Front vs rear winch

[TheFishBox]

i have looked at the majority of the threads on the internet and can’t seem to find the answers I am looking for. I am debating on a winch for my crew cab and at this time only want to do one winch.

Would you recommend a rear or front winch? I am leaning towards front but one of the complelling arguments for rear are if your stuck do you really want to go farther forward or pull your self back in the direction you came from.

Also what winch pulling strength does a guy need to get for a one ton crew cab?

 

[bucket]

Up front.

Generally, you make it most of the way through or up whatever the obstacle is before you get stuck. The winch can get you the rest of the way there. A good anchor point at the rear is recommended, along with a good heavy duty recovery strap. Then you can get pulled out from the rear easily, if needed.

Or, have a receiver hitch front and rear. Then mount the winch to a receiver cradle and it can be used at either end of the truck.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Yes do the receiver hitch front and rear then you can get a winch cradle and then you can slide it into the front or rear receiver. And also be able to store it inside. Just get some quick connectors for the battery cables and run cables front and rear permanently

 

[HotRodPC]

Yes do the receiver hitch front and rear then you can get a winch cradle and then you can slide it into the front or rear receiver. And also be able to store it inside. Just get some quick connectors for the battery cables and run cables front and rear permanently

This is my recommendation too.

With those quick connects, you can also make youself a nice set of jumper cables that plug into either front or rear and easily get and give jump starts without even opening the hood and have better distance.

This is what we use for our roll backs. We can't always get those trucks into position if we dont' have a jump box, so I have a quick connect at the driver door step and at the rear of the truck. Just plug in and jump it. You can get a 10 pack of those quick connects for about $20 off eBay from China, a bit more if you want to get them from a USA seller and not take 3 weeks to get them. They are not male or female, they just plug into each other.

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[bigcountry78]

I have mine mounted on the front bumper. Never have to worry about it not being ready to go. Or worry about leaving it at home, or killing my self trying to move it around. I hade a 9500# Ramsey on a receiver mount once. Thing easily weighed over 100# and I got tired of moving it around pretty quickly. I’m also not sure that mount is rigid enough for heavy use. There is a lot of force applied when winching, and a receiver mount doesn’t provide enough support for much more than a straight line pull. Just my opinion of course, and I’m no engineer. But I’ve been using a winch for close to 20 years.

 

[CSFJ]

As far as winch sizing goes, the rule of thumb is typically, you want at least twice the rated weight as what the vehicle weighs. So for a crew cab, I'd think something in the 10k - 12k range, leaning closer to 12k. Maybe a 15k if you can find one. A big truck stuck in a mud hole can easily exceed anything smaller.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

This is my recommendation too.

With those quick connects, you can also make youself a nice set of jumper cables that plug into either front or rear and easily get and give jump starts without even opening the hood and have better distance.

This is what we use for our roll backs. We can't always get those trucks into position if we dont' have a jump box, so I have a quick connect at the driver door step and at the rear of the truck. Just plug in and jump it. You can get a 10 pack of those quick connects for about $20 off eBay from China, a bit more if you want to get them from a USA seller and not take 3 weeks to get them. They are not male or female, they just plug into each other.

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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.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

I have mine mounted on the front bumper. Never have to worry about it not being ready to go. Or worry about leaving it at home, or killing my self trying to move it around. I hade a 9500# Ramsey on a receiver mount once. Thing easily weighed over 100# and I got tired of moving it around pretty quickly. I’m also not sure that mount is rigid enough for heavy use. There is a lot of force applied when winching, and a receiver mount doesn’t provide enough support for much more than a straight line pull. Just my opinion of course, and I’m no engineer. But I’ve been using a winch for close to 20 years.

I feel like having multiple pull points available is worth it. You could even mount it in the bed and pull stuff up on a hooked up trailer with it or whatever else you could think of. Or you can build a reciever hitch mount on your trailer as well, perfect setup in my opinion.

Also it’s not much weaker than many winch bumpers imo, you’re tying together both frame rails and that’s where the strength is. If you were really worried about it you could gusset the reciever hitch’s, as well as the winch cradle can easily be fabbed up and be super strong.

Of course you mention the weight, which is a pretty big deal the older we get. But if my crap is stuck in the mud, I’m getting it out end of story no matter what I have to do, so if that means lugging a winch 20 feet then I’ll do that, probably less work than you would have cut out for you without a moveable winch and to have multiple options to get yourself unstuck, that’s like gold to me lol

 

[nvrenuf]

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.

 

[bigcountry78]

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.

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.

 

[nvrenuf]

Next will be the dual receiver argument.... I'm sure having to stab 2 receivers with a 100 lbs (+?) cradle in knee deep mud isn't hard at all. (that's probably after you've had to dig a hole in front of the hitch so you can get the cradle in there) LOL

 

[shiftpro]

A hardened 5/8 pin will hold all day long.
You would want to use synthetic rope if you're going to use receiver mounts. Build a little platform with a receiver on it, and a simple hood to keep the sun and rain off it and mounted to the floor in the box, right behind the cab.
You have enough weight on the front end already...

 

[4WDKC]

Why not mount receiver hitches front and rear then mount the winch on one? Then it can be moved to either location as needed.

https://www.amazon.com/SCRATCH-VORTEX-RECEIVER-STANDARD-WINCHES/dp/B00SBWGOF4

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[TheFishBox]

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.

 

[yevgenievich]

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