OEM v. Ramsey v. Powauto PTO comparison

[Volcano cruiser]

Hey guys,
As some of you know since seeing cruiser_guy's PTO on the 55 I have been scheming on getting one. A couple of weekends ago I went out for a trail ride with my club. A couple of new guys showed up each with a different PTO winch on his cruiser. Two had Ramsey's and one had an OEM. The last guy had an OEM rear mounted (upside down and under the sill) but was missing a section of drive shaft so it was more decorative at the time. I have searched the faq

https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/94874-p-t-o-gearbox-winch-information.html#post1166214

and read a bunch of related threads but I didn't run accross one that did a comparison between the three types of PTO winches that were made for cruisers: OEM, Ramsey and Powauto/Thomas. What have people's experience been with each in terms of ease of installation, reliability, ease of maintainance and use. Also is there a difference between the three in your ability to add on some of the classic pto "accessories" compressors, augers you name it. (I confess to blatant curiosity on this last point as I have no plans to dig post holes with my cruiser but if you are gonna have a pto might as well retain any and all options, right. ) Anyway I thought I'd post up once I kept seeing parts of each of these setups posted both here and on ebay and I'd find it useful to see some comparisons, others might find such comparisons useful as well. Thanks in advance,
John

Edit: Please include any experience using any of the above with a split transfer case.

 

[flaminbandit]

in my old club there where a few ptos 1oem and 2 powauto i myself have a powauto

from what ive seen the oem is terrible breaking sheerpins left right and center also has a nasty habit of eating the winch cable and crushing it beyond safe

on the other hand the powauto on a v8 fj45 was great he used to give it a damn hard time and the only broken part ive seen is the actuall shaft in the drive gearbox twist and snap


my pto has had mixed results the main problem is that sheer pins keep falling outta the shaft LOL

and trying to drag a nissan out of a hole i managed to snap the main shaft in the winch head and acording to powauto here in melbourne this is a common problem but mainly with towtrucks (i have a spare winch head that has a snapped main shaft aswell)

powauto now sell a hardened or treated shaft for arouond $220aud purchesed one and have rebuilt the winch head but havnt used it since

 

[waydownunder80]

got a link for powautos? my mate does winch challenges here in NZ with a pto all toyota except the winchead and he can winch his truk in 5th no crap!ditch the shearpin for a bolt mate and be done with it

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Here is the link for Brown Hydraulics which owns PowAuto. Just drill down into the web site a bit and you'll see them.
John

David Brown