I went through the same agony most have in trying to decide what kind of winch to get. Then there was the whole$$$ issue. Hate over paying for what I want.
In the end I decided to go hydraulic as there seems to be countless stories of burning winches up in a single day, new out of the box. Thought if I was going to invest the time and money I wanted something that I couldn't break. you know,,,, bubba factor.
So I picked up a military surplus 10.5K MM still mounted to the Hummer plate. Plastic still wrapped on winch cable.
$150 bucks on craigslist. Mounted it on a ARB winch bumper [Used from a mudder in Denver] (after some mods). .
I didn't see the point of paying for the MM set up for controls. The only special thing I had to buy was the 12volt coils to the replace the 24v on it. Tracked those down from manufacturer for a 1/4 of what MM wanted. 6 weeks to get, not a problem.
I then designed and built a small relay box that I mounted on the bumper with a lanyard plug. {$15, 30ft lanyard from Pierce towing) Its also wired to a inside switch and to top it off I found a deal on a MM wireless remote that I isolated with some diodes. Got the whole thing mounted and then had some custom hoses made at a local NAPA store. Have less than $450 in the whole thing. Everything worked perfectly the first time. {it helps that I'm a instrumentation and controls designer} [[and system builder]]
Haven't gotten the chance/need to use it yet but its something I will never break. Might rip the whole bumper off but winch will be be fine.
Pictures isn't the best since its from a phone, but I do luv my ride.
Also just added new chip to computer and 5.7 absolutely screams now. But that's another story!!
In the end I decided to go hydraulic as there seems to be countless stories of burning winches up in a single day, new out of the box. Thought if I was going to invest the time and money I wanted something that I couldn't break. you know,,,, bubba factor.
So I picked up a military surplus 10.5K MM still mounted to the Hummer plate. Plastic still wrapped on winch cable.
$150 bucks on craigslist. Mounted it on a ARB winch bumper [Used from a mudder in Denver] (after some mods). .
I didn't see the point of paying for the MM set up for controls. The only special thing I had to buy was the 12volt coils to the replace the 24v on it. Tracked those down from manufacturer for a 1/4 of what MM wanted. 6 weeks to get, not a problem.
I then designed and built a small relay box that I mounted on the bumper with a lanyard plug. {$15, 30ft lanyard from Pierce towing) Its also wired to a inside switch and to top it off I found a deal on a MM wireless remote that I isolated with some diodes. Got the whole thing mounted and then had some custom hoses made at a local NAPA store. Have less than $450 in the whole thing. Everything worked perfectly the first time. {it helps that I'm a instrumentation and controls designer} [[and system builder]]
Haven't gotten the chance/need to use it yet but its something I will never break. Might rip the whole bumper off but winch will be be fine.
Pictures isn't the best since its from a phone, but I do luv my ride.
Also just added new chip to computer and 5.7 absolutely screams now. But that's another story!!
)
