Truck winches

[nyone]

Just keeping a cheap winch out of the elements helps keep them working great. I have owned a cheap 9k milemarker for about 25yrs..because its kept out of the elements.

 

[Hay Dude]

Oof, I looked at pneumatic winches...

View attachment 837610

 

[Fallon]

Hmmm... I'm just thinking out loud, feel free to tell me to stop... I like thinking outside the box. Maybe a 12V hydraulic pump and hydraulic winch would use less power than an electric winch?

VEVOR Dump Trailer Hydraulic Pump 12-Volt DC Hydraulic Power Unit Single Acting 3.75 Gal. Steel for Truck Tailgate Lift CZYYB15LTXDZY0001V0 - The Home Depot

VEVOR Hydraulic Pump for Dump Trailers. 15 Quart Reservoir, Single Acting and 3200 PSI. This hydraulic pump is a single-acting power unit for power up and gravity down. It has a 15-quart sturdy metal reservoir and is designed with a 12-Volt DC motor that can provide strong power for hydraulic...

www.homedepot.com

Powering an 80% efficient hydraulic thing with an electric motor that runs at 80-95% efficenct. Or run the 80-95% efficient motor electrically directly... Adding conversions always decreases efficiency.

The only way that could be "better" would be if the pump pulled less juice. In which case your winch would just be slower or weaker. In either case you'd be better off with a 10k winch & using a pully for a double line pull to get your 20k.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

What would your usage be? What are you going to anchor a 20K winch to that you don't end up just dragging your truck towards the "stuck" thing you're trying to pull out? Or, vise-versa, if it's your truck that's stuck, what are you going to be able to tie off to as an anchor that you won't end up just pulling it towards your "stuck" truck? Or pulling the tree (or whatever) over?

You're not going to be able to just toss the cable end with the hook on it to any passing motorist to loop around their receiver hitch. You'll end up just dragging them to you.

We ran some big winches on our heavy wrecker recovery rigs. But they had 3 axles with parking (air) brakes, and hydraulically powered anchors that could be driven into the ground to keep the wrecker planted where we wanted it.

 

[LittleBill21]

yea man, you need the engine running any time you use them, these are not a battery only item, duty cycle can be as low as 15%, i know my HF 12k gets hot even with a light load on it.

 

[Hay Dude]

What would your usage be? What are you going to anchor a 20K winch to that you don't end up just dragging your truck towards the "stuck" thing you're trying to pull out? Or, vise-versa, if it's your truck that's stuck, what are you going to be able to tie off to as an anchor that you won't end up just pulling it towards your "stuck" truck? Or pulling the tree (or whatever) over?

You're not going to be able to just toss the cable end with the hook on it to any passing motorist to loop around their receiver hitch. You'll end up just dragging them to you.

Ummm…..yeah that’s obvious. I was thinking I’d use it for getting myself unstuck when one of my farm tractors isn’t around. Also possibly pulling out other stuck equipment, which happens a few times per year.

Anchoring my truck to a “passing motorist” was never in the thought process.

We ran some big winches on our heavy wrecker recovery rigs. But they had 3 axles with parking (air) brakes, and hydraulically powered anchors that could be driven into the ground to keep the wrecker planted where we wanted it.

Nice!

 

[Hay Dude]

yea man, you need the engine running any time you use them, these are not a battery only item, duty cycle can be as low as 15%, i know my HF 12k gets hot even with a light load on it.

Even then, you wonder how long before wire melt on a 450 AMP draw?

 

[Hay Dude]

Just keeping a cheap winch out of the elements helps keep them working great. I have owned a cheap 9k milemarker for about 25yrs..because its kept out of the elements.

I have a 10K on our Jeep Rubicon. Has come in handy a few times.

 

[LittleBill21]

Even then, you wonder how long before wire melt on a 450 AMP draw?

thats full stall speed single wrap on the drum, my HF pulls nowhere near its max load, (althought I have nothing in the 12k range)

wire should be rated to handle the load.some wire can be rated 120C,

throw a snatch block on it, if want the amperage cut in half at the cost of speed

if your goal is high speed repeated winching, your looking at hydro, not electric

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Ummm…..yeah that’s obvious. I was thinking I’d use it for getting myself unstuck when one of my farm tractors isn’t around. Also possibly pulling out other stuck equipment, which happens a few times per year.

Anchoring my truck to a “passing motorist” was never in the thought process.




Nice!

It sounds obvious I know, but in order to get yourself unstuck, the other end of that winch cable has to go somewhere. You've got to figure out both "ends" of that scenario. If you're stuck in a field (lets say), winch cable in hand, what are you connecting to that can withstand that much force being pulled against it? I can see you needing to pull out your truck with a fully loaded hay trailer from a muddy field. That part makes total sense. So yeah, a 20K winch would be useful for that purpose.

But where does the other end of the cable go?

Lol. I'm being a bit obvious (and slightly sarcastic, sorry). But I've been there on many a recovery, and it's usually not very simple. A 20K pull winch has enough grunt to "disassemble" things that it shouldn't be tied to.

Reminds me of a funny story, one year hunting up in N. AZ. We had a storm front coming in with heavy rain predicted, so I was packing up my 5th wheel to bring it out of the woods. My buddy had his brand new shiny winch on his Jeep Wrangler and boasted that I shouldn't worry about getting stuck back here, as if I did, he and his winch would pull me out. I looked at him and said all his Jeep would be useful for was to give me a ride to town in it to use the phone.