Cheapo RTV Winch

[lloyd123]

OK - I know I'll take some heat for being cheap, but I bought one of those 2000lb SuperWinch lookalikes on Ebay. What a deal - $59 plus $25 shipping and that includes the mounting plate and fairlead.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2490998382&category=43984

The one I purchased is distributed by Big Roc Tools but is the same as the other ones like Chicago Tools.

The only modification I had to make was to hacksaw about one inch off the mounting plate so it would fit on the existing plate. The hand control doesn't have a lot of extra slack but I found that it would fit just under that dash on the driver's side. When I don't need it I can push it up under the dash out of sight.

I tried pulling the RTV900 along a slight incline this morning and it worked just fine. I wouldn't recommend this for someone who does a lot of off road traveling and would need to use it on a regular basis. I don't have much of a need to winch but just in case I get into some trouble on a icy driveway it might give me a chance to get back into operation.

Actually for about $85 it's not really such a bad deal just for the mounting plate and fairlead.

Edit - Just noticed on the ebay link that their shipping went up to $28.

 

[bczoom]

lloyd123,

Hey, if it works, why not save the $. Just be careful with it until you see what it can do. Not sure what the weakest link would be on this winch but it doesn't sound like you're going to pull much.

Brian

 

[lloyd123]

After reading the manual I can see where people may have trouble with these winches if they're not careful.

The manufacturer only recommends using the winch for 20 seconds at a time when using it with a heavy load. The winch needs to cool down between uses.

Also , but I think this may be the same with all winches, it is only rated for the 2000 lb load when there is one layer of cable on the spool. As the cable is wound back on the spool the load capacity reduces as more layers of cable are built up on the spool. This must be a leverage thing as your pulling from a larger diameter spool as you put more cable back on it.