicle to vehicle jumps.

This would be more fun to run the length of the vehicle with the power cables. One run with a loop at the breaker near the battery. Front and rear get Anderson connections. Then the pig tail could jumpstart a vehicle from the rear or without opening the hood. I hated these systems because of the high amperage. And possibly draining the vehicle battery. I always felt the charge line to battery was the safer route. Depends on the winch amperage. I installed salt spreaders at 60Amp off the battery.

 

[matty]

I have today been working on the truck, and got to thinking this winch idea over again, i only want the winch to literaly get me out of mud mostly on rutted tracks or wet pastures not hauling up steep rock climbs and winching through jungles in darkest borneo etc.
The winch needs to be very much multi use but stored in the truck admitted, but able to be used around the place
thought about fabricating the hitch mounting bracket to a mount with a ratchet strap layout i could mount the winch around a tree trunk if need be etc. a jumper box being portable lightish and having enough capacity for my intended use seems ideal.

 

[matty]

If you're going to be using it like that and expect to keep the line off of rocks, I highly recommend using synthetic line instead of steel cable. Steel has its place, but lugging it around gets old and there's an additional safety factor with synthetic line when it fails.

I had planned on utilizing synthetic to help keep weight down, mounting a winch permanantly on a bumper etc is fine for say a off road extreme 4x4 or if you use it or at least expect to use it regularly. But i just dont intend any extreme climbs or even have planned any work with the winch on a regular basis, and with it not being a truck cab or double cab flatback but a suv wagon style van body i got heaps of room for storing a winch and its attachment coupling inside out or the filth and weather and just fit it when essential to get us out of trouble or perform a task.
It might well get a tube bumper both back and front to give clearance and approach angle and departure angle as much as anything not a permanant winch mounting point on the car.
Soe winch bumpers are severely restrictive of a trucks approach angle, we have a big ramsey winch on a big old winch bumper on the front of a 110 defender at a place i work, its on 33 tyres and raised yet its very poor at getting onto some steep climbs its plouging with the bumper too easily compared to a stock defender.