Multi-mount winch advice

[KeithT]

I am looking for a multi-mount winch. I have looked at the Warm system and there is a mile marker sytem too I have noticed. I want to be able to use it on my truck (front and back) and also my tractor if needed. My truck is a crew cab diesel so it is heavey. A lot of the multi mounts are rated for 9500# for the first spool of wire on the drum and then down from there. I dont expect to be using it to pull my truck through a mud bog, just vehicle recovery from snow and so forth.

Will a multi mount work for me? Any suggestions for other brands? I expect to rarely use it, how about an "off" brand? Thanks, -Keith

 

[powerstroke444e]

I use a old warn 38631? 8,000lbs of pull it is a little big and heavy but pulls like there is no tommorow. I have had to use a doubler block but have found nothing that I could not pull or pull apart. I bolted to a pieace of 3/8 plate and welded the plate to a reciever that fits in all 2" truck mounts and weld chain hooks on it for use with out a truck. I have tied to tractors trees dump trucks wagons and it works great. I have a 8,000 ramesy on my goosneck which is a good winch but not near as fast or strong as the warn. I'll try to take a photo tonight of it.

 

[Max2310]

I saw a 10500lbs (if I remember correctly) at Costco at around 400$ CAD. It was a Champion brand and was made to hook up to a 2" hitch receiver with everything included. I think that was a great deal. For occasional use, Champion should do it. I had a warn on my ATV that was rarely used and died for no apparent reason. Got 2 cheap Champion for less than the price of a warn and I still have one as a back-up. So far, the Champion outlast the warn (not supposed too).

They don't carry it all year round but usually comes every now and then (if you have access to a Costco).

Cheers!

 

[KeithT]

I use a old warn 38631? 8,000lbs of pull it is a little big and heavy but pulls like there is no tommorow. I have had to use a doubler block but have found nothing that I could not pull or pull apart. I bolted to a pieace of 3/8 plate and welded the plate to a reciever that fits in all 2" truck mounts and weld chain hooks on it for use with out a truck. I have tied to tractors trees dump trucks wagons and it works great. I have a 8,000 ramesy on my goosneck which is a good winch but not near as fast or strong as the warn. I'll try to take a photo tonight of it.

Would love to see a pic. Maybe warn still makes a similar model. Good point about a snatch block for heavier loads. Thanks, -Keith

 

[KeithT]

Thanks Max, I will check it out on the Costco website.

 

[KeithT]

Found this at amazon.com.

Amazon.com: Champion Power Equipment 10587 Winch with Speed Mount Hitch Adapter - 10,000 lb Capacity: Automotive

May be worth it for the price.

 

[archerm3]

I got the harbor freight 289.00 special probably 8 years ago, 8000 lb planetary system, worked fabulously for years up til about a month ago it started binding up, and I havent taken it apart yet. I have it mounted to a plate which is mounted to a 2" bar. I have 2" recievers on the front and back of my truck, and front (bucket) and back (3pt drawbar) of the tractor. Very handy.

I suggest getting a synthetic winch line rope as you can get a lot more length for a lot less weight, and manhandling those winches around can really be a pain in your back.

Make sure you get a snatch block too. Almost a necessity when you need to pull in a location without good anchors and the only thing to anchor from is other vehicles, and the winch pulls your unstuck vehicle into the stuck one.

 

[powerstroke444e]

Here are the pictures not the best as I took them with my phone. All my trucks have 2" recievers up front to use this and it has been abused over the yrs but still works. Yes I should keep it inside but with what it weighs I usually just slide it out of the truck and drop it. I use a 100' extension cord I wired up to control it so I can be way for it if a chain breaks or be riding in the vechile I am trying to recover. The truck has the bumper I put on most of the trucks so you see how I attach it.

 

[ovrszd]

I expect to rarely use it, how about an "off" brand? Thanks, -Keith

That's a loaded statement right there!!!

An Off Brand winch will save you a lot of initial investment money. But what good is that if it won't perform the mission??

In winches especially you get what you pay for. Sure there are off brand winches that people will tell heroic stories about. And I can show you a dozen that failed.

There's a lot to consider, one most important issue is amp draw. You can buy a $200 winch and if your battery won't stand the draw it becomes a boat anchor.

I Jeep, seriously Jeep. When I unspool cable/rope I am STUCK. I need dependability that I can count on. I need efficiency, low amp draw. I need durability because it may have to pull for thirty minutes or more to complete the task. I frequently find myself literally hanging on the cable. Failure is not acceptable.

I never even look at off brand winches. I've retrieved other people's Jeeps that had a winch hanging on the front, but they didn't want to use it fearing it would break or drain their battery. Sunday we were wheeling across a frozen creek and I broke thru. The guy behind me wouldn't winch me out because he didn't think his Champion winch would handle the strain. He's off my Christmas card mailing list.

I've used a lot of battery juice retrieving other people's rigs after their off brand winch failed.

Go for quality. Your need will evolve and you'll find that winch being used often and on hard pulls. Then you'll want quality.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[archerm3]

That's a loaded statement right there!!!

An Off Brand winch will save you a lot of initial investment money. But what good is that if it won't perform the mission??

In winches especially you get what you pay for. Sure there are off brand winches that people will tell heroic stories about. And I can show you a dozen that failed.

There's a lot to consider, one most important issue is amp draw. You can buy a $200 winch and if your battery won't stand the draw it becomes a boat anchor.

I Jeep, seriously Jeep. When I unspool cable/rope I am STUCK. I need dependability that I can count on. I need efficiency, low amp draw. I need durability because it may have to pull for thirty minutes or more to complete the task. I frequently find myself literally hanging on the cable. Failure is not acceptable.

I never even look at off brand winches. I've retrieved other people's Jeeps that had a winch hanging on the front, but they didn't want to use it fearing it would break or drain their battery. Sunday we were wheeling across a frozen creek and I broke thru. The guy behind me wouldn't winch me out because he didn't think his Champion winch would handle the strain. He's off my Christmas card mailing list.

I've used a lot of battery juice retrieving other people's rigs after their off brand winch failed.

Go for quality. Your need will evolve and you'll find that winch being used often and on hard pulls. Then you'll want quality.

Sorry for the rant.

Excellent point, but as a counterpoint...

To justify my own decisions...lol

I would say that a hardcore 4wheeler needs the tops in quality in a winch, probably a warn 8274 comes to mind.

Part time user, look at it this way.

You can buy 2 Harbor Freight winches for the price on one Warn winch, the cheapest one. I got 8 good years of pretty regular use out of mine, a HF one. Hard to judge quality on chinese crap, sometimes. Sometimes the stuff actually lasts as long as good stuff. sometimes not. But if you're in the deep stuff, you can have two winches for the price of one, and if one gives out prematurely, you still have an extra, and now you can judge the quality.

Back in my hardcore 4wheeling days, when I didn't have much money and Harbor frieght didn't exist, that $1000 winch was always something that got put off because of cost. I always had somebody along in the group that had a milemarker. Always had the comealongs and the HiLift, and always managed to get unstuck. When those 300 buck winches came along, money was better, and 300 bucks was more like disposable money, where I could afford to see how long this chinese crap would last. I'd say I got my money and then some out of it. And it still may not be dead yet, just needs a little maintenance on the inside.

But what ovrszd says about amp draw, line speed, raw grunt power, and duty cycle, that is true, and if you need to meet a threshold on those items, only the best will do.

 

[RollTideRam]

I have a Ramsey 9k quick mount winch. I have had it almost ten years now. I did have to put a few new solenoids in it last year. The solenoids were the same part from a Warn winch. This winch is very handy to have and I have used it on several different things. I use it on my trail rig (Suzuki Samurai) and have used it on my last three trucks. I have used it to pull out my 01 Dodge 2500. I keep straps, d-rings and a snatch block in the truck. I also used this winch on my last car trailer, but have not made a mount for my newest trailer yet. JC

 

[ovrszd]

I always had somebody along in the group that had a milemarker.

Thanks for supporting my point!!! And you are off my Christmas List!!!

 

[ovrszd]

I have a Ramsey 9k quick mount winch. I have had it almost ten years now. I did have to put a few new solenoids in it last year. The solenoids were the same part from a Warn winch. This winch is very handy to have and I have used it on several different things. I use it on my trail rig (Suzuki Samurai) and have used it on my last three trucks. I have used it to pull out my 01 Dodge 2500. I keep straps, d-rings and a snatch block in the truck. I also used this winch on my last car trailer, but have not made a mount for my newest trailer yet. JC

A further point of contention here. RollTideRam has a quality winch that has served him well. A 9K winch will move mountains if properly rigged. For a Multimount setup it's critical that you have a good method to transfer your donor battery power to the winch. A cheap set of jumper cables won't do that.

The best method is a good electrical connection on each vehicle that plugs the winch directly into the battery with heavy wire and quality connections. But that's very expensive, especially if you want the versatility that RollTideRam needs.

The next best method is a heavy wired, lead fastened permanently to the winch with enough cable to reach the battery of the donor vehicle with high quality, strong clamps. Worst part of this is that on some modern vehicles you can't see the battery let alone get a good clamp on a post.

The most used method and poorest is to simply clamp jumper cables on the winch and on the donor battery.

The issue is that his 9K Ramsey probably has a 450 amp draw at it's strongest pull. Very, very few jumper cables will allow that much current to pass thru. For example, if your vehicle had a 450 amp alternator how big would the alternator output cable have to be???

So if you use a multimount you must build a quality cable setup to transfer a possible 450 amp draw from your battery to the winch. Otherwise your 9K winch may become something as small as a 2K winch. The capacity of the winch is directly related to the amperage input.

In a quality setup the winch cost is minimized by the additional installation and support costs. Heavy cables, dual batteries, high output alternator, snatch blocks, tree savers, etc., etc. If I spend my money wisely on the setup and then fasten a cheap winch to it I blew a lot of good money and I'll smoke the cheap winch.

Sorry for the ramble this time....

 

[RollTideRam]

I had a friend that bought an offbrand winch from a traveling tool sale. It looked nice on his Jeep. He had it for one year before he needed it. Click Click is all it did. I have a picture some where of me pulling out his jeep on 38's with my Samurai. JC

 

[powerstroke444e]

I would agree on the cheap winch is a expensive headache. On mine I have 00-2wire? its about as thick as your thumb. The electic place I purchased it from said would handle 600 amps @ 30' which I only have 18' of power cable on it and have plugins on the one truck and use battery clamps on other trucks or use a extra battery then hook the jumpers up to the battery. On my gooseneck I have the same hook up which works well. I have been able to winch out of most of my problems(on small under 20K equipment) using doubler blocks and chains. For the big headaches I call in the big boys.

 

[ss4010]

I am looking for a multi-mount winch. I have looked at the Warm system and there is a mile marker sytem too I have noticed. I want to be able to use it on my truck (front and back) and also my tractor if needed. My truck is a crew cab diesel so it is heavey. A lot of the multi mounts are rated for 9500# for the first spool of wire on the drum and then down from there. I dont expect to be using it to pull my truck through a mud bog, just vehicle recovery from snow and so forth.

Will a multi mount work for me? Any suggestions for other brands? I expect to rarely use it, how about an "off" brand? Thanks, -Keith

Your rig is very heavy. If it gets really stuck an 8000lb winch is not going to do it. For a full size truck at least 12000 lb winch minimum. If you can, go hydraulic... no batteries / charging system concerns etc.... The portability of electric is nice as well. I went through the same trials and tribulations when buying a winch to recover a stuck skidsteer on my property. I settled on a RECON 17500 7HP electric winch, purchased at auction on Ebay for $480 if my memory serves me correctly. The portability and ready out of the box aspects of a DC unit outweighed the duty cycle of a hydraulic unit for me (not to mention the cost).

Recon Accessories: Products

One fair warning. This thing is muy grande. It will not fit on a standard receiver mount (bolt hole spacing the the same, but the overall size interferes. I have attached a picture of mine on a receiver mount. I used a stock receiver mount and flipped it upside down and popped in some steel spacers. I was in a hurry, with a vehicle to recover and have yet to make a proper mounting setup. It quickly yanked a 8500 lb skidsteer up a 45 degree slope and paid for itself.

After much research I realized that most of the big companies are not using re-branded Chinese made winches and OEM'ing them. So if you wanted made in the USA that is difficult to find.

Steve

 

[KeithT]

Well one thing is for sure, when I really need a winch I want to make sure it will work. I am leaning towards the Warn set up with the 9500# winch. I may need a snatch block with it if I am really stuck. warn sells nice kits to get power to the front and rear of the vehicle also. My bumper has a winch mount built into it that can handle up to a 16,500 winch but I think the flexability of a portable unit out weighs the ultra capacity of the permanent mount.

 

[ovrszd]

Keith when you start buying accessories shop around. Generally Warn is very proud of their stuff and you pay a premium price. It's quality equipment but can be bought for less without Warn's name on it. I carry two snatch blocks, two tree savers and four shackles. I also use a thimble on my primary Jeep and also attach using screw type shackles, no concern with coming unhooked. I also use and prefer rope over cable but it adds $200-300 to the cost of startup. When you get set up, post pics and give us an update.