Hand Winch

Henry, the hand puller is not suitable for reliable recovery operation. Its good for straining fence wire :) AFAIK it's pretty useless for pulling a 2 ton + vehicle out of a bog.
The other type is suitable. It's more expensive for a reason :) However it does require you to be fit, after all you'll be using muscle power.
On Fraser you may be wise to invest in a land anchor type device also. You can't always rely on others being around when you're bogged and the tide is on the way in.

Henry, can't help much with the winch question other than I know they are bloody hard work.
One thing I can tell you though - you won't need a winch on Fraser Island. Just a snatch strap and recovery points (preferably front and back).
Fantastic place. Have fun.

Hi Henry,

I agree with Footloose the first one is not made for the purpose of winching cars, the second one is. I have used mine once in 11 years. We were stuck and travelling on our own and again I can concur with Footloose it is hard work but it will get you out as long as you have something solid to attach it too. Extra straps may be required to get you to a suitable anchor. Also dont forget to use a tree trunk protector.

BTW you shouldn't need one for Fraser - just let you tyres down.

Kind regards

Yes they are hard work. So much so that a snatch block is just about essential, especially if you are trying to pull a heavy vehicle through mud/sand etc. I find that with the snatch block winching is actually quicker because you can winch longer without taking a rest, even though it halves the cable travel.

I sold my electric winch and bought a second hand Tirfor because the electric winch was about 50 kg of expensive weight on the bullbar which hardly ever got used. A couple of times I needed it, it didnt even work due to corrosion of the solenoid terminals. The handwinch has been used a few times and the extra effort is justified by the weight and money savings. Having said that, every time I've used the hand winch I've thought how nice it would be to have the electric winch back but based on frequency of use, I can live with it. If you were using a winch regularly, I would say definitly get a power winch but the reality is most people rarely if ever use their winches.

As someone else said, you wont need a winch on Fraser. Make sure you have a decent recovery point front and rear and take a snatch strap.