Portable Multi-mount Electric Winch

[FT4WD80S]

I am sure that it has been discussed before I have also looked at mfr info and all seems to claim theirs products are better than the competition...

Considering purchase of recovery winch that I can use/move from front to rear of my TLC and to another vehicle with front and rear mount receivers.
I have searched the forum and maybe I have missed or just didn’t look hard enough to find the answer to some of the question below.
Again, my goal is to have a reliable portable recovery winch I can move front to the rear and to another vehicle as needed. Your actual experience, set-up (PROS & CONS), RECOMMENDATIONS will be greatly appreciated.
some of the things Im looking at...


MULTI MOUNT WINCH CRADLE (WARN STYLE, OTHER BETTER MAKE?)
MULTI-MOUNT FRONT RECEIVER (LOAD RATED, any bolt on avail? or do I have to custom made?)
PLANETARY VS WORM GEAR or SPUR (what's popular, reliable)
WEIGHT/PULL RATING MIN. FOR A 6500 LBS GVWR, ELECTRIC WINCH
BRAND COMPARISON WARN, RAMSEY, MILE MARKER
RELIABILITY
Anything else I need to consider?… so I can do it right the first time.


Thank you!

 

[LandyLover]

I made my own portable winch carrier with my 9000 lbs planetary winch using hitch material. This carrier fit into 2 receiever hitches welded to the truck at front and back. I did this in my mini truck. Never had any troubles, stronger than a single receiever design (like warn's) because the receivers were welded to each framerail. I ran #2 welding cable to the front and back with Male/Female brass welding plugs so plugging it in would be fast and easy.

Disadvantage of your desired setup: Heavy, theft prone if left on the truck, low mounting point, limited style of winch appropriate.

Advantages: You can move your winch from front to back. (Moving the winch to the back TOTALLY saved my butt only once. I would have rolled off a loose cutbank down a steep ravine if the winch was fixed only to the front.)

Types of winches:

Planetary Advantages - Fairly simple, lightweight, maintenance freeish, low profile, easy mounting, more cost effective, (also lots of offshore copies). Disadvantages - Well, there's nothing really wrong with them. Some brands - Warn, Ramsey, Superwinch

Spur (8274) -Advantages - HD, Holds lots of cable, fast. Disadvantages - More maintenance required with oils in case, but mostly they're really heavy and awkward to mount. More expensive than planetary of the same rating. A Brand - Warn

Worm gear - Advantages - Brutally strong and reliable (used typcally in commercial applications/auto recovery), lower current draw. Disadvantages - Very heavy, oils in case to consider, awkward to mount, expensive to purchase, slow. Some Brands - Ramsey, Superwinch.

Cheers.

 

[alia176]

Another wheeler in a local club I belong to has one of these things, and here're some observations I've made over the years:

-when stuck, he usually opts for another vehicle to pull him out.
-he is older and doesn't like to drag that thing out of the back, slog his way through the mud and attach it to his vehicle.
-when he attaches it prior to going out on the trails, he becomes very reserve. He doesn't want to shove the winch into a mud pit or rocks.
-admittedly, he doesn't have a very tall 4x4 so the effect of acting like a mud shovel is more pronounced.
-out of all of the trails we ran together, I've only seen him attach this winch about a handful of times.

I think he had higher hopes of going out wheeling alone so that's why he wanted the option of pulling himself out in reverse. Don't know for sure.

Cheers.

 

[ginericLC]

One other issue I see with doing it this way is that you might not be able to access sliding it in when you really need it. There might be an obtrusion. I've thought about it a lot and I'm going with mine mounted in the front bumper. Another thing to consider when buying a winch is the amount of AMPs it draws. Some of the cheaper brands are using inefficient motors which draw quite a few more amps.

 

[GXO]

If you want to winch in reverse you just get the guy behind you to pull you out...since you aren't supposed to go out alone anyway

 

[FT4WD80S]

Thanks Landy,
Great info, looks like planetary goes on top of my list 9000 # should be good enough I hope and though I like the Idea of having mounts on both frame rail the other vehicle might not have same width as my TLC...welding cables are a must particularly for mounting to the rear, can't remember how a welding plug looks like but I am considering anderson connectors

 

[alia176]

Check out www.awdirect.com for this type of things. There are lots of connectors on this site as well as other things that you'll want to spend your money on!

 

[Beowulf]

... can't remember how a welding plug looks like but I am considering anderson connectors

Warn sells a complete "rear mount" wiring kit. It is very well done with a HD solenoid and an in-cabin switch to energize the solenoid. I am using this kit to power my rear air compressor. It uses the Anderson connectors.

I will also offer some thoughts. The receiver mounted winches would have a disadvantage for side pulls. I would suggest an industrial strength manual winch like the tirfor style (and brand) and the More-Power-Puller (can't recall the exact brand name... search in Outfitting.) There are several brands that would do the job in a pinch.

I will look for a link that shows another ingenious idea. The guy had a Land Rover and built a winch system that allowed him to pull from either the front or the back. It was very well done and well documented. I am surprised that more people haven't copied his idea.

-B-

 

[Beowulf]

The system is called a Foers Winch. It appears he has patented his idea though I don't see why you couldn't build one yourself so long as you didn't try to sell it or claim the idea as your own design. IANAL.

http://www.4wdonline.com/Foers/Winch.html

For the curious, the first link above is a very interesting read. This Foers system will enable you to:
* Pull from the front
* Pull from the rear
* Pull from both the front and the rear at the same time
* "Spin" the vehicle 180* without moving either direction
* Use it like a cable car to guide you along a fixed line between 2 anchors
* Slide the vehicle perpendicular to the direction of travel.
* ... and a lot of other things you could do with this setup ...

-B-

 

[Hayes]

My father and I were discussing this the other day.
For those without a receiver-hitch, how about this (kooky?) idea:

Mount a winch in a protective "cage" with robust attachment points. When you need a pull from the rear (or from anywhere), chain the winch (or use a custom cable?) to your rear recovery points, and run the winch line out to your anchor.

Having the winch essentially hanging free between you and your anchor creates obvious problems, but I'm wondering if you couldn't make it work.

1. The winch is mounted in a metal tray with a low-profile cage around it.

2. You would have to connect the winch to your truck via 2 lines (chain, cable, etc) to keep it aligned properly, and find the point(s) where the winch is most balanced and aligned when suspended under tension.

Get it?

Hokey?
Idiotic?
Brilliant?
Discuss.

Hayes

 

[76BigheadFJ40]

I completely understand why one would want to be able to carry around a winch to be able to pull others or themself around going in either direction, but one disadvantage I see is that you will be carrying it around, all the time. This means that everytime you want to get it out, you will have to pull it out and hook it up, then do everything else, which takes a while in itself. I don't know about you guys, but the only time I've really needed a winch is when I go wheeling, and I have a bunch of stuff in the back of my truck(s). Therefore, the winch will be underneath a bunch of stuff, because there's no way something as heavy as a winch will go on top of everything else. Don't get me wrong, becuase I will probably run this way as well, but I might keep the winch in a certain area,like on a bumper, rather than inside. Hope this makes sense

 

[76BigheadFJ40]

just read that foers winch system set up, and it's genius. It's great placement of the winch, as long as you have a wireless remote or in cab remote, and as long as you can stuff that winch underneath a belly plate, you would be set. This might catch on pretty well...
edit: forgot that another huge benifit is that you wouldn't need a huge winch, since you could, in a sense, be using one or even two snatch blocks everytime that you use the winch, you might only need a 5 or 6k pound winch, which could effectively work out to 12k or even more. way cool.

 

[GXO]

If I set mine up this way will someone volunteer to muck under my truck when I am stuck to pull cable inside my truck?

 

[Beowulf]

Discuss.

It's not a novel idea as that is exactly how a hand winch is used. The only difference is you need to get power to the electric winch which is not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be rigged when you're getting ready for the extraction.

If it is a water or heavy mud extraction then you have a 100# winch sitting in mud or water with chains hooked to your bumper and 00-welding cable going to your battery source. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen in that scenario.

Again, if you are looking for the "portability & flexibility" that a removable winch would offer you, it seems to me that the best solution is a fixed winch up front with a hand-winch for those times you need to pull from the rear.

My 2c

-B-

 

[fzj80kidpen]

That Foers winch setup just did not make sense until I looked at the patent drawings. Seems like all that rubbing of cable on the metal frame rails would make something break sooner or later. Interesting though. Probably could be done with a few additional precautions.

 

[Beowulf]

... and as long as you can stuff that winch underneath a belly plate, you would be set. This might catch on pretty well...

You have an 80 and there is a huge open space when you move that spare tyre up on a proper tyre carrier. A creative guy with welding skills could build a rear skid and throw a Warn 9500 up there easily.

-B-

 

[Beowulf]

Foers Winching System.

 

[e9999]

don't we all already have a hand winch?

it's called a hilift!

 

[Hayes]

You have an 80 and there is a huge open space when you move that spare tyre up on a proper tyre carrier. A creative guy with welding skills could build a rear skid and throw a Warn 9500 up there easily.

-B-

That's one of the best ideas I've heard for using that space (short of an aux fuel tank). Seems a little extravagant--two electric winches and all--but I'm sure you could put a 9500 pounder in there (with skid plate) without it hanging down at all. A small slot in the frame-member / bumper, a hawse, and there you go.
You could even wire a control plug into the bumper, kind of like a trailer-light plug.

I like it.

Of course, the arse end of my truck is already gaining weight faster than Oprah...

I still like it.

Hayes

 

[Beowulf]

Seems a little extravagant--two electric winches and all--but I'm sure you could put a 9500 pounder in there (with skid plate) without it hanging down at all.

I'm suggesting 1 electric winch back there with rigging to work to the front or the rear (as documented above.)

-B-