What winch is a good winch?

[Spike]

Hi guys I have a question that I hope you all can helpwith..
I’m looking at two winches and I am a little confused withsome of the information about them

Winch (1)

• Motor: 6.14HP Series Wound
• Wireless Remote Control
• Line: 25mt Dyneema 12mm
• 3 Stage Planetary Gear Train
• Gear Train Ratio: 312.4:1
• Automatic drum brakes
• Drum Size: 85mm x 222mm
• Heavy Duty Alloy Fairlead

Winch (2)
· 9,500lbs(4,300kgs) Rated single line pull
· 5.5HP 12VSeries wound motor
· Remoteswitch with 3.5m lead
· 195.8:1Gear reduction ratio

Ok so where I’m not sure is the “gear Ratios” which is thebetter one?
Is the higher number better or the lower number better? Sorryif this sound dumb but I have no idea
Any help is much appreciated

[reyzor]

Need more info... What's winch 1's rated load? What brands are they etc etc.

[Steve F]

I'm guessing winch 1 is rated at 12500lbs (or more) with that low gear ratio and is probably geared too low for a Jeep and will just be slow.

Cheers
Steve

[Spike]

Yeah the "winch 1" is rated at 17000lbs and brand is Trex.. havent heard of it before...
how does the rated load change the gear ratio ?
so does this mean the lower the gear ratio the better and faster the winch speed?

thanks

[Steve F]

Its a trade off, 17000lbs is way over kill for the weight of the Jeep, that winch will drag it out of anything but it will be slow. I have a 8500lb winch on my Jeep, pulled it out or others out (including uprighting a rolled Jeep etc) with no problems at all and with a winch gear ratio of 172.8:1 on a single line pull it woud be much faster than that 17000lb winch and in all honesty it's not that often that you need a double line pull, normally the winch is just to get you up a ledge or something like that. If I need more pulling power I use a block, double up the line, which in turn halves the speed and double the load to 17000lb with a ratio odf 345.6:1

Basically, pick a winch that fits what you need 90% of the time and you'll find a 8500 or 9500lb is probably pretty close to the max you'll need on a single pull. Anything more than that is typically just reached by gearing the winch right down rather than upping the motor size etc.

Cheers
Steve

[Hunno]

I went with a 10500lb winch in the grand because the future plan is to tow hard core camper everywhere.
I wanted to go with a 12500lb but was talked out of it, as luck would have it I'm glad I was as it would not fit in an ARB bull bar.

[Spike]

Thanks Guys, now im understanding better...

[SteveC]

I thought the winch should be roughly based on 3 x times your GVM.
Also wise to know what your bar/supports etc are rated else chance it could strip the bar right off or distort it if it's too much load. please correct me on above if I'm wrong guys

[Steve F]

With an average jeep weighing about 2000Kg loaded up that would mean a winch with a load of a minimum of 12000lb, again you could but most of the 12000lb winches run the same motor as the 9500lb ones and just use lower gearing so will be slower. There's no reason why you cant run the lower rated winch and then gear it down with a block if you need more pulling power 8500-9500 will get you out 90% of the time unless you like deep sticky mud bogs etc.

Cheers
Steve

[Wooders]

I thought the winch should be roughly based on 3 x times your GVM.
Also wise to know what your bar/supports etc are rated else chance it could strip the bar right off or distort it if it's too much load. please correct me on above if I'm wrong guys

2 times is actually the usual recomendation.
And as SteveF said should you ever need more pulling power then you just add a snatch block which doubles the line power, or 2 snatch blocks wich would quadriple it