Help Buying a Winch and Mounting Questions

[goodoleboy]

Vehicle is a 98 4x4 Suburban with 4wd so we could see parts of the our great country that have been long forgottten or unexplored. Places and things you cant see in 2wd ....We will be everwhere from the pacific northwest logging roads, Muddy trails in Alalabma,sandy areas of florida, to the deserts of Utah and California. We will be traveling alone camping in secluded areas and tow trucks dont go to alot of bad spots if they might get stuck.

I want to use a winch recviever mounting plate and mount it to a 2" front and 2" rear receiver hitches, moving the winch from the front to back as the siutation dictates...

Have any of you guys here if this system is worth it or should I get it dedicated to the front of the truck..Like I see alot of people have..


Also does this work?
If you get stuck say in a muddy field and have nohting to attach the winch to what are your options..A guy told me to drive a t-post as far down s you can then use that as your attachment point.Does this really work, ive seen some anchor looking device but Ive already got a t-post driver and post..Saving money anyway I can and it will take up less space than those anchors.

I am loooking at the harborfreight tools 10,000 winch ($450) and Mile marker 9500lb $650) winch (both electric)..Any advice on these winches or reveiws would be greatly aprreciated.[]

 

[RollTideRam]

If you really need to depend on this winch, I would get a Ramsey or Warn. I prefer Ramsey. I have a 9k on a quick mount, but I only have power run to the front of my truck. I also use it on another vehichle (Samurai) and my trailer. A front mount receiver hitch does not offer much ground clearance/approach angle and that is something to think about. On my Samurai I have the receiver in the bumper and it is much higher off the ground. You will also need to purchase a winch anchor like the "Pul Pal" that can fold up for storage. Don't forget tree straps, tow straps/chain and a pulley block. JC

 

[Reg]

Best to not go into what you can't drive out of, i.e. go IN with 2wd in the HOPE that you can get OUT with 4wd.
Suburbans are LONG anyway, so your chance of getting stuck on the belly is a lot higher than the lifted short rock crawler trucks you see in 4WD mags.

That said, T posts don't drive into rock and don't hold in sand, so a danforth type anchor would be a worthwhile addition to the winch. They fold flat and don't weigh a whole heckuva lot. SO much easier to retrieve than T posts too (-:

BTW, why are you considering such a heavy winch ?
You need pulling assistance when traction is poor, you don't need to LIFT the whole vehicle.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I would recommend synthetic Winch Ropes and Other Jeep Parts and Jeep Accessories by 4 Wheel Drive Hardware line for the winch. It is lighter and 'behaves' better than steel.

As far as winch, some people say Warn is the best company out there, but you have to know how much use you will get out of it. Check out Jeep Winches & Winch Accessories by 4WD Hardware - Your Jeep Winch Superstore 4wd.com, they sell the whole line.

Other than winch, High lift jack is very very handy in many situations.

I would get the Pul Pal, it is always easier than making a dad men (spare tire burried under ground as an anchor)

Anyway, the trip you are planning sounds great, we would like to see some pictures too

 

[EddieWalker]

I've had both Ramsey and Warn winches on my old jeeps and the Warn was a much better built unit. That was over ten years ago, so maybe things have changed, I haven't kept up.

Winches are great if you can get out in the direction that you are pointing. They are even better at pulling others out of the mud or lack of traction situation. If you go into the mountains, it's real easy to get your frame ans suspension twisted into a position that your tires wont work anymore. Sometimes you only need to winch yourself a few feet to get straightened out. Then there is the sliding off of the trail situations when you lose traction, slide backwards and end up where you never wanted to be. A winch is great for this too. Been there, done that. LOL

A buddy had winches front and back. He used that truck for allot of hunting trips and said he used his rear winch more then his front one. I only had them on the front, but wished for one on the back more then once. Being able to swap from either end is a good option if it works out. Just besure the mount is capable of pulling twice the load that the winch is rated for. If you use a snatch block, you double the power of the winch. In heavy mud, this is almost mandatory.

With a Suburban, you should get a roof rack for shovels and chains. I would also have another hundred feet of cable at the very least. I don't know why, maybe it's Murphy's Law, but the cable on the winch is always short for the perfect tree by about twenty feet. Then you have to hook up to a tree that's at a bad angle, or on the small side. The more cable that you carry, the more useful the winch will be.

Consider a strap for going around the tree. You don't want to hook onto your cable when going around a tree. It will damage the cable and can kill a tree. The cable must never be kinked!!!!

Cables snap, so having a heavy blanket to keep it under control is a smart move too. If the cable goes, it will go where it wants and more then one person has been killed by this.

I'm kind of an idiot, so when I used to go fourwheeling, I tended to get into situations that a much smarter person would avoid. Even today, my dad can drive the dump truck all day long and not get stuck, but the weekend before he got here, I burried it twice. If you don't learn and tend to push things, having a winch might save you. It also might give you a false sense of secruity, but it's better then not having one.

Figure out what your Suburban weighs fully loaded and then double that for the size of winch you need. When pulling out of mud, the weight, or load of the vehicle will increase by at least 50% with the mud holding it in place.

Do some searches online for the "Turtle Expedition" or some variation of the spelling. They are a couple that went through several trucks and configurations in there travels. They would drive down through South America and all over North America on their adventures. Some lasting for years. They spent allot of time building their vehicle so it would get theme there, and also get them out of bad situations. They did it and have the experience to know what worked and what didn't. I used to enjoy reading their stories way back when and if you can find them, you will get some good insite on what they recomend. Might be others out there who did the same that wold be worth searching for too.

Good luck, it sounds like you are in for an adventure!!!

Eddie

 

[MossRoad]

I am loooking at the harborfreight tools 10,000 winch ($450) and Mile marker 9500lb $650) winch (both electric)..Any advice on these winches or reveiws would be greatly aprreciated.[]

Being the proud owner of a fine assortment of Harbor Freight tools, I'd have to say don't buy one if you are going to have to depend on it to get home.

 

[Chuck52]

I agree with Mossroad about Harbor Freight, except maybe for their hammers and things like the high lift jack. I bought one of those from the local Harbor Freight after getting my Kubota stuck in the muddy ditch left from putting in a new water line, and that jack made it possible for me to extract the tractor by myself. Heavy duty, well made tool.

Chuck

 

[tallyho8]

A t-post would never be stong enough to pull a stuck 4 wheel drive out of the mud. Neither is a small tree. I have had much experience being stuck in the Louisiana mud while hunting in my Bronco with a front mounted Warn winch. Almost every time I used it I would have preferred a rear mounted winch. The front winch pulls you in deeper at first and then you have to turn around and winch yourself back the other way because if there was another way around you would have gone that way in the first place. My Warn winch never failed to pull me out but many times it was difficult finding anything sturdy enough to attach or anchor it to.

 

[Skyco]

Definitely go with either two winches (very high dollar) or two recievers with one winch to swap. I do the latter.
You need to run BIG cable to the back for the rear option since the voltage drop is considerable for a 300 AMP draw. Make it long enough so you can run the winch on a receiver welded onto your car trailer tongue facing backwards to pull cars/tractors on also. I use the large Andersen PowerPole connectors- you can get them at Grainger for WAY less than the winch companies sell them for. I get 3 functions out of one winch with the 3 reciever locations and the PowerPole connectors.
I have a Ramsey REP8.5e, an 8500 lb winch and it is barely adequate for some jobs, I have stalled it many times. I've also broken the cable twice, it comes with 5/16 but now sports a 3/8 cable- tougher to handle but harder to break. The first Ramsey I bought sheared the dogs off the cable drum the first day I used it, it was replaced and I've had no more trouble other than I burnt up the motor using it too long- my fault.

 

[RonMar]

Setup for front and rear is the way to go if you want to cover your bets. Had a Ford Explorer work rig that had this setup, and we also used the rear setup more than the front(I don't think I ever used the front setup). And as Skyco said, monster cable for the run from battery to rear receiver, as that is a very long run for high current DC on a suburban.
The suburban wuldn't be my choice for any serious off roading, but I can see the need for cargo capacity(like our explorer work rig) if you are living out of it in the bush. the explorer would be my choice as it is shorter and a little more maneuverable, but we managed to get it stuck occasionally getting to our remote sites for maintenance, usually in the winter. The suburban is long and heavy and you WILL get it stuck, so get a good winch and don't skimp on the wiring or alternator.

I would also reccomend a second battery installation on an isolator(battery will charge, but not be drawn from unless it is switched in). I have seen winched vehicles where the electric system was sucked dry and stalled the engine(EFI and electric fuel pump shuts down), and not enough juice left in the battery to restart the engine. Big vehicle equals HUGE electrical draw when winching.

An anchor is a good idea if you are worried about winch attach points, but it is heavy to be packing all over on the off chance you will need it. I think I would rather carry a small chainsaw and a good machete. They have many other uses at camp as well as getting to-from camp, like clearing a path after the windstorm has closed the road behind you, and on the off chance you need to make an anchor, you have a good tool to cut the parts for one.

Good luck