Offroad-Express

I have recently purchased a Hilux Surf and would like to select a winch for casual 4 wheel driving. Any advise on size or brands ?
Cheers
Thierry

A tirfor handwinch can pull you out in any direction.... even works when the batterys flat and engines dead...

If you want a winch bolted to the front of your truck electric winches are pretty popular, the chinese ones are pretty cheap but I don't buy chinese

If its just for casual 4WDing, i'd agree on the Tirfor or a decent hand winch. Electric vehicle mounted winchs are great (easy) but only if you want to go forward. Also because the electric hangs off the front of your truck all the time (extra weight over the front wheels) it can fill up with crap and not work when you need it(happened to me). The best answer for this is to have a detachable mounting on the front and rear of your truck. This way the winch is keep clean and dry until you need it, and you know it will work.

H2OLOVA wrote:The best answer for this is to have a detachable mounting on the front and rear of your truck.

Hmmm.... unbolting the winch from the front and shifting it to the rear mount?

Could come in real handy if your on your own...

The best answer for this is to have a detachable mounting on the front and rear of your truck.

I delved into this project for RichardB's jeep, put alot of work in, would've required alot to finish, got to the stage where we realised that the weight of the winch and mounting plate (which then attached to the front and rear tow hooks) was just getting way out of hand, had Ideas of trying to lug around 30-40kg of awkward weight in the slippery mud and thought "Naaa, F*#K that"

MULLET

I've heard of but never seen winchs that fit into Hitch type tow bar mounts with a mount each end solves most of above mentioned problems also means you can plug in a towbar up front to manuver trailers

i got some pics of h20's setup so i'll sort them and get some up.. its a good set up.. will come in handy..

I had a detachable Warn M6000 SDP on my Zook, it fitted into the 2" receivers front & rear & worked really well but at 20kg+ it was at the limit of what you could easily manhandle up a slippery hill. I certainly wouldn't consider trying to make anything heavier into a detachable unit, & you'll need a heavier winch than a 6000 for a Surf.

So think about a bullbar mount would be my advice.

Size: 8000lb minimum, 9-9500 would be better. Check things like line speed & motor size also. Keep in mind that as capacity goes up, line speed will generally go down.

Brand, Warn & Superwinch are probably the top names. My Warn M6000 didn't actually look much different in design or build quality to the chinese stuff, but it always did the business. The newer Warn stuff looks a lot more advanced, & better sealed from the weather.

A winch is also going to work your trucks electrical system pretty hard, so replace your battery with the biggest one that'll fit in the hole. A dual battery system is the ultimate but otherwise one of those jump-start packs is cheap insurance if you're on your own & drain the main battery while winching.

Cheers
Clint