Front vs rear winch

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4WDKC

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Only thing I don’t like about moving it around is the fact that if you are already stuck it’s gonna suck. As has been mentioned before if your burried and you have to get the winch out and then try to get it stabbed into a receiver vs just fishing your cable out and getting it hooked up. I also prefer the look of a hidden winch rather than having the Gawdy thing sitting out.

That’s just how I see it, admittedly I have never owned a winch so I have zero real world experience on the subject.


true but it would suck more if you mount it in front or rear then get stuck and cant use it for some reason to get out. Atleast on a hitch you can move it to get out.
 

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I have seen a winch mounted inside the cab with with cable guides and shields towards the front and back. But it did require taking the hook off to reroute the winch to the back. On the plus side, it kep it out of the weather and mud
Say whaaaa??
 

PrairieDrifter

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And who isn’t going to mount there winch up before going out wheeling? Of course if you get stuck by accident then you wouldn’t necessarily be prepared by having it mounted, but how often does that happen? Hopefully not very lol.

And again if you bury it up to the bumper up front and you have a front solid mount winch, you can’t really say that’s a con of a cradle winch because you’ll have to dig the front out either way. And if you bury it up to the front bumper chances are you have to go back where you came from, not farther and deeper in the hole lol.

You can build some quick detach support arms that bolt up to the main chunk of the reciever assembly, if you’re really that worried about the pin. That’s what I would do, quick detach on both sides to save weight on the cradle, synthetic cable would definitely need to be considered if you’re worried about weight.
 

yevgenievich

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Say whaaaa??
Can't find mounted screen shot, but in following can see a guide pipe sticking out the front with a winch cable laying on the hood. Except it is not on a square, but gm derivative
There are technical issues with cable pulling against the guide and such, but seem to work ok.
On my suburban, I have quick disconnects front/back and 2" reciever front/back
You must be registered for see images attach
 
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Bob Igram

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Ive got a permanently mounted Warn 8274 on the front of my 83 K20, but ive also got both a Ramsey QM5000 and a Warn M8000 mounted on winch cradles, and 2g power cables routed from the dual battery switch to the rear receiver hitch...........I use the same gray, polarized connectors shown in a previous reply, and i also have jumper cables and an inverter with compatible plugs. I make my own, using readily available welding cable. Just so you know, the polarized connectors are color specific, at one time Warn used red ones, while Ramsey used blue ones, and they are keyed to only mate with same color connectors. Several online welding supply houses sell welding cable cheaply, and welding cable is finer stranded copper and has better insulation than battery cable
 

shiftpro

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Can't find mounted screen shot, but in following can see a guide pipe sticking out the front with a winch cable laying on the hood. Except it is not on a square, but gm derivative
There are technical issues with cable pulling against the guide and such, but seem to work ok.
On my suburban, I have quick disconnects front/back and 2" reciever front/back
You must be registered for see images attach

Wow that's really crazy. I hope you're not thinking doing this... I've heard of winches catching on fire! I've seen them get hot enough to smoke, and it didn't smell very healthy either (something toxic as hell!)
 

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Those were the exact quick connects I was talking about. Never thought of the jumper cable idea, i like it though.
Yep, I really like those type. They handle the big gauge wire and are NOT male or female. I guess you consider them transgender plugs. All the plugs are identical and plug into each other just by flipping them upside down of one another. So they are very universal. You can use those power points for anything under the sun if you wanted to. Nice heavy guage set of jumper cables, winches, 12 volt air compressors, light bars whatever you decide.

The deal on jumper cables is, you can both give and receive jumps with those plugs. If you need a jump just plug in and hook to another vehicle that has juice and give a jump the same way. Some guys even put a Volt gauge at that point. This way you can shut your truck off, jump your customer off your battery power only. When their car starts you can tell them if their alternator is charging or not. If it's not charging, then you can offer a tow and tell them the vehicle is likely to shut off within minutes after the battery is drained again. Lots of options with those quick connects.

On my little friggin Kia service car, I stuffed a Group 24F 1000 Cold Cranking Amp battery in it and a quick connect mounted in the driver side fender well. My big ass cables are long enough (25 foot 0 guage) to park behind a car and still reach most cars batteries up front, and today many cars have the battery in the truck anyway.
 

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This. Yes, the frame rails are tied together by the hitch, but the winch mount itself is still only attached to the truck by a hitch pin. Take a crew cab stuck deep. Put a 15k winch on a receiver mount, and yes warn does make a 15k. But it’s not enough, so you use a snatch block and double line pull. Now the capacity is at 30k. That’s a lot of stress on that pin. Compare that to a winch bumper that has 6-10 strong bolts holding it on with little to no flex. I’d rather have it hard mounted in that situation. Now ill admit, that’s an extreme example, but still. There’s probably a reason warn limits their receiver mount to 9k and under. And I don’t believe a 9k is big enough for a crew cab. I’d want a 12k at minimum.

I get the convenience / versatility of the idea of a hitch mounted winch but I would never trust 8k+ of pulling force on a 5/8" pin.

Very Valid Points. As a tow operator winches aren't anything to fugg around with. They can be dangerous if not used properly. Most people aren't aware of weight ratings on cable thicknesses, what type of cable, chains and grades etc. Then you have straps. Another ball game all together. There might be a tow strap rated for 10,000 lbs, but that's not rated for 10,000lb sling as most think. Big difference in the weave and the thread it's sewn with and how thick it is at the ends. When I say sling I'm reffering to lifting something like a vehicle out of a swimming pool or uprighting a semi trailer. Many aren't aware of snatch blocking, pull strengths and angles. And haven't touched on a cable blanket and it's purpose, but they save lives. Of course anything can be used for that purpose and don't need to be a specific cable blanket with weights in it. We even use a jacket behind the seat of our truck and pick up some rocks and put in the pockets if needed and keep people away. Winching and recovery always seems to draw a crowd and people want to be up close. Not a good idea when that cable snaps. They take heads off. Literally !!!

Alot of that doesn't matter to off-roaders, but as you point out, you get a 12,000lb to 15,000lb F350 or F450 Crew Cab Diesel that's stuck in mud, don't forget the vacuum affect as it's coming out of the mud on 35 or 37 in tires that are 12.5in or wider tires. No, you want to be using something bigger than a 5/16 or 3/8in cable and then consider strand core too meaning what is the cable actually made of. There's good cable and cheap cable. Night and Day difference and to glance it, it all the looks the same. Cable is cable right? WRONG !!!

Just saying, any of you get into some heavy stuff or over a cliff or in deep water like a pond, know what you're dealing with and know the ratings of your equipment so noone gets hurt.
 

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A hitch will fail before a 5/8 pin, provided there isn’t excessive slop in the hitch holes already and the pin isn’t a piece of rust.

I’ve seen pintle hitches rated to carry three times what the OPs truck weighs that have 5/8 pins. The wall thickness of your receiver or cable’s condition would be more of a factor.

But if you’re really leaning towards the movable winch idea but are concerned with the shear strength of a 5/8” pin, you can go with a 3/4” setup.
 

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A hitch will fail before a 5/8 pin, provided there isn’t excessive slop in the hitch holes already and the pin isn’t a piece of rust.

I’ve seen pintle hitches rated to carry three times what the OPs truck weighs that have 5/8 pins. The wall thickness of your receiver or cable’s condition would be more of a factor.

But if you’re really leaning towards the movable winch idea but are concerned with the shear strength of a 5/8” pin, you can go with a 3/4” setup.
And if really worried about it you could also plate the pin holes on the reciever as well, and they make solid hitches for receivers so that’s not an issue. Really the moral of the story is you can do pretty much anything you want lol
 

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Very Valid Points. As a tow operator winches aren't anything to fugg around with. They can be dangerous if not used properly. Most people aren't aware of weight ratings on cable thicknesses, what type of cable, chains and grades etc. Then you have straps. Another ball game all together. There might be a tow strap rated for 10,000 lbs, but that's not rated for 10,000lb sling as most think. Big difference in the weave and the thread it's sewn with and how thick it is at the ends. When I say sling I'm reffering to lifting something like a vehicle out of a swimming pool or uprighting a semi trailer. Many aren't aware of snatch blocking, pull strengths and angles. And haven't touched on a cable blanket and it's purpose, but they save lives. Of course anything can be used for that purpose and don't need to be a specific cable blanket with weights in it. We even use a jacket behind the seat of our truck and pick up some rocks and put in the pockets if needed and keep people away. Winching and recovery always seems to draw a crowd and people want to be up close. Not a good idea when that cable snaps. They take heads off. Literally !!!

Alot of that doesn't matter to off-roaders, but as you point out, you get a 12,000lb to 15,000lb F350 or F450 Crew Cab Diesel that's stuck in mud, don't forget the vacuum affect as it's coming out of the mud on 35 or 37 in tires that are 12.5in or wider tires. No, you want to be using something bigger than a 5/16 or 3/8in cable and then consider strand core too meaning what is the cable actually made of. There's good cable and cheap cable. Night and Day difference and to glance it, it all the looks the same. Cable is cable right? WRONG !!!

Just saying, any of you get into some heavy stuff or over a cliff or in deep water like a pond, know what you're dealing with and know the ratings of your equipment so noone gets hurt.


Great post HRod thanks. I keep thinking about the winch in the cab...! What could possibly go wrong?
 

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Great post HRod thanks. I keep thinking about the winch in the cab...! What could possibly go wrong?
Just as much as with one out front standing by it. I am not putting one inside of my vehicle, but seem to work ok if installed correctly.
 

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The Pin part doesn't scare me alot but it's a good thing to consider for safety sake. Think about what people are towing with a 2 5/16 in ball on those receivers. I see back hoes on 3000lb trailers and the back hoe weights 14,000 lbs on a bumper pull. So there's 17,000 lbs. Now if you have a 5000lb truck and it's stuck in mud and a vacuum affect, I'd say you're still not putting any more than 8000-9,000lb pull on it. Now the Crew Cab 1 ton duallys over a steep ditch, yeah, I might think twice.

You guys would be amazed at how a roll back works. Until that bed is setting back on the frame rails, ran all the way home and into the bed locks, all that weight not to mention the leverage of the bed and that weight is all riding on 1 long pin across the pivot point of that bed. In most cases, it's just a pin about an inch in diameter. Now that's a 1 inch pin holding the weight of a 2000lb bed plus a 10,000 - 14,000lb truck. Yes, we do put ambulances and 4x4 F450 and F550's with long ass welding beds and heavy welding rigs on those rollbacks. It's not always about the size of metal, it's type of metal and the hardening that it's made of. Certainly those pins are cold rolled and hardened for strength.
 

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