What Kind Of Winch Do You Have/ Prefer

[robd1438]

I had the Smitty x20c in my JLU and ordered the Rugged Ridge Trekker 12.5 for my JT. Got the rustys winch plate for both.

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[Gladrubi20]

Since I’m mostly a winch newby putting one on my Glad now, I have a question for experienced winch users, on some installations I’m seeing the rope completely hidden so when your letting it out you wouldn’t know if you let out too much or when winding in you couldn’t view the proper wrapping. Is this a bad thing? Help me out want to do this right and safe!

 

[jtimbrook]

For this build I went with the Rugged Ridge HD stubby bumper and RR Trekker winch. I prefer simple utilitarian form over elaborate design and the bumper hits that mark. The RR winch is new to me considering I had a pretty simple Warn 9k on my previous ’12. The features on the winch for the price point I got it at couldn’t be beat so I’m giving it a try.

 

[LostWoods]

I have to be a little careful here because for the last 10 years I've been driving a Land Rover Discovery. We usually get stuck from a break down - not necessarily from lack of off road capability

I've never had to pull out a Jeep or a Taco - mostly full size pickups (F150, Silverado Ram 1500 etc.) on snow days or muddy trails b/c no lockers and no self recovery gear or when they are INVINCIBLE on their new lifts but with IFS differential support that leaves them with 9inchs of clearance on their "monster" 33s. Have you ever seen those differential supports get buried in mud? Its like a dozer blade stopping what should be an easy recovery....

Thankfully these are to find off road in my experience... that's how you get more than a 3" lift on a taco without a $6k long arm kit... you literally have to notch out the crossmember to clear the differential when you drop it down to maintain a usable CV angle and that bracket becomes your new crossmember.

 

[MrJeep]

I'm probably in the minority here but I have a tried and true M8000 on mine.
The rule is 1.5x vehicle weight. Plus, with bigger winches, you are just adding dead weight to the front of your Jeep and weight kills ability. My philosophy has always been lighter is better. Check out Matt's Off Road Recovery on Youtube to see what I mean.

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