Winches, winches??

Here's a third option to look at. Not cheap but..........

Bush Winch

hand winch - think of a 38 degree day and spending 3 hours on the end of a bar, or worse, gluggy mud bucketing rain. Hand winches are great.. sold mine!

As for a winch on a tow hitch, someone else can do that, with things like this IMHO, you do it right do it once, so nobody gets hurt.. Im sure if it was a good idea, someone would have done it by now.

The Bush winch has plenty of - if you look for other threads on it in recent times.

Not having said what car you have, makes it difficult to give options, but some times there are cradles that mount to the chassis rails in the front instead.

Have a look here Site Link

FR,

There are a few good points about having a 'cradled' winch. It is possible to place the winch at the front or rear of your vehicle if required. This obviously means having power to both points but will allow you to winch you vehicle out backwards.

The drawback is the space a winch in a cradle takes up when not in use. If you have a ute this may not be an issue, but in a wagon type 4WD space seems to be limited.

I know someone who uses a portable electric winch that fits into the tow hitch reciever slot on a Hilux (front & rear). He only carries it in the back when 4wding and the setup works very well. However, it is rather heavy to initially 'plug it in' or lug around to the front. If you have any specific questions I can give him a ring for you.

All winch makers have a cradle for when not mounting to a bullbar, Land Rover even have have one for non bullbar fitted vehicles so i'm sure if you go to ARB/Opposite Lock or any 4x4 accessory place they will be able to help.

Baz.

Sorry mate I missed that first thread by Sandman.

They all have their drawbacks.
The Bush Winch can probably only be used in a straight line.
The hand winch is hard work and takes up space when not in use.
The detachable winch also takes up room inside and is heavy for a decent sized unit.
The electric winch needs a special bullbar and is expensive.

So you have to base your purchase on your intended likely usage and the terrain you will be driving in.

"Not to keen on fork to fork out on a which bar"
I'd say you haven't had much experience in recoveries
hand which is the most versatile which you can have,just lots of hard work
If you are contemplating serious fun, FIND a which bar,mount the which properly,piece of mind has no monetary value if you/your mates are well and truly stuck.
Those 'clip on' whichs will suffer power loss,and will not be attached properly to the vehicle

Shane

Hey Phill ,

I own a Port a winch ,it has a cradle and long jumper lead type connection . I think you cant buy it anymore.

It either fits in the tow bar reciever or has provision to fit two shakles to the base so that you can attach it to where ever else you want , an easy way is to use a tree trunk protector and recovery hooks on the front of the vehicle.

Normally I go away pretty much alone ( one vehicle ) and didnt want to be limited to front winching . Was really keen on the hand winch until i saw one used in anger , then a mate at work told of his worst day with 3 major recoveries , so that was out.

The down side is it takes up some room , all my winch gear pretty much fits in one of those black Supercheap boxs ( 100lt ? ) about 1/4 the back of Patrol wagon and is almost always on the bottom when you need it. The up side is it doesnt live on the front of you vehicle 24/7 and is more likely to work when you need it.

A few weeks ago down the south coast pulled this guys Patrol trayback and boat trailer out of the ocean after he got it really wrong ,could only see bonnet and cab , sunk pretty well in soft sand , dont think I would have tried with a hand winch.

Can email you some pics if you want ,not a complex design , you could make it or get it made.

Hope this helps out !

Glenn.

Thanks all for your input.

Phill