Winch questions...

[Scarsman]

I am planning to get some kind of winch for the H2. Hopefully in the not too distant future.

What size do you all get? I have been reading, and it seems the rule of thumb is GVW X 1.5 for the minimum recommended rating. That would be 12,900 for an H2, so it would seem that choices would be a 12,000 for light minimum use, and a 15,000 for serious use?

I seem to remember reading that the front hitch mount is only intended for 9000 pounds. Is that right?

I have never had a winch before, and will be on a bit of a budget. Contrary to what most think about the guy with the Hummer, I don't have lots of money to spare. I'm just a guy with with a family of six and a house!

[HUMTECH]

Ill give you my opinion, 9000lb warn will work in most situations as long as your smart enough to not completely bury your rig in a nasty hole(sometimes it will happen). But at least with the 9000 you should get out of most problems. More important dont go wheeling alone, this is the biggest rule of off roading. Also have a snatch block, straps, tree saver with the snatch block you can double line and increase your pull double.

[Scarsman]

Originally Posted by HUMTECH

Ill give you my opinion, 9000lb warn will work in most situations as long as your smart enough to not completely bury your rig in a nasty hole(sometimes it will happen). But at least with the 9000 you should get out of most problems. More important dont go wheeling alone, this is the biggest rule of off roading. Also have a snatch block, straps, tree saver with the snatch block you can double line and increase your pull double.

That makes sense. I just saw everywhere the "GVW x 1.5 rule", but I kept thinking that is a massive winch! You never see 15,000 pound winches on anything hardly.

I am having problems with the "don't go wheeling alone" rule. For some reason I am the oddball in my family for this kind of stuff, and for some reason none of my friends or co-workers are into it either. And then my work schedule usually has me off during the week days and not on weekends. So I have learned through the years to be very carefull. It is hard sometimes to avoid the urge to try something I am "sure" I can make, but to not do it because of the slim chance I wont. I did cause my wife to have to walk out three miles with me once, and it has never happened again. I got my friend to bring his pavement princess out to pull me out. That was in my old Suburban which had like ten feet of overhang past the back wheels!

[HumminNBoatin']

I have a Mile Marker 9500 winch it works fine. There have been some times that I have had to use the snatch block for sure though. You are really limited to what setup to get at this point though. The only winch bumper out there is the WARN and while is a good product it really kills your approach angle. Or you can get a cradle mounted set up. But that really is a pain as well. If you are intrested in one like the one I have on my truck (the old boulder accessories setup) let me know.... I might have a way for you to aquire one.

[Scarsman]

I would be really interested in that, but $$ is the issue right now. Bumpers seem to run pretty high. I have been playing with the idea of trying to make my own maybe.

Here is a pretty interesting write up on a winch comparison test. The Harbor Freight winch was quite a suprise.

[jarek m]

If you on the budget why don't you go with a $380 Gorilla 10K or 12K, bunch off people is going to tell you all kinds of s**t about it, but here is what I KNOW. I have mine Gorilla 10K for 5 years now It NEVER let me down, I use it as a "fifth wheel" not a recovery tool, I did upwards of 40,000lb recovery's with it and cooked it more times then I can remember just let the smoke settle and when it's cool enough to touch back to work!

Loaded Sears truck on one snatch block






15k tow truck that brought my Disco back home, returning the favor.






Regular single line pull.



And if it breaks you can buy two more till you get to the price of the Warren or Husky.