OT Winch size

Get the biggest you can Pay for a 10,000 if you can . I use a home brew Hyd winch powerd by a 5 1/2 HP honda gas engine. made from parts I collected over the years total cost about $70 .

Led

I do have the battery wired to charge from the tow vehicle like an RV, but I don't normally leave the truck running when I'm using the winch.

I usually use a snatch block just to slow down the speed at which stuff comes up the ramps, plus it reduces strain on the winch. I try not to push cheap stuff to anywhere near its rating. I suspect that might have something to do with the battery lasting longer also, since the winch motor doesn't generate anywhere near as much heat with the snatch block. The wire size in the motor is probably marginal, and putting a really heavy load on it results in a lot of energy loss as heat due to the undersized windings. Even though it runs twice as long with the snatch block, it draws a lot less than 1/2 the current...

Its not a Warn, but it works for what I need and was less than half the price of a good one.

I do have the battery wired to charge from the tow vehicle like an RV, but I don't normally leave the truck running when I'm using the winch.

I usually use a snatch block just to slow down the speed at which stuff comes up the ramps, plus it reduces strain on the winch. I try not to push cheap stuff to anywhere near its rating. I suspect that might have something to do with the battery lasting longer also, since the winch motor doesn't generate anywhere near as much heat with the snatch block. The wire size in the motor is probably marginal, and putting a really heavy load on it results in a lot of energy loss as heat due to the undersized windings. Even though it runs twice as long with the snatch block, it draws a lot less than 1/2 the current...

Its not a Warn, but it works for what I need and was less than half the price of a good one.

My first use of a winch was a total failure and disaster. Was in Germany on a loaded 5 ton 6x6 mired in mud. Mired, mired, buried, stuuuuu ck. Cable was probably 5/8" as I recall, and was a long drag out to that huge tree that nearly killed me to begin with, and didn't use one of the several snatch blocks available on hand. What a friggin snot nosed know nothing punk nitwit I was, and sometimes still am. Once around that huge tree, engaged that huge PTO driven winch, and eased off of the clutch. It started to pull, cable got banjo tight, and the pin that locked the winch drum to the shaft sheared off. That winch was done, the cable pulled so tight (bit) into the cable loops on the drum that could've had 10 guys jumping up and down on the cable and not loosened it, and the truck wasn't going nowhere. And on top of it, the cable cut into the tree bark, and the Germans didn't take kindly to that. I ultimately got the shaft to spin enough so I could punch just enough of the sheared pin to catch between the drum and shaft to back off the cable, and the bridge builders used a huge Cat to get that truck unstuck. Never made that mistake again. No matter the winch, always use snatch blocks to cut the weight/drag...unless is a winch on the "back" of a 10 ton military wrecker, with about a 1" cable, and good luck dragging that guy out.

IB eh? They were something. Saw a guy selling one as part of a package deal on Ebay out of Arkansas with a Two-Twenty about a year ago, but were too far away. The saliva was oozing out of both sides of my mouth and went into a mindless tranz for a day or two-twenty.