Winch for off road recovery

[OzWanderer]

Starting to look at winches for my Fuso and a bull bar for it to fit. Thinking of using Dyneema ropes for safety and ease of operation.

What is out there, WARN, Runva etc., pros and cons and reliability?

My FUSO setup is going to be at about 5.5 T max, what is the rule of thumb winch rating I should be looking at ? and of course, rope rating etc.

Hope I can learn something here.

cheers

 

[Anti-lander]

I can't and won't give you a brand to look at but I can tell you you will need a 12k or larger winch and the line you put on should be 1.5x to 2x stronger than the winch you choose.
You'll likely need to do double line pulls since winch ratings go down as the line is spooled further onto the drum, so you'll want at least 2 snatch blocks that can handle 20k or more.

Let say you get a 12k winch, you'll want at a minimum 20k line 2x 20k snatch blocks and a few soft or hard shackles with 20k or above ratings.

Synthetic or steel is up to your personal preference and where and how you plan on using it, and honestly depends on if you know what your doing.

Hope this helps
Any specific questions just ask

 

[Howard70]

Hello OzWander:

Good advice from @Anti-lander. I’d recommend a 15,000 lb or larger winch on your Fuso (we run two Warn 16,500 winches on our EarthCruiser). For Dyneema line we like 1/2” Amsteel Blue by Samson. We like to keep the length on the drum down to 70 - 80 ft so that there is less tendency for the line to pile up on one side of the drum when a pull is slightly off sided. We carry a lot of extension line in both 1/2” and 3/8” Amsteel Blue.

We’ve shifted to using a block on all pulls to reduce the load on the winch motor. When that doubled line comes back to the truck we use a bridle between two “frame end” recovery points for attachment. Robert Pepper has a good video on bridles.

For attachment to anchors, we prefer round line (again - Amsteel Blue mostly 1/2”, some 9/16”) to flat straps. We find that round and flat work equally well on trees, but when we’re trying to capture a less than ideal rock which barely pokes out of the soil our best success has come from round line girth hitched around the rock after digging as much of a trench as we can.

Over the years we’ve tried a variety of terminal points on the winch line - hooks, various Factor 55 terminals, etc. Currently we prefer simple eye splices on the ends of the winch and extension lines and we usually use soft shackles (constructed with - you guessed it - Amsteel Blue) for connections. When we splice those eyes we usually slip 1” tubular webbing over the line to provide some chafe protection for the eye.

Our winches are cabled to the 540 amp hour house AGM battery bank. When we winch we parallel the house and starter battery banks and then run the engine while winching. As long as we use a 2:1 pull we find that combination has minimal impact on the battery system. With a straight 1:1 pull the battery drain seems disproportionately higher. Others prefer to cable the winches to their starter banks.

Howard

 

[Ultimark]

I have a steel mount for the bull bar and winch mount, supplied by ATW in Qld mounted onto an Isuzu 75/155 NPS.

Their bull bar itself is alloy, considerably lighter than an all steel arrangement and although I have an Isuzu, as far as I understand it, their FUSO version is very similar being a steel mount with an alloy bar arrangement. Your front axle rating is lower than the Isuzu and an all steel arrangement could put you close too, or slightly over your axle limit. My front axle limit is 3100kg

Although I have a slightly heavier base vehicle ex factory compared to your FUSO, my front axle is running at 2880 kg fully loaded with the bull bar and winch fitted. 5900kg being the total between the two axles.

Addendum: I second Howard 70 in suggesting you should look at Robert Pepper's web stuff regarding various aspects of winching, shackles and other pertinent stuff. All of his videos are backed up with scientific measurements.

 

[sackettmw]

Maybe look at the Sherpa 17000 lb winch. Australian company. I have no personal experience yet but the price and warranty looks good. As others have said I'd be looking for at least a 15000 for self recovery. And as others have said, using a snatch block is a good idea so make sure to incorporate good recovery points for making double line pulls. That said, when I get around to building my front bumper, I'll probably just use a 12000 lb HF winch that I already have since its main use will be dragging stuff around (work truck) and plan on using snatch blocks if necessary.

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

Starting to look at winches for my Fuso and a bull bar for it to fit.

You don't need a bull bar to have a winch, infact a winch is more adaptable if it is not mounted at all.
This one is a Warn 16.5ti. It travels in a hayman reece style hitch in front where it can be used (or another at the rear) , but works best when used "remotely". Can be attached to the vehicle anywhere you want.
It could just as easily travel in a box somewhere.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[billiebob]

You don't need a bull bar to have a winch, infact a winch is more adaptable if it is not mounted at all.
This one is a Warn 16.5ti. It travels in a hayman reece style hitch in front where it can be used (or another at the rear) , but works best when used "remotely". Can be attached to the vehicle anywhere you want.
It could just as easily travel in a box somewhere.
View attachment 703367
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

the advantage here is zero stress on the vehicle frame and zero deflection of the pulling energy

 

[yabanja]

In 8 years of off-roading in the truck I have only gotten stuck twice and was able to self extract both times without a winch. I have yet to use the winch in anger. If carefully driven the trucks are ridiculously capable and the need for a winch is questionable IMHO. As far as sizing goes. The consensus is to select a winch that is 2 times capacity of vehicle weight. That having been said Warn specifies 1.5 size. So a 10k lb vehicle would require a 15K winch by those standards. In the USA there is a lack of availability on winches bigger than 16k. Australia has several manufacturers. I chose to go with a Sherpa 17K. Sherpa does offer a 20K which in retrospect I wish I had chosen. Runva also offers a 20K option and is much more highly regarded than sherpa.

Allan

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

The 2 equal length "anchor" ropes ensure that the winch always points exactly in the direction of the cable, so it always lays up evenly on the drum.
Theoretically, we could put the vehicle back on its feet if it fell over, but that is still a theory.

I reckon we would get bogged 3 or more times every year.
The winch probably gets used about 1 or 2 times every 5 years (and mostly to rescue others), but when it is needed there is often not many other options. The compressor would get used 10 times as much for recovery.
Cheers,
Peter