Which winch?

G'day Mal and Naomi.
While I can't recommend a winch as such, the using of Dyneema type rope saves weight against cable.
Probably has that anyway.
If for recovery, you may there may be a weight saving with a smaller than 12- 13,000 lb winch. It is hanging on the front after all. Using the rope extended and doubled back with a pulley block doubles the winch pull and so smaller may be ok. Less battery drag too. I like not to punish batteries. For emergency use a Dyneema or even a coiled cable extension might be good. With both fully run out, ie, winch rope and extension rope/cable, you can then get to that far away anchor point just the winch cable cannot get near.
If in bush stuff, the combination of both and suitably positioned pulley blocks on trees you can drag the rear end back onto the track using the winch.
A long run allows the vehicle to get through mud or terrain it cannot tow the trailer, and then the winch can drag the trailer through via the rope. all takes time.
I had a 9000lb Warn on a HJ61 LC and it would pull the vehicle along on bitumen with the wheels locked.
Always carried extension cable too and accessories.

You may find this link helpful.

I have a Runva 11,000lb winch on an ARB DeLuxe bar on my BT50. The winch is fine but a word of caution.

The steel bar plus the winch was too much for the mounts to the BT50's chassis rails over 5 years of outback touring with associated corrugations. Despite my conservative driving habits the mounts failed, requiring a pretty extensive repair.

A winch is probably a good idea in the High Country/Snowies or any mountainous area if you're exploring tracks, but TBH I don't think you need it in the wide red flat lands out west. In 16 years over 2 vehicles I've never use it out west, only in the mountainous areas and then only once for self recovery and once to recover a mate, plus a couple of times for moving trees off tracks - again Snowies and VHC, not west of the Divide. Most times out west recovery boards like Maxtraks or Treds will get you out of trouble.

Perhaps I'm not adventurous enough, but that's my experience.

Mal

You mentioned travelling solo and remote.

We do the same but do not have a winch.

The few times we have been in a pickle, MaxTrax have come to the rescue and where we travel, there would have been no solid object to use as an anchor to winch off.

I always fit a winch, I rarely use them but it gives me peace of mind knowing it’s there.
As far as brand goes they are all good when they are working, the issue is what happens when they don’t.
Look closely at the warranty details and you will find many are back to base style warranties which means YOU will need to remove it from your vehicle and pay the freight to their premises which will be expensive and time consuming if you are on the road in say WA and the winch company is in Melbourne or Sydney.
For this reason alone I have selected a winch that is sold from a three lettered 4WD retailer that has a network of stores Australia wide

We too have had winches over the years....only used to pull others out.
Had an Ironman which I found to be ok, but did had issues after a few years, mainly due to lack of use I think.
Have a kings on one vehicle and a Sherpa on another, neither have been used as yet.
I find a winch gives me confidence to go down a track I am pretty sure is ok, but would not tackle without one just incase.
Cheers

Except when heading up hill, most of the time you get bogged or stopped you will need to go back - so logically fitting a winch on the rear would be better but does not look as good as on the front.

If you do get a winch….use it.
Once every 6mths at least, operate it in and out….don’t leave it sitting idle for yrs then expect it to work when you need it .
Easy for me as I use it to winch my hybrid out of the side of the house…only 3 metres, but it gets wound out 6 metres to get there !

Have you considered a device called " bog out " ??
It is an aust made device that is low cost , light weight and will work from either front or back..largely replacing a winch for perhaps your intended use..

Worth a look ..

We have a 6T vehicle and a Warn 16.5Ti winch (16,500lb).
It gets used about 4 times per decade, 75% of that to rescue others. But when you need it, there are not many other alternatives.
Ours is mounted on a DIY cradle and it plugs into a Hayman Rheese syle hitch either at the front or the back (or anywhere else that is convenient) and it can also be used "remotely" via an "extension cord". This is the best way to use it as the winch always ponts directly towards the anchor pont meaning the cable lays up evenly rather than all on one side of the drum.
It can be attached to any part of the vehicle that is convenient, or even to something not on the vehicle (limited by the length of the "extension cord").
Theoretically it could be used to put the vehicle back on its wheels if it fell over.

If you decide not to have a winch, the next most useful recovery items are a very good compressor and a shovel. Most boggings simply require lots of airing down (the earlier the better). Plus a snatch strap for when some other vehicle arrives.
We don't carry max tracks.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

We travel remote & alone.
The winch on the front of our Patrol has had occasional use, but never yet been needed to recover the vehicle. Its a Warn XD 9000 originally fitted to the vehicle by it's owner - Telstra. Combined weight of our loaded car & Tvan is around the 5t mark. We have a snatch block, possibly two, but have never used them (which is why I can't recall if we left one at home last time we were there).

We have used our winch to pull fallen trees out of the way , but could have done the same by driving/reversing using a tow rope, but the winch saved the need for unhitching our Tvan. We have used it to help someone in a remote location to load a poly water tank onto a trailer, but the one time we were exceptionally glad we had it was to winch our Tvan from a bogged position at the edge of a sand dune alongside the Ord River, using our trusty shovel as a 'skid' underneath the jockey wheel. Without the winch we would never have managed the situation alone.

That said, airing down & a shovel have got us out of a few sticky situations, but more often what has saved us has been stopping before we got in too deep. In 4 plus years of fulltime travel we have used our single pair of maxtrax twice. Both times they worked very well.

We also have a front diff locker & in terms of peace of mind, if I had to choose between diff lock & winch, the diff lock would win, both for it reducing the need for speed/momentum to 'get through' & reducing the chance of bogging in the first place. Having both however is indeed reassuring.

I agree with Alby, the winch is a peace of mind thing, & with Peter - you don't need it until you need it.

Given the choice I think I would probably prefer a PTO type winch like we have on the Toyota ute we currently have the use of where we are caretaking, just because of the increased reliability factor on something rarely used.

Snatch block and plenty of cable to reach an anchor point.
Also consider a hand winch like a Tirfor. Yes it's hard work but by using a snatch block and having the ability to usually winch in the desired direction can usually get you out. And having used one you will engage the brain before the ego next time so you don't have to use it again ;)

I went with a Carbon Winch 12K, I was going to drop the $$ on a Runva 11000lb, but their prices went up and they didn't have any stock when I was ready. The Carbon 12K has done me well though. 5years installed and always works when I push the button. Its had a flogging on a few occasions, with an evening pulling a Patrol with a fried clutch 100m up a sand dune to get it off the beach. Single line pull and it hardly got warm.

A winch with Dyneema (not dynamic rope, completely different animal) is the way to go. The plastic rope is lighter, much easier to work with, doesn't slice your hands up and if you do snap a line, it can be repaired back to full strength with basic tools on the side of the road. Down side is abrasion and heat resistance, but both can be managed.
I also have a Tirfor, it always works and is immune to water but its heavy, solw to set and pack up, really slow to move a vehicle and hard work. It does make you a better driver as you don't want to get stuck in the 1st place.

With an electric winch, its a good idea to power it out and in each month as corrosion on the solenoid terminals can accumulate and stop it working when you need it.

From all the models I looked at a 9000lb and a 12000lb winch were basically the same (same motor, current draw, same foot print, same dimensions), its just the gearing that changed and the line speed on the 12k was slower.
Under full load it doesn't make much difference as the time saved in only having to rig for a single line pull compensated for the slower speed and a 12k with only 1/3rd or the rope off the drum is pulling at around the same power as 9000 lb with all the rope off the drum anyway.

As for water ingress, where a winch is fitted makes it inherently prone to water damage. Even winches that have never done a water crossing still cop a flogging with rain and spray that can get enough moisture in there to cause damage. I've seen more than a few with water and corrosion damage to the motor housing or the brushes.
I just accepted it as the way of the world and hosed the inside of the motor housing with WD40 and CRC Lectrashield as a preventative measure. It seems to have work as I haven't had any issues with it at all.

A bit of discussion about warranties can be found here: 4WD Earth Winch warranty discussion.

One consideration though: I have a steel bar and the winch on the front of a BT50. With extra weight and only myself in the front seat, I have a whole 70kg before I reach the maximum front axle loading for the vehicle (1450kg). If you have a passenger and want to stick a 2nd batter under the bonnet (if there is room), you might find you run out of capacity.

Very useful found here!

G’day
I haven’t read all the replies , but would like to make a comment.
2018 we travelled to the east Kimberly via the Simpson desert
And back via the canning stock route. Sand driving is mostly tyre pressure and a little bit of experience. Don’t be scared if bogged to drop pressure to 10 psi or even lower. Mud’s different but probably shouldn’t be there anyway.
In the preparation period I purchased a set of 4 maxtrax. And discussed a winch with my local TJM dealer, he basically advised me since I had reasonable off-road experience I probably didn’t need a winch.
He said he’d had one for years , and never used it to get out of being stuck. Only used it for other job’s like standing up a vehicle hoist.
We did that trip and the maxtrax didn’t get used , and still haven’t.
So consider what you really need before parting with your cash.
Cheers

I have a Runva 13XP, only used in anger twice and worked fine with no issues. Only cost $900.00 which I thought was good value. I did look at the Carbon winches as well at a similar price but I read a lot of reviews regarding waterproofing and warranty which made my mind up to go with the Runva.

It all relates back to money ?? pay peanuts and you will get monkeys.. if you want something to work when you need it buy quality and have it serviced regularly . This idea of buying cheap knock off brands and you can buy three of them compared to one good one is a load of bulshit

I had the original Aldi winch on a Ute for 8 years.
I now have a kings winch which was on the ranger and is waiting for a bullbar on the new Ute. I have used both in anger maybe 20 times and they haven’t let me down. The kings one has dyneema rope. I’d buy it again no problem.

We had a Runva one and found the control box failed twice without being used much. It got replaced by a TJM one thanks to an insurance claim. The installer didn't mount the control box properly - it rattles around inside the bullbar rather than being screwed into place. Despite rattling for 4 years and the winch not being used for about 3 years I was happily amazed the other weekend when I got stuck and it all worked. A big tick to TJM from me. On the other hand the wireless remote died pretty quickly... the cable one works.