8k capacity winch enough?

I bought a WARN VR EVO 8-S as a hidden winch but I'm beginning to wonder if I should have went for the 10k capacity. I'm getting the feeling I might be too heavy for the 8k. I have a 3rd gen OR, decked system, bed bars, roof-top-tent, sliders, roof rack, no bumpers or skids. It's mostly a camping rig so I don't plan on being window-high in mud at any point but I'm also not looking to get stranded on the off chance. What do you guys think?

 

From what I read 8k is the minimum for our rigs. Given your situation the big decision is wether to have a winch at all. Most people in your situation don't have a winch.

 

Plenty of winch. 99% of the time you get stuck the truck is still running. You use the winch to give the additional pull to get the truck moving again.

 

You’ll be fine. If you need more power, you can always use a snatch block

 

Show me how. From FM20-22 page 14


or watch until 2:10



a single pulley/snatch block will not provide any mechanical advantage, it only changes direction of pull

 

Thats fine, just remember to use snatch blocks on anything heavy

 

Because you attach the end of the winch back to your vehicle not to a fixed point like a tree.

 

Here’s a video to explain, there’s many others out there as well.

 

your truck is the resistance, right? the effort is the winch, right?

Are you saying the Army has had it wrong since 1962, and all the guys doing all the videos who teach physics and stuff are wrong?

 

You can think of it intuitively. Consider the case where you have a snatch block on a tree, and run the winch line through the block and back to your vehicle. You now have 2x the distance from the vehicle to tree in winch line out. So, to pull the vehicle to the tree, the winch will need to pull all of that line back in. Work is equal to force times distance. Your winch can only output a certain amount of force, but you have doubled the distance it pulls vs having no snatch block, thus allowing you to double the work it can do.

 

here you go, right from FM20-22. It’s a 2:1 mechanical advantage. You are both attached to and pulling from the vehicle.



https://www.steelsoldiers.com/upload/misc/FM20-22.pdf

 

OK, lets start small here.
Do you agree that in the illustrations your truck would be the LOAD (the item you want to move)?
Do you agree that your snatch-block would be attached to a non-moving anchor (tree, rock, etc) ?

 

Accurate. Anchor is seeing the full force of the pull where your bumper attachment is feeling half and your winch is seeing half

This is not an accurate representation of what your forces are doing when you're attaching to the same load. Sum of all forces must equal zero in a static situation. Anchor point (tree) sees the full 8000lbs where the winch (truck anchor point 1) and your shackle mount on your bumper see 4000 lbs each. 2:1 mechanical advantage.

 

@itscementnotgray lots of good info above. Takeaways, if you are not dragging your truck up over a ledge, buried to the frame pointed uphill ... yes go with an 8k winch. Bring a snatch block, tree saver, shackles and shovel.

If your winch is struggling in some worse than expected situation:
1. dig out crap from around your wheels and under the frame (insert shovel here)
2. try for a more distant anchor point (less wraps on the spool to get closer to the full 8k pull, wraps drop pull rating quickly)
3. if you're really screwed or only have a close anchor point, use a snatch block on the anchor and terminate the line to a solid recovery point on the truck (for an anchor about midpoint of the cable length you can approach the 2x rated 8k pull given few wraps on the spool, so ~16k pull should be enough to move you until something breaks... see point 1)
4. consider recovery boards for certain situations
5. consider snatch strap for traveling with others

This should be a good reference for what to expect for pull vs wraps on the winch of interest. They also compare against the 10k version.
https://www.roundforge.com/winch-database/warn-vr-evo-8-s-winch-103251/

 

I think my entire life has been a lie

 

If you really wanna add to the confusion and get technical a 2:1 doesn’t double the power of the winch, it halves the effort it takes to do the same task

 

Are we really going to start that thread again, or is this the serious version of that thread?

 

Poor Tom! I don't think we're getting that video.

 

This is the opposite of that thread. OP's asking if 8k is really enough power. That other thread was saying use a 2k winch and 12 snatch blocks. I'm still waiting for that damn video.

The OP has gotten some good answers already. For most people an 8K will be fine. I run a 12K but I also am in big rocks more often then not. I went big to help the winch work less. The less it works the cooler it stays the less I have to wait for it's duty cycle.