Hey there, I just finished the plate bumper for the Toyota pickup the other week. the next step is to start looking at mounting a winch in behind. which leaves me wondering about sizing and brands. Ok so first off it's my understanding that you'd typically double the GVW for sizing. But I would just like to confirm that this is good enough if you were to let's say sink your rig into the sand/mud. The next thing I would like to know is the winch brand you guys would suggest. I know a lot of people are going to say warn right off the top. but the thing is some of their winches and allot of the parts are manufactured in China these days. and I personally think you might be paying a bit of a premium just for the name. I am interested in hearing good and or bad experiences people might have had with the other winches on the market, and or warn. I would appreciate any feedback you guys have.
thanks, Chuck
The main differences in winches and generally what you pay for are load, reliability, and speed. Vast majority of winches you'll find on tacomas, 4runners, etc are going to be 8-10k lb load rating, and those work just fine. In terms of brand and reliability, warn is probably among the best - I've personally run a ton of warn winches and have never had a single issue. That's not to say other brands aren't good too though. Winches are pretty simple devices and even the cheaper ones don't crap out that often.
Within a particular brand of winch there will often be higher end models and usually what sets them apart is the winch speed. I never really paid too much attention up until I bought my jeep which just happened to come with a higher end warn on it and the speed difference is really noticible and makes longer pulls a bit nicer. Whether that justifies the additional cost is up to you, realistically the base model versions work fine as well, if a bit slower.
One last thing to consider on a winch is what winch cable you'll run. Many winches come from the facory with steel cable, which has a number of downsides including added weight, and personal danger (when steel cable snaps it can do major damage to people and vehicles). A much better solution is to use synthetic winch rope - it costs more but saves a ton of weight and reduces the risk of personal harm. I would recommend synthetic line regardless of what winch you decide on.
thanks for the feedback! id like to hear some experiences with Smitty built and some of the other budget brands.
Agrée with Shane for sure. I have had a Smitty built 9500 synthetic for 7 years and it is great. Originally on my Toyota now on my Dodge. The clutch lever isn’t as smooth as my Warren I have on the CJ8 but I would definitely buy another one. Paid $500 with synthetic line included at North Shore Off Road. Local dealers might price match.