winch advice

[Gilly]

Hi guys, looking at getting a winch the my defender, and decided on superwinch talon range. Just some advice really (if this wants to be in a different forum, please tell me which ).

 

Firstly is 12500lbs (5700kg) enough pull for general offroad recovery use, or pulling the odd (small stick) around the yard, or for assisted tree felling (where you would use a pull rope) or do i want to look at a bigger one?

 

And secondly, synthetic or wire rope? The synthetic is lighter and much safer if it does snap, it doesnt act like a high speed cheese wire! Or for pulling sticks etc, would a synthetic be likely damaged?

 

This was the winch i had my eye on

 

Superwinch Talon 12.5SR

 

Just some other peoples experiences, ideas etc would be nice

Chrz

[broonie]

When I went Offroad with Morpheus I had a warn 9.5ti front mounted and another warn 9.5xp demountable for the rear, used only synthetic 12mm, had in cab controls for both front and rear and remote controls when outside vehicle. Also had kill switches on bumpers in case of emergency. Winches were wired from battery using Anderson connectors and 13mm welder cable also had a rally type switch with key so they could be disabled when not in use. I made a set of jumper cables with Anderson connector too. I also changed rear 9.5xp to an Albright waterproof solenoid too. You would need an aluminium fairlead as roller fairlead will damage synthetic line.

 

Be handy to have a few different size strops and shackles and a couple of snatch blocks if you are pulling heavy items, not forgetting a winch blanket and I kept some pieces of vinyl from an old cuttainsider to place on the ground if winching over rough areas.

[hiluxstihl]

nice setup!

[Nick Watkins]

I never used mine long enough to be an expert by any means, however I did find the wire rope coupled with a 8274 made my 90 very front heavy. I was told I might need to change the springs after a while as they have seen them sag after long periods with the additional weight. I believe synthetic goes a long way to solving this.

 

One thing I didn't appreciate until after I bought the winch is the retrieve speed, if you get one that is very fast and is mainly used for off road comp type stuff they are almost impossible to use slowly i.e when you want the winch to take up the slack and roll in a few inches of cable, fast winches will roll in a few feet at the slightest click of the controller. This I imagine would be important for assisted tree work where you need to take the weight slowly rather than snatch it.

[Pasty Muncher]

 

One thing I didn't appreciate until after I bought the winch is the retrieve speed, if you get one that is very fast and is mainly used for off road comp type stuff they are almost impossible to use slowly i.e when you want the winch to take up the slack and roll in a few inches of cable, fast winches will roll in a few feet at the slightest click of the controller. This I imagine would be important for assisted tree work where you need to take the weight slowly rather than snatch it.

You could always reverse the vehicle (gently) to take up the slack

 

 

Sent from my Galaxy SII using Tapatalk

[bigdave]

i had a superwinch x9 for a good few years it was on 3 of my landrovers & then went on my hilux!!

 

i put synthetic rope on mine it made working with it a lot easier

 

you will need as already stated a good few strops snatch blocks shackles ect

 

for skidding logs i used a short wire rope round the trunk & then hooked the winch to the loop on rope!

 

i would have another super winch tomorrow!!!

[Coletti]

Considering a lot of extreme competition landrovers use the warn 8274 which if I'm not mistaken is only an 8000lb winch? Anything upwards of that should happily do the job and I believe the choice between wire/synthetic is purely personal, in my case it basically comes down to cost as synthetic Is rather a lot more than wire and does the same job. If you want some decent quality at a more affordable price try looking at the warrior winches, in particular the 9.5tds, there a good winch for the price and got a very reasonable waterproof build quality

[NI Tree]

if i am corect you can fix the synetic stuff by splicing it

[skip]

if its for work and your not looking for a fast pay out speed etc i suggest you go for a 16000lb pull, you'll be lucky to get that out of it for more than 3seconds unless you do some serious battery upgrades, the other option for work is to go hydraulic, if it is going to be used for moderate to prolonged periods of time this is your only real option along with mechanical pto but i'm not a fan of that.

 

the 8274 & epi9 etc are competition winches, they are desigined to give the perfect balance between pull and speed, all good winches have the same motor which demandes the same current when under full laod the only difference is the gearing, all of which are automatic (crude term but asuming your no expert) but soome lower ranges than others this give a higher rated pull but a far slower speed paying in/out when not under load

 

synthetic is a must! dont listen to any IDIOTS banging on about getting a 12mm or 10mm or any mm for that matter! look at the lines strength! marlow's dynaling max in 12mm is twice as strong as bowrope 12mm so dont be fooled!

[TotallyJules]

Another must is a set of chocks or similar. We have a PTO Superwinch on our 130 and can very easily drag it around rather than pull the intended load! There is sometimes the option of anchoring to a tree etc but not always. We anchored to another Defender to pull a stump out, be creative

 

We carry a short chain and wire strop for attaching to the tree/log, you can never have enough but they end up weighting a ton.

 

Last thing I can think of, bit obvious but worth saying. If using the winch for assisted take downs, go over the sequence and signals with all involved every time. The last thing you want is the winch op to start pulling whilst the cutter is still half way through and barber chair the tree. It sounds so simple to get right but I've seen some horrors just because the signals were mis-interpretted.

 

We also have a Unimog with 2 winches and a 6x6 Berliet French army truck with a million tonne winch on the back if you ever need a really good pull.

 

Hope this helps.