Winch recommendation for brush clearing, light forestry? (1 Viewer)

[skink]

I have a Slee Blueberry bumper to be installed on a 2000 Land Cruiser, and I'm trying to figure out which winch I should go with. My primary use case will be moving around tree trunks and brush grubbing. Recovery capability will be a nice bonus.

My criteria are the following:
- wireless remote required
- will get rained on plenty and immersed potentially, so well-sealed
- as light as possible (hoping to keep fresh stock suspension)
- as good a fit for the Slee Blueberry as possible

Recovery is just a bonus and I don't really drive in scenarios where I'm likely to be bogged to the axles so I'm not too concerned about the pulling capacity. That said, I'm not seeing massive weight savings between the 10klb winches and slightly smaller ones, so I'm thinking about the WARN 92815 Zeon Platinum 10-S. Or, the 12-S is another $100 and 10lbs heavier.

Does that seem like a reasonable choice given my criteria? Am I nuts to think I can leave the suspension (fresh OEM springs up front) as-is with the Blueberry and a winch? Thanks!

 

[sedonut]

My recommendation, A D9 Caterpillar bulldozer. 104260.html

You will likely pull your LC before you will pull out a stump. That's kinda why there are winch straps to attach to trees to pull yourself out.

If you have a nice chainsaw you will cut the tree up in pieces small enough to transport to your wood stove.

To give you an example. I used to have a Ford F350 1 ton pickup with a powerstroke diesel engine. The winch on my Landcruiser would not pull the truck when it got stuck unless I also attached the Landcruiser to a tree. Pulling on both vehicles would not move the tree.

 

[skink]

Not pulling stumps -- pulling cut logs / trunks and grubbing brush.

 

[sedonut]

You could probably just use a tow strap. The next option is to get a winch strong enough to recover your vehicle. Any winch over 8000 pounds should work. As always it depends on how bad you are stuck.

I tend to lean to what is the cheapest. If you think you are never going to get stuck, or never have so far, you may not need a winch.

If you can burn where you live, just do that. If you are going to take the debris somewhere else, why not just load it on a trailer? I have a winch on my LC. it's never been used for brush. Brush is either burned in place or loaded on a trailer for disposal. The winch has pulled out stuck vehicles a few times.

My question is, have you ever seen anyone using a winch for brush? I'm old, I live in the sticks and I have not.

If you just want to buy a winch, who am I to stop you? My .02.

 

[gnob]

If you don't want a winch for recovery and you don't want it to be heavy, consider a multi mount situation.

 

[skink]

What we have is acres of Scotch Broom of various sizes, so I'm thinking a winch with wireless remote would allow me to hook up the grubber, pull, freespool, hook up more brush, pull, repeat 1000x times. That would be less convenient with a tow strap. What I'm interested in the winch for is the step of pulling those suckers out with the roots (and then yeah, a trailer for disposal).

These are the kinds of brush pulling attachments I'm talking about: BrushGrubber | Brush Grubber Products - http://www.brushgrubber.com/products.html

 

[Godwin]

Considering that Scotch Broom is just a shrub a 10k winch would be more than adequate for uprooting.

 

[e9999]

you probably need a fairly substantial stem for a grabber to work well. I do remember scotch broom as more like a bunch of smallish stuff (could be wrong), though, but then a chain or wire rope wrapped about the whole base of the bush would likely do, just takes longer.

It's probably not an issue for smaller bushes but I would check the ratings of the bumper carefully to ensure it matches the winch. You don't want to put a big winch on, get excited, and when you pull something tough the bumper flies off.

 

[skink]

Ok! I got a Warn Zeon Platinum 12-S. It either just barely fits or just barely doesn't fit in the Slee Blueberry with the solenoid / control box in the default installed position on top. Slee also provides a license plate / solenoid mount, so might need to move the control box there, but I'm not sure when I need a full control box relocation kit from Warn. Probably will give it another couple tries just stuffing it under there in place.

 

[skink]

Slee couldn't comment on whether the Zeon would fit, and recommended the M12000. I can get the Zeon in there with the top-mounted control box with maybe 2mm clearance from the underside of the grill, which I imagine is going to mean contact pretty quickly if I am winching on anything that puts upward pressure on the bumper. So doable but probably not ideal. Using the Zeon relocation kit and using the Slee-provided solenoid tray, or putting the control pack in the engine bay, everything would be fine. That kit is $100 or so depending on options and requires some light surgery on the control pack.