phox_mulder

Whats the cost and work involved with getting a Hydraulic winch hooked up?<br><br>Compared to the cost of getting an electric hooked up?<br><br>Still trying to decide what to get when I get mine.<br><br>thanx<br><br><br>phox

ridofpwrstroke

The hydraulic winch hooks up fairly easy. The fittings they provide you with hook up to the power steering gearbox and the other hooks up to your brake booster (if you have one, if not it hooks directly up to your pump) and you hook the lines up to the winch. Installation time for the lines is about 10 minutes. The wiring is simple. You have two lines out of the winch which you hook up to little selenoid and mount inside of engine compartment. The selenoid is the size of half of a relay switch. Mount the winch to the mounting plate and your done. Total time is 2 hours if you have no idea what you are doing. An electric winch will take about the same time or a little shorter to install. I have had the same winch for over five years with many hours on of pulling and have had no problems whatsoever.

xzlram

I am a fan of hydraulic winches also BUT the vehicle has to be running, you have to plumb into the steering system, which is no big deal but, you are unable to steer while useing the winch which is important in most scenarios. Also its not very uncommon for power steering pumps to take a dive from the winch overloading them the winch may not get hot but the power steering pump and hydraulic oil gets boiling hot. For the most of us who use a winch once in a while a electric is the way to go, usually it is used for a few minutes and thats it. If you are going to yard logs with it all day long hydraulic or even better a PTO winch is the ticket. I have 3 warn winches 2 on my wheeler and 1 going on the ram, I am only putting a 8000# on the dodge because I don't wheel the truck and the only time it will be used is once in a great while when I am up snowmobiling. I have never had the toyota in my profile stuck bad enough to have to double up the cable the hs9000 has always drug it out and the truck weighs 4800#'s!!!<br>DJ

j

MY $.02..........i've been wheeling for several years, hardcore rockcrawlin and moderate fireroads (mainly in winter). i personally dont care for the milemarker winches. although they are good quality, they need to have the truck running and are quite hard on steering/hydraulic fluid. i once had to use a winch in excess of 70 times in one day when we got a freak snowstorm while wheelin dusy ershim trail (not fun at all) and ended up leaving a truck behind. the general rule is 1.5 times the weight of the truck, however i pulled a fullsize chevy (2 of them actually) over and over again out of mud and snow with a warn xd9000i on my jeep. a ****** block would be a wise decision if you were to go with a smaller winch. i never once experienced any problems at all with the warn winch and if i ever need a winch on my dodge i would go with an xd9500. still plenty of power and will definately pull a fullsize truck out of anything. for the absolute worst stucks in a fullsize (ie:sucking mud) i would recommend using a snatchblock for this. 99% of the stucks you will get in are easily overcome with just a little help (2-3000 lbs of help) and you will probably very rarely use the whole 9000 lbs worth of the winch, there are exceptions of course, but most stucks can be avoided alltogether anyway and are usually a result of a poor driving decision. get good at choosing the &quot;right line&quot; and you will seldom have a need for a winch anyway. now keep in mind this is only based on my experience wheeling some very nasty trails (pritchet canyon, moab, dusy ershim, swamp and coyote lake trails right after el nino)........ on a side note, not everyone can learn to pick the right line, so do what you think is best for you.

Evildiesel

Gee, how come nobody's mentioned the Superwinch line of quality affordable winches? Me personally, Im getting the Warn 15k as soon as my new Road Armor bumper comes in.

iwannaram

any idea on how much the road armor bumbers weigh? how much did you pay if you dont mind me asking. the sure do look bad *** 8)

Mr. 45

Remember that in order to get the max rated weight pull, You must be on the first wrap on the drum. Any additional layers reduces the weight you can pull! I have the XD9000i and i nerver had to use it to pull my self out, Every one else i pull out. My friend in his big bad chevy gasser 454 with giant tires get's pulled out quite often.

Fishin2Deep4U

I agree that hydralic winches are good units. I really think they are better used in long, nasty pulls than most of the short tugs most of us need. A PTO setup would be the best way to go for hydraulic. This wouldn't leave me wondering if I was about to kill the steering pump. <br><br>And I have never had a monster pull. At least nothing that a ****** block couldn't handle! <br><br>I plan on installing a Warn 12K somewhere down the road. That should serve me well for getting out of Seattle parking lots!!<br><br><br>

ridofpwrstroke

I have never boiled my fluid using the winch all day. Also the milemarker is quieter and stops immediately when you let off the switch. They all are good. Thats why warn is the biggest manufacturer of winches. I still think hydraulic is the way to go. I may of just had a bad experience with my electric I had.

Evildiesel

[quote author=iwannaram link=board=7;threadid=8456;start=15#82161 date=1040270857]
any idea on how much the road armor bumbers weigh? how much did you pay if you dont mind me asking. the sure do look bad *** 8)
[/quote]
(note: all prices are averages from many sites, call everywhere for the best deal.) The designer quoted me 148 lbs. I dont know if that was the all steel or the steel/aluminum hybrid version. The base price of the steel bumper is approx $1,350 almost everywhere Ive looked. This comes with shackles and recessed light ports and even running light ports and a semi-gloss powder-coat. Adding the sport bar $450, adding complete over the hood guard $850 (I passed on that option: just TOO much protection). lower skid plate $150. Strecthing bumper 3&quot; to accomodate my body lift. $250 Painting to match my truck: $200. Being able to get over in traffic because people are scared of being pushed out of the way: priceless ;D
evil
http://www.trailready.com/fullsize.htm

But werent you calling them fugly earlier in another forum?

iwannaram

lol evil diesel thanks for the info<br>

Ballbearing

[quote author=ridofpwrstroke link=board=7;threadid=8456;start=15#82346 date=1040316833]<br>I have never boiled my fluid using the winch all day. Also the milemarker is quieter and stops immediately when you let off the switch. They all are good. Thats why warn is the biggest manufacturer of winches. I still think hydraulic is the way to go. I may of just had a bad experience with my electric I had. <br>[/quote]<br><br>Do you have an auxiliary cooler somewhere in your system?<br>Supposedly the trucks with tow packages come with a cooler but mine doesn't have one. I have looked everywhere (including where it is supposed to be) and it is missing.

ridofpwrstroke

No, I dont have one on my everyday cruiser. On my off road rig I put one on as well as a filter. Just in case.

emjay

I have one of the first Milemarker Hydraulic winches on my '55 ****** (Chevy V8) with a remote sump Cadillac PS pump, custom aluminum billet oil filter housing, custom sump, and a tranny cooler. It has performed flawlessly for nearly 10 years. The only thing I would change is I'd like the two speed because reeling back in can take a while. I've never had a problem with overheating. As far as the engine needing to be running, that may be a concern, but if your engine dies after you've been winching a lot, your battery reserve is pretty low anyway, so there's a limit to how far you can go with an electric winch, meaning you're going to need help anyway. Fortunately, I've never experienced a dead engine while winching. <br>