4WD Winches: Which Type is the Best?

[Chirag S.]

On 5/30/2019 at 1:25 PM, Gaurav said:

A winch is the second best recovery gear after the Shovel.

It's very good to have, but it's not mandatory if you are driving with people who already have the winch. As in the whole group if you have 1 or 2 cars with winch it's very safe and optimal to venture. As in some sticky spots, a winch can save a lot of time, and in other dangerous pulls, a winch can do on slo-mo so that you can dig and clear after every few cms move to prevent the flip.

Couple of days back, i have visited one garage to inquire about winch installation. He advised to lift my FJC-GXR few inches to balance extra weight gain after installation of "winch + its kit" (approx weight of 40-50 Kg). 

Pl give your expert opinion, is it really require to lift car and after installation of winch, will its added weight effect natural off road driving?!

Thanks in advance for all your guidance!!

[Gaurav]

7 minutes ago, Chirag S. said:

Couple of days back, i have visited one garage to inquire about winch installation. He advised to lift my FJC-GXR few inches to balance extra weight gain after installation of "winch + its kit" (approx weight of 40-50 Kg). 

Pl give your expert opinion, is it really require to lift car and after installation of winch, will its added weight effect natural off road driving?!

Thanks in advance for all your guidance!!

Welcome to the real world.

Garages, mechanic and even service advisors are "TRAINED" to make you spend the maximum amount in one-go.

Thing that he mentioned is 1% right, but how he said it, it will influence anyone without any previous experience.

Take a measurement of front and back space before winch installation and then check again after the winch installation and I can bet you can see the difference in few mm, not even 1 CM. Which is hardly negligible and no action require for your level of drives.

Even better, open the hood, drop 40 kg gym weight inside the engine bay, close to the front and measure it. Spread it 20 - 20 kg on each front side fender and see how much spring drop.

Even if your FJC suspension is old and dying then simply replacing to OEM two new springs or get two heavy duty springs in front can easily fix this entire drama within 500-600 max without changing the whole suspension or adding lift kit.

[Chirag S.]

7 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

Welcome to the real world.

Garages, mechanic and even service advisors are "TRAINED" to make you spend the maximum amount in one-go.

Thing that he mentioned is 1% right, but how he said it, it will influence anyone without any previous experience.

Take a measurement of front and back space before winch installation and then check again after the winch installation and I can bet you can see the difference in few mm, not even 1 CM. Which is hardly negligible and no action require for your level of drives.

Even better, open the hood, drop 40 kg gym weight inside the engine bay, close to the front and measure it. Spread it 20 - 20 kg on each front side fender and see how much spring drop.

Even if your FJC suspension is old and dying then simply replacing to OEM two new springs or get two heavy duty springs in front can easily fix this entire drama within 500-600 max without changing the whole suspension or adding lift kit.

Thanks a lot for your guidance. I can imagine, how much money they are making out of this? He was quoting cost of lifting range from AED 5K to AED 18K............

[desertdude]

Not really totally devoid of truth. Usually you need to install a steel bumper in most cars to install a winch as they don't have any place to for them. The weight if winch.

Even if your car does not droop with all this. It does make some difference when driving off-road as your front suspension is loaded and will bottom out faster.

If you already have a place to install a winch on your ride the difference is negligeble

[Gaurav]

Adding metal bumper is whole lot another story from 20 kg - 100 kg depending on need and choice.

I really doubt that you cannot fit winch in stock bumper, as FJC Stealth comes with plastic bumper and winch option. I manage to squeeze TJM 9.5 ton winch on 6mm plate sandwich between the chassis in my dinky Pajero that has notoriously cramped engine bay.

If you really want to do something you will find a way.

[Chirag S.]

12 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Adding metal bumper is whole lot another story from 20 kg - 100 kg depending on need and choice.

I really doubt that you cannot fit winch in stock bumper, as FJC Stealth comes with plastic bumper and winch option. I manage to squeeze TJM 9.5 ton winch on 6mm plate sandwich between the chassis in my dinky Pajero that has notoriously cramped engine bay.

If you really want to do something you will find a way.

Front mounted winch or Rear mounted winch!! Which is better one for desert driving or driving in wadi?!

[desertdude]

20 minutes ago, Chirag S. said:

Front mounted winch or Rear mounted winch!! Which is better one for desert driving or driving in wadi?!

Ideal situation for any sort of offroading. Both. Then you can also add rear wear steering, bash plates, lift kits, body armour etc etc and turn your car into a tank.

Or let common sense prevail and suggest to learn how to drive properly in the desert first. Get good at it, while you are doing this you will also get familiar with how to tow properly and then if you must get one one installed at the front.

I'm in disagreement here that winch is a necessary piece of kit for offroading. If it was you would see majority of the off roaders having one. But it's a rare sight. 

It's a great thing to have but not a must and not very practical for many either. First the costs involved, then most cars requiring some kind of modification to have it installed, then maintaining it and keeping it in good working condition supercedes the odd and rare occasion when you really really do need it. 

This is my take on this whole situation, take it or leave it and feel free to disagree.

[Chirag S.]

2 minutes ago, desertdude said:

Ideal situation for any sort of offroading. Both. Then you can also add rear wear steering, bash plates, lift kits, body armour etc etc and turn your car into a tank.

Or let common sense prevail and suggest to learn how to drive properly in the desert first. Get good at it, while you are doing this you will also get familiar with how to tow properly and then if you must get one one installed at the front.

I'm in disagreement here that winch is a necessary piece of kit for offroading. If it was you would see majority of the off roaders having one. But it's a rare sight. 

It's a great thing to have but not a must and not very practical for many either. First the costs involved, then most cars requiring some kind of modification to have it installed, then maintaining it and keeping it in good working condition supercedes the odd and rare occasion when you really really do need it. 

This is my take on this whole situation, take it or leave it and feel free to disagree.

Agree with your point of view. On the other hand, we can accept their advantages, As, these optional gadgets are helpful to get rid from uncertain /surprise situations, especially when you are alone!!

[desertdude]

58 minutes ago, Chirag S. said:

Agree with your point of view. On the other hand, we can accept their advantages, As, these optional gadgets are helpful to get rid from uncertain /surprise situations, especially when you are alone!!

Unless you are a very seasoned and confident driver with a trustworthy ride it's never advisable to go alone and even then better to avoid it. 

I know this better than probably anyone here because I went on numerous trips more than I care to remember on my own because I had to because it was part of the job and on quite a few of these trips I had to spend a great deal of time tending to situations which would have taken minutes if I wasn't alone. Like getting stuck in axel hub high newly bulldozed powder sand. Getting ridged or the one out of two times I ever had a popout

Popout more a flat actually being the worst because I was driving a company rented bushanab and had nothing but the factory Jack in it.

[Chirag S.]

18 minutes ago, desertdude said:

Unless you are a very seasoned and confident driver with a trustworthy ride it's never advisable to go alone and even then better to avoid it. 

I know this better than probably anyone here because I went on numerous trips more than I care to remember on my own because I had to because it was part of the job and on quite a few of these trips I had to spend a great deal of time tending to situations which would have taken minutes if I wasn't alone. Like getting stuck in axel hub high newly bulldozed powder sand. Getting ridged or the one out of two times I ever had a popout

Popout more a flat actually being the worst because I was driving a company rented bushanab and had nothing but the factory Jack in it.

Totally agreed on risk of driving alone while off roading!!