That >8,000 lb. winch is a waste of money.

Woof.. What winch is that?

 

Harbor freight 2.5k atv winch.

 

Let's compare line speed too. Using no load as a consistent point of reference.

ATV winch 13.3 feet per minute. Now add 4 pullies. That gets reduced to 3.32 feet per minute.




Smittybilt XRC Winch 32.32 feet per minute.

 

Yep, that was my thought. Going to move the truck about 18” and then have to let the winch cool down.

 

I think I'd be underwhelmed if S&R were to show up with an ATV winch, and I were stuck like this ^. Screw mechanical advantage; how 'bout a little powah?

 

Doing a little math, and let's assume you'll be maxing out that little ATV winch so 2.7 fpm. That gets divided by four, so .675 fpm. Now add duty cycle, and you'll get 6" of winching over the course of 45 seconds, and then you wait for 14 min 15 sec to cool off. Then you can pull yourself another 6".

 

While waiting on the winch to cool down you can count all the money you saved by buying an ATV winch

 

Or contemplate your life choices, such as using an ATV winch on a midsized truck. One winching evolution with an ATV winch and 4 pullies is all it would take to throw that set up in the garbage and buy a proper winch (assuming nothing breaks and no one dies).

 

Now I want to make a spreadsheet - which winch gets you the best combination of weight, pulling force, line speed and duty cycle?

 

I feel like there'd be no obvious winner. You'd have to pick what variable is most important to you. And add cost in there too.

 

Whichever one is mounted to someone else's truck. Reduce all stats by 30% when it's your equipment that you have to pay for and maintain.

 

LOL

No, just no

"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it"

 

So that particular 4Runner got stuck on Black Rock Playa, NV (home of burning man). The thing about the playa is it is baseless, so that vehicle would slowly sink to well above the roof.

Here's a summary of the rescue effort it took to get him out.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/31632...-a-stuck-toyota-4runner-unfolding-on-facebook

 

Yep. Tradeoffs everywhere. I think I would be shooting for the lightest weight, highest duty cycle winch I could find. But thats a guess.

 

I need to move there sometime soon.

Throw it up on Google Docs and share the link if you do!

 

It's amazing that math for the the duty cycle and line speed worked out almost perfectly to 6".

 

I know, it made me happy. Comes out to 2' of winching every hour which is just mind numbingly slow.

 

Yes, but at least your winch would fit in a backpack.

More than likely, you would just burn the winch up cause the duty cycle is way too low. No one is gonna wait around for 15 minutes after a 45sec pull. So then you have a burned up winch in a backpack....and a truck that is still stuck.

 

Hopefully I had the foresight to put snacks in that backpack while I wait to be rescued by OP.

Maybe this is all a ploy since he does SAR. He's bored and wants more cases.