Winch

Gotta agree with Disco, the topic of winches brings out many opinions, which brand is better, PTO or Electric, Mechanical or hydraulic, wire rope vs synthetic, etc.

I have an iopinion too, wanna hear it? Good.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is more potent than a hydraulic winch (pump off transfer case or engine, hydromotor on the winch. You have nearly the effective horsepower of the engine at the winch, and speed is variable by throttle. Drawback, Pretty expensive installation what with pumps, valves, hoses and the winch.

Mechanical PTO, driven off the transfer case, or front pulley in older cases is also very powerfull, but in many winching situations, you will also want to be driving, slipping the clutch as you do so, and everytime you put the clutch in, in the case of the PTO driven winch, the winch also stops. In fact, the transfercase on a series Land Rover should be in neutral anyway. Mechanical winches also don't brake when disengaged. They may have a seperate brake, but it requires you to operate it. I love antiques, but don't know anyone wanting to install a mechanical winch today.

Electric winches all have over running brakes these days. stop the motor, and the load back theough the drumshaft engages an over running disc. Pretty foolproof. The argument that you kill your battery holds water, about a teacup full. Full load on the winch is the highest current drain, but it's usually for a brief time. If you're pulling yourself up a 100 foot, 45 degree incline, your going to need to give the motor a break part way up, aside from the fact you're burning about 200 -250 amps. Keeping the engine revs at 1500 or so and your charging back at 100 amps. Most mud situations and you'll only need a short pull to get unstuck, though maybe many times.

I have two winches on my 110. Both electric. I wish I had a hydraulic up front, as that does more retrieving than getting me out of the bog. The rear one is used more than enough, getting myself unstuck. I;m not lucky enough to have company when I'm stuck, as it usually isn't playtime, but work.
My front winch is a planetary Warn 9000. It's OK enough, but the rear winch is a Ransey worm gear drive rated at 12K, but if Moses still wants that mountain moved, it sure would give it hell. I'll take worm drive over planetary anyday, except they are heavier, and not as compact as planetry. As to whose you buy, they all make planetary, and I guess they all are pretty much the same. Ramsey is the only one I know of still making worm gear drive.
Here endeth the opinion.

I have a warn 10000 and have had no complaints apart from the speed of the thing. I purchased the 10000 opposed to a 8000 high mount only for the fact that with the 130 loaded I would rather be slow than have to unpack the truck to get myself out of the crap I had gotten myself in to. I am looking at putting on a second winch this I have yet to decide but am swaying towords a putting a hydraulic on the frount and moving the 10000 to the rear, my reasoning is the same as TerryS I seem to do more recovery on other people from the frount and other people seem to recover me more from the rear, and I am tired of using a turfor when I am by myself. It hurts if you have to use it more than once a day. The only problem with hydraulic is cost but the big advantage of landy's is there is a pto spot on the transfer case so unlike other vehicles that share the power steering pump (not to quick) to do the work you have a seperate pump for this task it just once again adds to the cost. But like all thing 4x4 all the realy good stuff comes at a cost.
Adam

Hey Adam

I've been thinking about what you said regarding using a hydraulic up front and moving your electric to the rear.

I, too, like your idea of having one of each, but see if you follow my thinking. I'm wondering if you wouldn't want to run the electric on the front end, and Hydraulic on the rear. Here's my thoughts. When you're pulling yourself forward, it often is to get through a short, iffy spot, and you may want to have wheels in motion while doing so. It isn't as likely that you would be "driving" in reverse. Since the pump is off the PTO spot on the back of the transfer case, each time you push in the clutch, your pump will be disengaging, so the winch will be stopping. It's not like on a tractor with a live PTO.
Have you found any suitable PTO adapter/pump setups? I think I can trade into a new(ish) hydraulic winch, but there isn't a pump with it. If I did get hold of it, I'd love to fit my Ramsey worm drive up front. It has more balls and fater retrieve than the XD9000 Warn I have on the front now.

Just thinking. Dangerous, huh?

Aha!, I wonder what size lines and quick couplings you are using (or, more to the point, not using).If they are similar in size to that used on a snow plow, like a Fisher, they aren't big enough to permit sufficient flow, regardless of what pump you're using. You're the first I have heard of using a hydraulic winch as a detachable. The best installation should have a front pulley driven, live pump, reservoir, filter, and steel lines with good chassis supports, maybe a short section of hose (for flex) on the hydamotor end, and the lines need to be sized to support the motors GPM needs. Winches don't usually have highflow motors, but 8-10 GPM would be my guess for minimum. Quick disconnects for that kind of flow are going to be 1/2" FPT at the least, though I'm pretty sure they're 3/4" on my John Deere.
For receiver winches, I can't argue, that an electric, with a 200A Anderson connector is the way to go. They don't leak electricity everytime you disconnect them either. I have a set of jumper cables made up with welding cable, nice and flexible, 12' long, with an Anderson connector on one end, just plug it into the winch socket on the rear crossmember. Nobody asks to borrow them either.
Wanna sell that winch?