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-   -   How to get a top quality winch? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-technical/40882-how-get-top-quality-winch-8.html)

Self recovery, pulling other vehicles etc.

I've heard the Chinese came out the hydrallic option too, just not seen it in India yet.
We guys using a PTO winch(or any Hydrallic pto contraption for that matter) have to be extra careful when winding back the winch ,since theres no Auto-disconnected to cut the motor out incase of overwinding.
Also i've seen a few army Scania trucks using what does appear like a hydrallic unit, but in any case, they are going to be way too big for our usage. I think the same goes for most Industrail winches. Even the 8-wheeled armoured amphibian that i found in the junk yard(i think i posted a photograph of it sometime ago), had a hydrallic unit, but that was routed to a capstan unit.
Try Russian trucks, whatever i see in them always seems to be the most practical, coz they always seem to be using some sort of override feature incase something goes wrong. Can't blame them either, with wide and vast open marshlands, and with no settlements in sight for a thousand miles, getting stuck can get you killed. The winch i got off a Mi8 chopper has 2x24Volt motors to power it along with a manual handle override. Sadly its not meant for heavyduty hauling, just to rescue men and bring them up, but it's a beauty.

Surely - the best uses it can be put to, tough limited only by one's imagination!!
What i ment was that those industrial/recovery hydraulic winches are way too big to be installed on our vehicles!!
1- Space constraints.
2- High power pumps to drive them - again an issue for small vehicles to install and a potential power drain source.


Hope electrical ones would be more practical and maintenance free of the lot.

Are used ones available from army disposals??

I too have heard stories about people pulling their bumpers in because they forgot to disengage the PTO. Most of the ex-army winches I have seen are too heavy/overkill for jeeps. I don't want an electric winch as they are vulnerable to moisture, and I will be modifying my jeep to ford >1200mm later.

I will check with some companies which make winches for tow trucks.

Its pretty difficult, atleast never seen an Army vehicle in this region with an electric winch, except there were a few serving with the army special forces, but these were in very limited numbers, just like the limited no. of army gypsy's in Saichen using caterpiller tracks. Even as far the skahtiman,jeep and jonga pto winches are concerned, i've only seen the early ones using them. There was this story in the army circles about specially ordered for '71 war jonga's that were supposed to have the winches. I've never winches on any 80's and later vehicles.
By the way, i think i have a photograph of a jonga used for the war, but without the winch. I think i'll post it in the Jonga thread.

You can try Milemarker, they are probably the best as far as Hydrallic winches go.
Even the Warn guys state their winches being water-proof. The problem lies somewhere else, and that's the battery and the electrical connections for for the winch. But if thats a problem we face from the electric winches, then a hydrallic winches are not going to be any different. They are powered by the power-steering pump, with hydrallic connections from the steering, via a valve to the winch, and all the switching is done by electronics,..So.
Try looking for Marine connector for the electronics and an enclosed battery with a snokel to went out gases. But if you do that, make sure the battery encloser lid is very easily removable, coz if anything goes wrong, you would have to move fast.

Freight will depend on how many are shipped at one time. I'll grab standard shipping costs via normal shipping options, and also grab a quote from a friend of mine who regularly ship's to/from India via pallets/containers/ships. This week happened to be extremely busy, I'll get this info as soon as I can.

I have no idea on customs personally.

It's an opinion of Warn that has been developed over years and years of people loving their products.

I have no attachment to any brand however, if anyone want's a different brand/part number. Let me know and I'll see what I can figure out. I only quoted the Warn because someone had asked specifically for it.

Most electric winches, including warn, are advertised as water resistant. Now I find the term 'water resistant' very ambiguous. Only the top end versions are water proof, and prohibitively expensive.

12V electricals are not difficult to waterproof, but moving parts such as motors are always a problem.

The lowest quote I received here in DXB for the M8000 is approx USD 1,100!!!

That is a killer price! Hell, I dont even mind spending a couple of hundred dollars on the courier if that means the cut-throats out here get one less customer!

Dear All,

how many of you are seriously interested in a good quality winches,

if the numbers are met i will import the same,

Secondly the hydraulic winches are avaialbe too,

send me the details i will work it out the Suresh stephen,

till then take care ,

regards
Vinay thomas

Oh I forgot to add the rest of the SMS I received from one of the dealers/4x4 specialists here:

Warn Defender Bumpers - Approx USD 700

Fitting Charges - Approx USD 300

That would be USD 2,200 to have a working Warn M8000 on my truck, if I were to do it here.

:Frustrati:Frustrati

I have been saving some money for quiet some time to buy a good winch and now my friend asked me a question that kept me thinking.
"Why do you need a winch" or, "what kind of things you do with your jeep that actually begs to have a winch installed".

I really didn't know how to answer that.

I will use it to pull myself out of situations when i get stuck and i am alone.
I probably might really use it once in 2 months or so.
Most cases i might also use it to pull 1 or 2 more vehicles from there. Thats all. No intention to use it like the MGE recovery vehicle.

And should i be spending 50K on a Ramsey or get a Rhunva for 16K.
Ramsey's are good. But, arnt they overkill for my purpose?

Regards,
krishna.

True, the M8000 at $599 sounds like an excellent deal but with shipping and customs it will easily top the cost of buying 2 Rhunva.

I guess in most situations we will be going off-road with some buddys in more than one vehicle so a tow rope should suffice. A winch probably gives you more confidence if you want to venture out on your own.

No these Chinese Winches are no good. i bought one cheaply for about Rs. 30,000 a brand called KEW, 6000 lb Winch and installed it in my Toyota Prado.

There was a serious problem in engageing / disengaging the clutch. But it did get me out of some bad stucks in the desert and pulled a couple of vehicles out from impossible situations.

I abandoned it and bought a Warn 8000 lb Winch for my SWB Prado. There was a problem with the motor. It burnt out in the very first rescue. We had launched the Toyota Landcruiser 200 and three of them were stuck in a pit. The winch sparked and failed.

Next I bought a brand new Warn 9000 lb winch from the dealer in Dubai for about Rs. 40,000.

I also bought a warn wich pulley and tree saver strap along with it.

The first time I used it, a Nissan Patrol was stuck at a dangerous angle. The winch got overheated and started sparking from the relay. The winch rescue failed.

A week later on a night drive a Landcruiser 100 got very badly stuck on some extremely soft powdery sand.

The Winch burnt out during this rescue but we did manage to winch the Landcruiser out.