Mounting an electric winch

Did you ever find the 9000 not up to it? at a previos job we used them frequently to pull fully loaded utes out from saltlake edges no snatchblock and no worries

arghh think before you post - now I think of it I am pretty sure they were 9500

Ken, did you measure the pulling power of your winch before & after the motor upgrade? The reason I ask is often it's not the size of the motor that limits the pulling power rather the size of the wiring & battery supplying it. I've read that the best a 9,000lb winch will pull on the bottom layer is only 5,000lb because the car's battery sysyem can't supply enough power. Upgrading the motor from 2.5HP to 6HP certainly won't double the pulling power & it's higher power usage will certainly cut the run time down conciderably. A bit like putting a V8 in your car without upgrading the fuel line or petrol tank size. It will starve of fuel & not run very long...
Double blocked a 9,000lb winch will pull a cruiser out of almost any situation. (bar competition)
Cheers Craig........

Evening all.

Nice to see you all taking and interest in what your winch can do.

Just a bit of background.

I purchased my 1997 Troopy from the auctions in Melbourne in 2000.

It was an ex Dept of NRE vehicle that was three yrs old and had 30,000kms on the clock.

It was the cargo carrying version and came with a TJM bullbar and winch and few other extras, like cargo barrier, steps and plastic headlight and bonnet protectors.

The amazing thing is, that all of these extras were to meet then current Dept OH&S requirements. (go figure??).

Anyway I have had a pop top coversion done to it and a full interior camper/kitchen setup installed, plus belly fuel aux tank and a 200L S/steel water tank, plus a S H I T load of other mods done since purchasing.

All up, weighs approx 3.2T.

The winch by the way had never been used, so I had it serviced by ARB to make sure everything was in working order.

Gave the sucker a 'tryout' and much to my shock, horror and dismay that winch struggled like hell to move the vehicle up a moderate slope on undisturbed bush terrain. I had it spooled out so that it was on the first wrap etc etc.

Of course a snatch bloke was tried and that improved things somewhat. However I lost half the length/reach of the rope.

Then I thought I would have a go at driving in 4-4L whilst winching.

Hell! drove straight 'over' the winch and up the cable. ie winch so slow that you can't assist drive.

Solution: nil at that stage and I forgot all about it.

Recently I had the good fortune to be associated with a number of people who are experts at 'boosting/tricking' winches up to get more out of them. Also on how to assist-drive with the winch to lessen the draw on the battery etc etc.

In view of what I gleaned there, I am now having the 9000 winch retro fitted with a 6HP motor, ventilated, marinised and rope on reel capacity enlarged.

I have already piffed the steel rope and fitted a 8mm x 35m plasma rope.

However I reckon I may up grade that to a 10mm 40/45m plasma rope once I figure out how much I can get on.

Also it will be running off a brand new Delkor 27H 710CCA battery.

All up, it will give me:

Increased pulling power
Increased winch speed
Increased rope capacity
No wire splinters
Less heat problems
Less water problems.

And if necessary I'll use either one or both of the 2 snatch blocks I carry as I will have an increased rope capacity to do so.

Thats about it.

Out of interest Lucy or Ken what does it cost to upgrade to a 6HP motor?

As long as you can fit it into your B/Bar on upgrade - about $600.

Just depends on what you want done as 'extras'.

The planetary gears are only checked, serviced. Not altered.

If like my situation where the upgraded ponce wouldn't fit back into the TJM bar, then you have to get one that will accomodate the upgrade, and in my case it was an extra $1000 for the latest ARB 70(all) series one. Nothing fancy, like colour matched pwd coating etc.

Also the actual power cables on mine have to be altered as well (new ones) as Warn only ever supply enough cable for the winch sold, to the minimum mm required. Just one of those little 4WD money pit things that you 'love'.

Regards

Ken Robinson