Mundo4x4Casa
West slope, N. Ser. Nev.
I've seen some new ChinaWinches that go up to 18,XXX pounds. Except for the largest campmobile it might be over kill. I've had these winches:
1. 1966 Land Cruiser FJ40 PTO factory winch. Had only a 2000 pound capacity. what's up with that? I plinked shear pins every time i tried to extricate myself. The solution was to drill out the shear hole to 1/4" and use drill rod as the shear pin. That solved it. Never had a problem after that unless the engine was not running ( i got stuck in quicksand in Salt Creek about 1969 and had to dig, hi lift jack, stack rock under, and hydraulic jack the thing for hours to get it above the quicksand to get running and winch the rest of the way out. It took 2 more hours at a gas station to take the drum brakes apart and flush the sand out) Another time in Monache Meadows about 1970 we were on the jeep trail and it was a bit early in the season so there was a certain meadow that was a mud bog at this time. I had big old tires and figured I could power my way through. Not so paleface. We went down to the frame. What to do? Freewheeled the cable almost all the way out and dug a 3' hole just wider than the spare. Dropped the spare in the hole hooking the cable thru the center of the wheel and onto the lug wrench underneath. Burried the spare. Winched. It would be the end of the story except we did this same manuever over and over for about 900 feet! The Deadman was alive and well that day.
Warn 8000, #1. An early 70's winch which I used more than 300 times and wore out the little spur gear that connected to the bull gear. The cables to the driving compartment were a pain to use. One of those winch operations was at Pismo where a 40' MoHo had four drive wheels to the frame. I told the driver to start lowering the 110 pound pressure in the tires to 40 pounds. I reeled out the winch about 70 feet and put it in 2wd and dug in my rr wheels to the axle. Put in 4by and dug the whole thing down to the frame. We made little ramps in front of his now lower pressured tires. On signal he was to not spin the tires but oooze it out with the winch line. Well, the winch started him moving and got very excited and he floored it and made a big 100 foot circle around me like a wild man with a 20,000 pound dune buggy, the cable fell off (luckily) and i never saw him again.
Warn 8000 #2. I used it less and it held up.
Warn 8000 #3. It was on my 1970 FJ55. I didn't have the bumper secured well and on a marathon winching thru 4' of powder it pulled right off the frame into a 'V' formation. That was a long day in the mountains. When it was working in cahoots with the bumper it was fine. Another story; I had a Japanese friend call me to see it i could take 3 Japanese businessmen on business in L.A. to the desert for a day. Sure, says I. The four of us in my L.C. FJ55. We shoot the dunes, run trails at speed and generally do an "E ticket ride" with these boys. None spoke much English. We get to the Whitewater river near Palm Springs which was running very fast and i decided to cross it. About 35' across. Half way it's pretty deep now and I could feel the sand waring away under the tires until we went stuck. I had the spare in back, luckily not underneath the gas tank, and wadded across rolling this spare tire to the other side. These guys were in suits, so they just stayed in the L.C., wide-eyed. I had a shovel and dug the obbliggatory hole and buried the spare as the Deadman. Waded back and winched up right out. Recovered the stuff and we were on our way. One guy asked what this was called in very low english vocabulary. I said, "this is called Deadman." All the way back to L.A. they were all talking rapid fire and about every 20 seconds I would hear popping out in the Japanese sentence, "Deadman!" They just could not get over the way we got out of there. I have a lot of wild and wierd winching stories over 40 years of off-roading.
Warn 8274. I got it second hand from my bro who went with a smaller winch for his rock racer. Simply the best, fastest, most bullet proof winch I've ever owned. It still leads the way on my '82 Jeep CJ8 rock crawler and is especially good for wood gathering as you can keep up with a falling tree on the reel-in.
I've always taken advantage of my ******** Cepek snatch block when i have a heavy pull. Tree saver. A piece of heavy chain with big latched hooks. A cat choker. A 20K and 30K tow strap with no hooks. Many sizes of "D" rings.
I bought an 8K pound China Freight winch for cheap and it lasted about 5 pulls before it was junk. The frame cracked. The bearing surfaces hogged out. The electronic parts did hold up. It was on a portable hitch receiver front bumper mount with no roller fairlead. Too much side stress when pulling. Cheap and made to stay that way.
I bought a used Warn 15000 pound winch which I promptly took apart and serviced. It was pretty dry. Lubed up and adjusted it has worked well for me on my Dodge Cummins/Camper setup. Why this one? The rule of thumb is to buy 1-1/2 times more winch than your GVW. My truck and camper weigh just over 10,000 pounds. So, rule of thumb is a 15,000 pound winch. It is not for everyone, however. It is heavy. At least 150 pounds, not including the winch bumper and carrier. It only has 100 feet of line. If the truck is empty I MUST deadman the truck, otherwise whatever I'm winching will just pull the truck dragging all four locked wheels of the wincher inexorably toward the winchee. I try to do straight line pulls with this baby. There is not a whole lot of difference with the 15K and the 16.5 Warns, imho.
regards, as always, jefe
1. 1966 Land Cruiser FJ40 PTO factory winch. Had only a 2000 pound capacity. what's up with that? I plinked shear pins every time i tried to extricate myself. The solution was to drill out the shear hole to 1/4" and use drill rod as the shear pin. That solved it. Never had a problem after that unless the engine was not running ( i got stuck in quicksand in Salt Creek about 1969 and had to dig, hi lift jack, stack rock under, and hydraulic jack the thing for hours to get it above the quicksand to get running and winch the rest of the way out. It took 2 more hours at a gas station to take the drum brakes apart and flush the sand out) Another time in Monache Meadows about 1970 we were on the jeep trail and it was a bit early in the season so there was a certain meadow that was a mud bog at this time. I had big old tires and figured I could power my way through. Not so paleface. We went down to the frame. What to do? Freewheeled the cable almost all the way out and dug a 3' hole just wider than the spare. Dropped the spare in the hole hooking the cable thru the center of the wheel and onto the lug wrench underneath. Burried the spare. Winched. It would be the end of the story except we did this same manuever over and over for about 900 feet! The Deadman was alive and well that day.
Warn 8000, #1. An early 70's winch which I used more than 300 times and wore out the little spur gear that connected to the bull gear. The cables to the driving compartment were a pain to use. One of those winch operations was at Pismo where a 40' MoHo had four drive wheels to the frame. I told the driver to start lowering the 110 pound pressure in the tires to 40 pounds. I reeled out the winch about 70 feet and put it in 2wd and dug in my rr wheels to the axle. Put in 4by and dug the whole thing down to the frame. We made little ramps in front of his now lower pressured tires. On signal he was to not spin the tires but oooze it out with the winch line. Well, the winch started him moving and got very excited and he floored it and made a big 100 foot circle around me like a wild man with a 20,000 pound dune buggy, the cable fell off (luckily) and i never saw him again.
Warn 8000 #2. I used it less and it held up.
Warn 8000 #3. It was on my 1970 FJ55. I didn't have the bumper secured well and on a marathon winching thru 4' of powder it pulled right off the frame into a 'V' formation. That was a long day in the mountains. When it was working in cahoots with the bumper it was fine. Another story; I had a Japanese friend call me to see it i could take 3 Japanese businessmen on business in L.A. to the desert for a day. Sure, says I. The four of us in my L.C. FJ55. We shoot the dunes, run trails at speed and generally do an "E ticket ride" with these boys. None spoke much English. We get to the Whitewater river near Palm Springs which was running very fast and i decided to cross it. About 35' across. Half way it's pretty deep now and I could feel the sand waring away under the tires until we went stuck. I had the spare in back, luckily not underneath the gas tank, and wadded across rolling this spare tire to the other side. These guys were in suits, so they just stayed in the L.C., wide-eyed. I had a shovel and dug the obbliggatory hole and buried the spare as the Deadman. Waded back and winched up right out. Recovered the stuff and we were on our way. One guy asked what this was called in very low english vocabulary. I said, "this is called Deadman." All the way back to L.A. they were all talking rapid fire and about every 20 seconds I would hear popping out in the Japanese sentence, "Deadman!" They just could not get over the way we got out of there. I have a lot of wild and wierd winching stories over 40 years of off-roading.
Warn 8274. I got it second hand from my bro who went with a smaller winch for his rock racer. Simply the best, fastest, most bullet proof winch I've ever owned. It still leads the way on my '82 Jeep CJ8 rock crawler and is especially good for wood gathering as you can keep up with a falling tree on the reel-in.
I've always taken advantage of my ******** Cepek snatch block when i have a heavy pull. Tree saver. A piece of heavy chain with big latched hooks. A cat choker. A 20K and 30K tow strap with no hooks. Many sizes of "D" rings.
I bought an 8K pound China Freight winch for cheap and it lasted about 5 pulls before it was junk. The frame cracked. The bearing surfaces hogged out. The electronic parts did hold up. It was on a portable hitch receiver front bumper mount with no roller fairlead. Too much side stress when pulling. Cheap and made to stay that way.
I bought a used Warn 15000 pound winch which I promptly took apart and serviced. It was pretty dry. Lubed up and adjusted it has worked well for me on my Dodge Cummins/Camper setup. Why this one? The rule of thumb is to buy 1-1/2 times more winch than your GVW. My truck and camper weigh just over 10,000 pounds. So, rule of thumb is a 15,000 pound winch. It is not for everyone, however. It is heavy. At least 150 pounds, not including the winch bumper and carrier. It only has 100 feet of line. If the truck is empty I MUST deadman the truck, otherwise whatever I'm winching will just pull the truck dragging all four locked wheels of the wincher inexorably toward the winchee. I try to do straight line pulls with this baby. There is not a whole lot of difference with the 15K and the 16.5 Warns, imho.
regards, as always, jefe
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