John ullivan replied:

Jim, The 1.5 tonne hand winches may not get you out of real trouble. I am currently looking at the Mud Mauler. (4.5 tonne Chain winch) over a new design of power winch (9000 lb)from Bamford and Smith. Mud Mauler Certainly looks tough enough. I am hoping that the 4x4xmags will run a test on one shortly??? Hope this helps

Will replied:

Jim, I got a Tirfor 1.6 and we got several in the club. I can tell you from experience that they DO.
We put a rolled 80 series cruiser back on its wheels on a very steep hill!!! we got vehicles as heavy as a Patrol out of stuck situations, should use a snatch block which doubles capacity but halfs the speed.
They are HARD work too!!
will

Alex replied:

G'day,
the 1.5 tonne rating is the vertical lift capacity. A winch rated at this will give a horizontal pull of significantly more, depending on the winch.
As already stated, they are hard work, and using a snatch block will make it easier, if you don't need the full cable length. Just for interest, the
resistance to recovery for a vehicle bogged in mud may be as much as 2.5 times the vehicle weight!! Cheers, Alex

Porl replied:

It's all about rolling resistance. I have a Prado that weighs almost 2 ton but in neutral i can push it out of a level garage with one foot.

So it comes down to what you are bogged in and how deep - if bogged down to the foot sills and drive train then there may be a suction affect that could mean serious trouble.

The tried and true are the Tirfor's - but i actually bought a mud mauler because of the price, (big) weight difference, compactness - I wanted a chain gypsy for it (didn't need one in the end cause i was trying to operate it wrongly) and went to a chain shop where the guy also sold 4WD recovery stuff and said he lectured to 4WD clubns on proper winch recovery techniques. He was very critical of the mud mauler and was of the opinion it was potentially dangerous because the chain sat so low in the internal gypsy mechanism. Me not happy contacted the owner who said blah blah blah and offered to re-machine the internal gypsy if i wanted but said on the weekend he winched a 4.5ton tractor out of a creek and up a hill using a jack lever. I know it works and the high tensile chain it locks simply onto the end of a winch strap. I have not used in any mud bog yet but am pretty confident it would work.

The owner by the way was very helpful and very open and concerned by any criticism.

So yes I'm keen to see a heavy duty review -

sean replied:

Jim

it might do the job but hand winches are BLOODY hard work. We got the GU bogged on a black soil plain a few weeks back. The winch was a tirfor copy rated at 1.6 tonne lift and we could not even budge the vehicle at all from the rear so we had to go forward. It took 2 men to work the winch at the same time while the third slipped the clutch to slowly rotate the wheels and still over 2 hours to go 4 metresn where we got the wheel to lift out and drive onto firm ground.

We were all totally exhausted and I would not have got out if I was not with other blokes who were fit and strong.

Sean