Weight Rating - Hi Lift or Come along?

Let me first say, I am not a hard core wheeler like many of you, although I admire your knowledge of the Tacoma. Very impressive.

The off-road use of my truck is limited to dirt roads for hunting and fishing. Sometimes they are dry, sometimes muddy, sometimes snowy. My recovery kit has all the basics with the exception of a winch. A mounted winch feels like overkill for my use, but I'd like to be able to perform self recovery if needed, so I'm considering a HiLift or Come along. My understanding is a winch should be able to pull 1.5 - 2x your vehicle weight. My truck is around 5,750 lbs so that would indicate a device that could pull somewhere around 9,000 lbs. The Come alongs rated at 4 tons are enormous in size. After searching the entire recovery forum, it looks like a HiLift is often recommended as an option. HiLifts are rated at 7,000 lbs. Does the difference in the 7,000 lb
Hi Lift rating and the 9,000 lb recommended capability just mean that I'd be limited to recoveries that the Hi Lift is capable of?

Could use your feedback so I make sure I get this right! Thanks!

 

I have both a hi-lift and a . I first bought the hi-lift and used it a couple times for jacking. Hate it. Thing is freaking scary, heavy, and takes up a ton of room. Ditched it for a beefy 8 ton bottle jack from harbor freight to do my jacking. Much more solid and safe to use.

As for using a hi-lift as a come along, I have never used it in the field, but practiced using it as such in my driveway. It works, but again, its a pain to use. That's when I got the come along. The bottle jack and come along take up less space than the hi-lift, and are much safer to use. I have successfully used the come-along the one time I needed it. It wasn't fun, but solo recovery never is. Did the job though.

 

Another suggestion OP - Ronny Dahl on youtube has a ton of videos comparing all sorts of equipment (including jacks) and how to safely use them and comparing different situations with different equipment. Good starting point.

 

I wouldn't say that a winch is overkill for anyone's needs if they are frequently heading into remote areas solo...even the easiest of trails can become treacherous if the weather is bad (muddy or snowy like you said) and you're by yourself. I think a winch is a great idea for your setup based on what you described, if only for the peace of mind. If you end up using it even just once way out in the middle of nowhere to get yourself unstuck then it'll probably pay for itself versus what it would cost to have a tow truck or other recovery vehicle come and pull you out.

A 9k winch can be had for a few hundred dollars, although you'll need a bumper to support it. But those don't have to be crazy expensive either. I think a winch is the way to go, but a Hi - Lift is also a good tool to have on you just in case for other reasons. I wouldn't really want to use a Hi-Lift as a means of self-recovery unless it was a last resort option.

Also consider getting yourself some traction boards if you don't already have them, they can be very useful too in mud and sand.

 

If I could only have one of those, I'd choose the hi-lift 6 days a week and twice on sunday. A hi-lift is a very adaptable tool, and can be used for a LOT of things. Is it ideal for winching? oh god no, but it beats walking out, lol...

As Ryan said, though, winches aren't really "overkill" even if you only use it once. It can literally be a life saver.

Ideally, you'd have all of the above, since not every situation warrants a winch, and not every situation warrants a hi-lift, but some situations require a little bit of everything. You can use a come along as a way to steady your vehicle to prevent a rollover, or jack up a stuck wheel with the hi-lift, then winch out, etc...

It's not always practical to have them all, though. Maybe you can't afford it, or don't have the space.

If you end up with a winch, but don't plan to use it a lot, I suggest a steel cable, vs. the synthetic rope. The cable will outlast your truck. So you can pretty much ignore it (more or less), and it will be intact when you need it 10 years form now. A synth rope breaks down in UV light, and they need to be replaced periodically, even if you never use it.

You can also get pretty damn creative when shit hits the fan, like rigging up a flip flop winch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFDGGht3CQU

 

A real Hi-Lift is rated to lift 4,660 lbs up to 48" and they are tested to 7,000 lbs. The shear bolt on the handle is designed to shear at 7,000 lbs. Used as a winch they are rated to 5,000 lbs, which is based on the strength of the top clevis/clamp.

 

All great replies. Thanks so much!

 

For linear pulling in a solo/self-recovery situation, the Hi-Lift or come-along can work, but I’d very strongly recommend a winch.

The biggest reason is that you can drive your vehicle while winching - meaning that you only have to winch until you find traction and then can drive out. With the other devices you have to physically crank on them from outside the vehicle. This means you have to winch further (all the way to solid ground) and work harder to get there (no assistance from the vehicle engine).

Another consideration is length of throw (distance you can pull before resetting the system). Winch will generally get you >50’, a come-along 5-15’, and a Hi-Lift 4’. In snow or sloppy mud vehicles tend to slide and require longer pulls to recover. If you’re working on a slope, you’ll also need to have a way to capture the load, or hold your vehicle, every time you reset the system.

I also personally consider a winch the easiest of the 3 to use, but YMMV. I seem to have a talent for losing tension on come-along spools and then having to respool the whole bird’s nest snarl of cable...

The advantage the other two have over a winch is portability. With a fixed front winch, you want to pull within a 90 degree cone off your front... though you push that closer to 135 with limits.
If you mount your winch on a receiver hitch, you can pull off the front or back.
Come-alongs and Hi-Lifts can pull off anywhere you can find anchors. They really shine when you’re off camber and just want a few hundred #s of sideways pull to prevent the vehicle from rolling.

My ordered list would be a winch, traction boards, a come-along, and the hi-lift.

 

I bought, and used a couple times, the More Power Puller https://www.wyeth-scott.com/ and would highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to carry/install a winch.
And it's obviously useful elsewhere, like firewood, etc.

 

The value add for me on the HiLift is you can jack up and then block under many stuck truck situations. The comealong is “just” for pulling. Both are dangerous, especially if rushing. I’m more comfortable with the HiLift as it will “fail” but not really “go flying” like a China steel cable. As for rating, the dead pull can be a lot but if 7000 lbs is needed your likely more stuck than a bumper mounted winch and snatch will handle as well. Plus how do you pull sideways or backwards when you nosedived your front unto the ditch of spring muck?

 

I tend to view the Hi-Lift as a multi-purpose tool that can pull in a pinch. It's too cumbersome to really winch with it a lot. Honestly there's not many things a Hi-Lift is really good at, more that it's just OK at a lot of different things so it's handy to carry around.

I suppose a come-along can be viewed as a lower cost option to a winch but good ones are not that cheap either. A Wyeth Scott is going to set you back at least $300 or so. But it's a safe puller (same design since 1934) and still made in the USA, if that sort of thing is important.

 

Thank you for brining this brand of equipment to my attention. I’m in the process of looking for a quality puller and these seem to be exceptional!

 

First Hi-Lifts are not unsafe. They perform exactly as they were designed. It's people using them incorrectly that are unsafe.

That said, I've used Hi-Lift and come a long and winch together to get out of some really stuck stucks. Honestly, the biggest weakness that both the come a long and Hi-Lift have is the short pull distance. While you can re-rig it after you move a few feet it gets a bit tedious.

I don't know if it's still popular, but when I mounted my winch on my jeep I set it up to be removable. This way I can hang on the front or back depending on which way is best for extraction.

 

Same. Winch in a cradle to pull either way.