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What's the minimum recommended winch tow weight recommended?

Tricky Dick

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I, as many others, have Tim the toolman tendencies. I've ran a 12K on a smaller jeep for years, however this time I went with an 8k on the 4 door bronco. Warn M8.

Several reasons, it is plenty, it is a well-built well proven unit, reliable, low profile (think grill camera) and does not break the bank. Less weight, more speed, and I usually run a snatch block anyway so I have up to 16K in pulling strength if ever needed and usually one just needs a tug to get out of a bad spot.


Hate to disagree with Tricky D, but syn rope is the better choice for this application.

Synthetic winch rope demystified | Bronco6G - 2021+ Ford Bronco & Bronco Raptor Forum, News, Blog & Owners Community




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That's fair, but I like the abrasion resistance and higher working angles of steel.
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Bikeric

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I always order with steel and replace with synthetic.

I replace the winch line with one that's 80% of max capacity, and also carry a 50' winch extension line. Most winch pulls are short pulls anyways. Far quicker/easier to re-wrap a synthetic extension than wait for your drum to respool.

Winches are rated based on the bottom/1st layer on the drum, so a shorter line increases the chances of being on that 1st/max capacity layer. This is also the reason that 1.5x is the minimum, but 2x is a good idea, since odds are you won't end up on that bottom/strongest layer during a recovery.

Should you be winching to an offset anchor (ie: tree to one side of the trail) the winch line is likely to spool up on just that side of the drum....I have witnessed winches breaking when the operator wasn't paying attention and kept jamming line in. Shorter lines decrease the need to stop and respool.

Tip: Keep your winch controller and the basics for recovery gear within ARMS REACH as you are belted in. Depending on where you are, a tree saver, softshackle/two, endless sling, etc. Nothing sucks more than being stuck and digging into the back of your rig trying to find your buried recovery gear :)
All excellent points, but I need to add that IF you're pulling on the drum layer you MUST have a minimum of 5 wraps of the drum. Anything less than 5 wraps is not enough friction to prevent the line from pulling out.

(I'm glad OP didn't ask about oil filters)

Edit: I just noticed they recommend 10 drum wraps if you use Synthetic rope. We learn something new every day.
 
 


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