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What winch


dm90

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Hello, im planning buying a winch for my discovery but not to sure what kind or size to go for as there seems to be so many to choose from.

it wont get used very often so not going to be spending alot on it, pay and play days twice a month.

Can anyone recomend a good resonably cheap one?

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Well if money is not a problem, then I would buy a hydraulic red winch, either running off your transfer box, or a separate pump off the engine. Then second down is the giggle pin twin warn mother thingy, big and heavy in comparison to the hydraulic one, and more expensive. Then if you are looking for just a self recovery winch, well there are loads out there, allot of people say the Warn 9.5XP is good, I have one, however still made it overheat in a tricky situation and I don't do challenge events. Maybe one day when LR fever really consumes my every waking moment....

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So we now know the competition merchant's wish list :P

A Disco is a heavy vehicle, so don't consider anything less than 8000lb rated unit. The Warn XP winches are very good and would suits your needs well, but are far from cheap.

I would suggest you look at the Goodwinch TDS Goldfish range. They do fit in the cheaper basket, and have proven themselves to be surprisingly good value. Some people are using them in winch challenges and still rate them.

The 9500lb model would be pretty good for your application. The 12000lb is more powerfuil, but is also a fair bit bigger, which will affect choice of mounting not to mention the resultant approach angle :)

There are plenty of ultra cheap winches available on our favourite auction site but they are that cheap for a reason!

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So we now know the competition merchant's wish list :P

A Disco is a heavy vehicle, so don't consider anything less than 8000lb rated unit. The Warn XP winches are very good and would suits your needs well, but are far from cheap.

I would suggest you look at the Goodwinch TDS Goldfish range. They do fit in the cheaper basket, and have proven themselves to be surprisingly good value. Some people are using them in winch challenges and still rate them.

The 9500lb model would be pretty good for your application. The 12000lb is more powerfuil, but is also a fair bit bigger, which will affect choice of mounting not to mention the resultant approach angle :)

There are plenty of ultra cheap winches available on our favourite auction site but they are that cheap for a reason!

the 9000 and 12000lb winches are the same except for the gear box, the 9000 is faster but the 12000 pulls harder and slower.

The goldfish Tds range is what i'd suggest and david bowyer is in my experiance a very nice chap.

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I like our 12000lb Goldfish from David. For a rear winch it is considered very slow for winch-challenge, but it doesn't give up pulling.

And I'll use my normal argument about never needing a snatch block, less strain on the battery with lower amps from a lower geared winch and it allows more time for the alternator to do its job :)

Plus it's got drum seals. (though many have now)

If your running off the vehicles engine battery, then a winch that isn't working as hard will give your electrics less abuse.

Best to add a fuse and cut off switch to the budget as well :)

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Just to clarify a few things in case they get misinterpreted:

I like our 12000lb Goldfish from David. For a rear winch it is considered very slow for winch-challenge, but it doesn't give up pulling.

And I'll use my normal argument about never needing a snatch block, less strain on the battery with lower amps from a lower geared winch and it allows more time for the alternator to do its job :)

Plus it's got drum seals. (though many have now)

I assume what you mean here is that a lower geared winch will draw less current than a higher geared one. Introducing a snatch block will in in effect halve the gearing ratio of the winch and thus reduce the load on the motor and subsequently reduce the current draw.

Best to add a fuse and cut off switch to the budget as well :)

I challenge you to find a fuse reasonably cheaply (other than an M8 bolt that is) that will deal with the kinds of currents that electric winch motors are capable of sinking... :P

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A snatch block nearly does the same thing, but with a snatch block one rope fall is traveling over the ground. Admitedly this isn't a problem for steel rope, but it's risky with a synthetic rope. With a snatch block you need a place on the truck to hook the hook on that will take full line pull, which is more fabrication.

A snatch block plus is that it can make more than double the pull, as it takes twice as much rope, which mean less winch drum wraps and more drum leverage. But this only a good point if the anchor point is half a winch rope length away. More than that and an extension rope is needed.

It's a guessing game; What will be needed most? speed or force :)

I run a 300 amp fuse with an M8 holder and carry a 500amp in the vehicle as spare. (bought in case a 300 was too optomistic). I think they are mega fuses.

And my cut off is a Durite "battery Isolator Switch 250amp". As red key cut off switches were acting funny with us.

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what he said

Don't bother with a fuse, just fit a decent cut off switch and a solenoid as a back up 'Kill' switch

I would go for the 12k TDS for real world winching....

BUT it's worth looking at the Champion TDS as it's the same as the Goldfish/Maico/Premier and is often a snadge cheaper

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the 9000 and 12000lb winches are the same except for the gear box, the 9000 is faster but the 12000 pulls harder and slower.

The goldfish Tds range is what i'd suggest and david bowyer is in my experiance a very nice chap.

^^^ that's what I thought and I've had both for customers in the past. If I ever get a Puma then I'd get a TDS12000, as the Milemarker doesn't (as far as I am aware) have a pump kit available for Pumas at the moment. But with the Tdi only having about 20,000 miles on it in five years, it will be a while yet :)

David is great to deal with even from the other side of the world :)

It's a guessing game; What will be needed most? speed or force :)

Force every time for me :moglite:

Speed is no use if it only gets you half way there quickly ;)

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i had the tdsi goldfish 9000ib on my truck,i cant praise the winch enough,its rated at 9000ib but definatly pulls harder and has a decent line speed too,the winch never let me down and not once did it ever stall and ive done a lot of hard single line pulls with it,the only reason i changed it is i wanted more speed for challenges so went with a gigglepin modded 8274 but will definatly be fitting another 9000ib tdsi on the rear when funds allow

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If you'd said a play-day once every six months, then one of the cheap eBay winches are not a bad option. They are not waterproof, but not much worse that an EP9 if you fit decent wiring and a new solenoid / contactor. However, once you have added a decent contactor, the cost difference between that and a Tds has narrowed rather.

If you plan on winching regularly, a Tds from David Bowyer is worthwhile just for the confidence that it will always work when you need it, even if you've been swimming with it previously. Even if the Champion version is a couple of quid cheaper, I would still buy one from David, just for the knowledge and backup - which in my case has been brilliant. He's usually willing to do a deal if you are buying a few bits which more than covers the difference.

David has been very good to me over the years.

Si

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Perhaps I'm in the minority here but about 5 years ago I bought a 10,000lbs Champion winch from Winch Solutions and to say that I've looked after it is a gross overstatement. It's been swimming and through a bit of mud and all I've done is once in a while un-spool it and re-wind it, I've even given the wire rope a spray of WD-40, once...

Having said that it's never let me down (touch wood) and always dealt with what I've thrown at it. The only time it really had any difficulty was in rescuing a reasonably heavily laden Series III that was up to it's axles in mud and sitting on it's leaf springs rather than the wheels (and it's not the first time John's done that either, seems to drive in a very bouncy manner). What ended up happening was the winch was struggling and eventually made a little bit of progress, pulling the 110 towards the Series... So a snatch block wouldn't have helped in this scenario if we'd been able to rig one up, keeping the 110 on firm ground meant that the winch cable was fully spooled out and even then we threw caution to the wind and included a large tow-rope in the mix.

I've typically used it more for pulling trees and so on around the farm (and lifting gearboxes etc) than recovery situations and gets used regularly in short bursts but with minimal maintenance it's been superb. If it does break then in all likelihood I'll just repair it or may go hydraulic instead.

The only criticism I have of it is that it's slow, particularly when spooling out and since it doesn't have a free-spool option you'll inevitably end up on your back in the mud as you lose your footing dragging the cable out.

Edited by Ed Poore
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Or the various bits RED make that are sold by MM's UK distributor....

I love my TDS; it was one of the very first Goldfish 9.5's brought into the UK. Given to me to break/prove. I did break it but it took a hell of a lot of doing. So I fixed it then gave it hell until it broke again (thnaks to a complete dweeb acting as winch bitch); so that got fixed.... I had RED improve the angles on some of the gears and on the sun gear clutch pin recesses; It runs a Bow2, some rather special brake cones and a few other bits and bobs. One day I will grab a 12k gear set... maybe

It's as good as a Ramsey RE10000 or a Husky 10000 for shear abusement and pulling strength, despite the Ramsey and the Husky being so beautifully built

Simon is right about 'Uncle' David and the Goldfish, product support is superb. However in this day and age it's worth looking for a deal and Champion have some great distributors as well as a good name in the commercial market. BUT I build up/re-build/service winches as part of my living so I have no worries about product support. Buying a winch off the shelf, it would be foolish not to talk to Mr Bowyer

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