4500LB Electric Winch Heavy Enough???

[Beltzington]

Someone is selling a new Superwinch 4500 for $100 dollars. I have been looking for an electric wench for the following tasks, pulling a disabled vehicle onto a car hauler, pulling downed trees out of the woods, and persuading tress to fall in the right direction when cutting.

Will be mounting the winch onto a receiver style mount so I can move it between vehicles. This appears to be designed as an ATV type winch, should I give it a shot or apply the $100 toward a bigger winch?

 

[Code54]

That maybe a little small (depending) but will still work. You can always use a snatch block to double your pull but that will but your line speed in 1/2.
The big question would be the size and weight of vehicles, as well as if they have wheels (wreck vs broken down for example).
For trees I often use a small 2 ton come along and it works without a problem - just don't have a 90' tree and a 80' line (don't ask how I know this...)

Also it should come with a relay, switch and some wiring so make sure that is all with it at the time of the purchase if you decide to get it.

FWIW - you can find them new for about $190 on the net with a warranty (not sure if that would have the warranty)

 

[TugCaptain]

Here is my experience,

For general utility purposes, it's probably enough but if you ever even think you'll use it for vehicle recovery, skidding logs, etc you'll want something much bigger. In the off road world, a recovery winch should be 1.5 times weight of the vehicle it is used on.

Keep in mind that an electric winch has a pretty low duty cycle (especially an ATV winch) and suffers from overheating when asked to run under load for an extended period at it's max rating. Also, you'll find that when maxing out an electric winch the recovery speed is SLOW.

Finally, look for a winch with a series wound motor, not a permanent magnet design for the same reasons as above. Hope this helps a little

 

[Cat_Driver]

Can't go wrong with $100.00. Pulling down trees, well that depends. I've done it easily with that size winch and at other times I needed to chain the vehicle to another tree then pull as the tree was too strong and was pulling me.

Remember it is electric so you can't run it continuously for very long ( look at the specs ) as it will shut off if it overheats.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I agree that you cant go wrong for $100. Make sure you run heavy cables to get the most out of it. It might not do everything but it will do alot.

 

[Beltzington]

Thanks for all your replies, I was thinking also thinking for $100 dollars it would be worth trying. Never owned a winch before and this should give me some experience should I want to spend more money. Worse case is I'll have to buy an ATV to use it on.

:laughing: 80-feet of cable and a 90' tree, sounds like something I would do. I am more concerned with sheds, fences and gates as a couple of the pine trees I need to drop are too close to all of these for me to rely 100% on my felling skills.

Happy New Year All! Best Wishes for a better year.