Is a winch really necessary?

[Barnaby’sdad]

Yep, being high centered sucks.



Unless you add weight. Most go to the 12, but the 10 is the lowest.

Yup. Going through mud holes like that…unless you’re running 44”+ boggers and driving it like you stole it, you’re going to high center eventually.

I did it twice years ago. Could literally rock the vehicle back and forth, as it was just teetering on the high-point between the ruts.

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[Sarge502]

Unless you add weight. Most go to the 12, but the 10 is the lowest.

Yeah but my pockets say otherwise. LOL. Hell I'd be lucky and happy enough if/when I get the 10-S. But in a sense I guess if I'm spending that much especially for a Warn what's an extra few hundred. lol

 

[Rusty PW]

For most, "Risk management and Good Decision Making Skills" are usually acquired as a direct result of taking risks and making poor decisions...

To be "old and wise". First you have to be "young and dumb". And to "survive your youth".

 

[PlayfulBird]

A lot of these stories and advice is coming from people who are not overlanding.
(careful, joke incoming)
Clearly to be identified by the vehicles not being overloaded with gear and the kitchen sink, roof top tent and 10k $ of goodies. (joke end)
They are driving tracks or crawling a bit, which looks harder than it is because the gladi is so long. They are not overlanding, because in most cases if you overland you will actually need to have some stuff with you to be comfortable. To be perfectly frank, I think even with a winch a lot of tracks and crawling should ideally not be done alone, but with at least one other vehicle there. Winch or no, there is to big a chance that you get in a position where you need more hands on deck and might not be able to utilize a winch anyhow. Also getting injured is a possibility and having another vehicle and people there is good.

 

[4-Play]

To be "old and wise". First you have to be "young and dumb". And to "survive your youth".

 

[Vincent]

'mic drop'

 

[Gvsukids]

Is this going to become a thread of wisdom?

 

[Sprinkler-Fitter]

It’s funny nobody’s ever made like a plastic looking winch that’s hollow and has nothing in it just for all the mall crawlers that never go off road

 

[drewcnit]

It’s funny nobody’s ever made like a plastic looking winch that’s hollow and has nothing in it just for all the mall crawlers that never go off road

 

[MrClortho]

On two wheeling trips, I had to walk out to get help and once while just messing around in a field. As a result, I added a winch to my '13 JKU, then moved it to my '17 JKU. Of course, because I had a winch installed, I never needed it. If I didn't have one, I would have gotten stuck dozens more times, lol.

In the Power Wagon, I have used its winch twice in a year, but it is a fat pig.

I'll be adding one to the JT for sure.

 

[Jeepasaurus_Rex]

In my opinion... It's better to have one and not need it, than to need it and not have one.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

I had a winch on my TJ for years without ever using it. Having 35 inch tires, a full belly skid, lockers and not being a moron who drives off into every unknown hole they find (anymore) makes a huge difference. However, one day I decided to go up to Crabtree Falls in the dead of winter around dusk. I got about half way up the gravel fireroad before it was dark, and the road became frozen over. What was that I said about not being a moron? Anyway, my Jeep began to slide off the road, and off the mountain. The 10 minute drive in became a 3 hour nightmare ordeal consisting of back-winching (not good for a winch) down a frozen gravel road that earlier in the day, a Honda Accord could have traversed. We used the winch as a tether to keep the Jeep from sliding off the road and down the mountain. Multiple times the Jeep swung on the winch rope like a pendulum off the side of the fireroad and down the ravine. I would have lost the Jeep without that rope. We would winch backwards, get to a point where the Jeep was stable, pull in rope and attach it to the next nearest tree. Rinse, repeat. We did this for hours

I know of a couple of off road recovery specialists in VA that don’t turn a wheel for less than $500-1000. This job would have been $2k easy if they could have been able to make it up this road at all. We didn’t have camping gear, and we would have had to hike out for miles at night in 15° weather. At the time a Warn 9.5tsi was about $1500. It could have easily cost that much to get out or deal with the fallout of my piss poor planning.

Another time, when I was even younger and dumber I took my dads Jeep with no winch up a trail outside of Blacksburg near Mountain Lake where they filmed Dirty Dancing. Again in the middle of the night. Ahhh to be 20 again! We went around a mud hole, because we didn't have a winch. We thought this was smart. It wasn’t. The trail was rocky and the “mud hole”, although it looked deep, was a 3 inch deep puddle. The water in the puddle was running off onto the ground on the side of the trail creating a bog. It was dark and we couldn’t see. My buddy, not wanting to get his shoes dirty didn’t really check the ground well. I drove around the puddle onto the ground and got stuck, deep. We couldn’t get out with digging or rocks under the tires. Serves me right for driving off trail. We had to hike out, and found some sketchy-ass drunk rednecks who were doing the same dumb shit as us. Being drunk they ripped their bumper off trying to pull us out. We were sure at that point that this was going to become a Deliverance situation. Thankfully it didn’t and we had to hitchhike to a gas station with a pay phone to call for someone with a decent truck. We got pulled out forward and then drove through the same puddle we avoided hours earlier to go back to campus.

Both of these situations seemed innocuous at first. One was an easy trail. One wasn’t even a trail. But in the right conditions and with the proper application of bad judgement or bad luck, things can go south really quickly. If you go off-road in remote places a winch AND recover gear is worth it and the responsible choice. You can’t think of it in terms of how much you will use it. It’s insurance.

Also, having been off-roading for a few decades in trucks and Jeeps, the Gladiator, unless it’s running at least 37s, is much more prone to getting hung up on things than even a stock Wrangler or smaller pickup like an old Taco or D21. It’s a long and heavy truck and a high-center waiting to happen. I wouldn’t wheel one without a winch and it was the first performance mod I purchased even before the lift and tires.

 

[Northridge4x4]

I know everyone has an opinion and comfort level with this subject. But for someone starting out and hoping to get into overlanding, is a winch one of the first mods I should make? How often have you all used your winch?

The first response might be the best:

Short answer, no.

Long answer, it depends on what you plan to do, where you go, who you travel with, their recovery gear, etc…. If you’re going alone, you need to plan for the unexpected.

A couple other good ones:

Off-roading without a winch (excluding tame forest roads) is like driving without car insurance. Would you usually get away with it? Sure. But when you need it, it’s paid for in seconds.

In my opinion... It's better to have one and not need it, than to need it and not have one.

To many people, the term overloading is synonymous with being self-sufficient off road. Looking at it like that, yes, a winch is a must to be self-sufficient. You can recover your vehicle using other items like a shovel and traction boards, a winch will make it so much easier (yes, we have had to use traction boards, shovels, picks, rocks, logs AND a winch all in one go on recoveries before).

But it doesn't need to be your first mod.

The top five mods we usually see are lift, bigger tires, sliders, bumpers, winch. Not necessarily in that order.

For winches, you find different people favor different winches and all for various reasons.

If the budget is a limiting factor, then people often go with the cheaper overseas winches. One of our more popular budget winches is the Warn EVO VR 10-S. They are Warn's value series, they are built overseas to Warn's specs and they have a good reputation:
https://www.northridge4x4.com/part/jeep-truck-suv-winches/103253-warn-vr-evo10s-winch-rope

At the higher end of the budget scale is the Warn Zeon 10-S. These are built right here in the USA and have proven to be a very tough winch:
https://www.northridge4x4.com/part/jeep-truck-suv-winches/89611-warn-zeon-10-s-winch

For more information between those two winches:





There are other more budget minded winches out there like the Smittybilt X20 winch, though they are not a lot cheaper than the Warn VR series winch:
https://www.northridge4x4.com/part/...lt-x2o-10k-winch-waterproof-gen2-and-fairlead

 

[Charles 236]

Back about '84 or '85, I sank my Power Wagon up to the axles on what appeared to be solid ground. At least, it was solid enough to walk on. So I charged in and suddenly found my forward motion stopped. A couple of hours of jacking, shoveling, finding rocks and other stuff to put under the wheels, and it was time to give up for the night. Next day, more of the same, until I finally dug my way out. I sure would have loved to have a winch that day.

 

[RudeJeepin]

Usually I start with a shovel, hi-lift jack and various straps. Before I get too far into the back country or any serious offroading I add a winch.
I've personally been stuck 3 times where another vehicle couldn't get me out for one reason or another. Twice in the mud and once in the snow. One of times in the mud there was 3 of us stuck. Thankfully I had a winch and could pull myself out.
I've had the same Warn XD9000 winch on 3 different vehicles and it has more than paid for itself. My son has talked me out of it for his TJ, so I'm gonna have to get a new winch for my Gladiator.
Probably go with a Warn VR EVO 10. I already have a snatch block, tree saver and other ropes and straps to make it even more functional.

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