Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I`m planning to buy a recovery hand winch 4 tonne power puller at $50 ( not the heavy duty one at $ 400 ).
Just to get out of trouble ( mud )...no hardcore stuff...

Any idea..bad...good...or experiencing this stuff would be appreciated.

Cheers.

If it's the one I'm thinking of it's next to useless.
I had to pull a Suzuki 25 metres through mud to get out with one, and the problem is they can only pull 1.1 metres before they use up all their cable.
You then have to prop the vehicle, re-extend the winch, take up the slack in your anchor point, and pull another 1.1 metres, then repeat and repeat and repeat over and over.
Forget it. You'd have to be hugely desperately poor. I was broker than broke at the time, and I managed to lay-by a Tirfor style, that can pull for 20+ metres before you need to extend it back out to full and take up any slack that causes in the anchor point.

Don't do it

Save up for a Tirfor or Big haul.

They are still hard work, weigh heaps with cable and recovery gear, but they will move just about anything. maybe even with the Zook you could get the lowest rated Big haul. (Big = 2500kg, med = 1600 kg, small = dont know but they are cheaper).

Cheers Struth.

Aldi have them (tirfor style) for around 200 IIRC.. if you can deal witht he fact you bought it from aldi... better than ebay IMO. They were 2000kg IIRC, not sure.

Thanks guys for your reply.
I`ll get the tirfor style or similar.

Cheers,

Olivier

got a tirfor style in my shed with no handels , yours for $100.

I know you're already convinced, but one criticism I forgot to add about the power puller style that absolutely blows away these little "winches" is that you'd just about have to buy two of them.
When we were using one to pull the zook out of the mud, as I said it only pulls 1.1 metres then has to be extended back out to pull in again, but you can't extend them back out while they are under load. So you'd almost need two of them to use the second one to remove/hold the load so you can reset the first one.

It was very hard to get the load off the zook when you'd only been able to pull it 1 metre. In fact, the first one metre barely takes up the stretch in the straps etc. so then you had to find a way to remove the load from the unit to be able to re-extend it. We were lucky, it was level muddy ground and had 4 big blokes with us, so just 3 guys all pulling on a strap attached to the car took enough load off to be able to re-set the power puller while the 4th took up the slack at the anchor point. But if you were trying to pull up and over an obstacle under the mud, you'd likely find no way to hold the vehicle at the point you'd pulled it to while you reset the puller. And have no way to remove the load from the puller to be able to re-set it. Unless you bought two of course, but then you are half way towards the cost of a tirfor style that can pull for as long as the cable you have (mine's either 20 or 25metres)

I still have the powerpuller style here if you want one to try out and play around with though to see what I mean.

If you do go genuine Tirfor, get the T508, the smaller version of the usual T516. It is rated at 800kg lift, and about 1200kg pull. Combine it with a snatch block, which should be with any winch, and you have the equivilent pulling capacity of the larger and much heavier T516, and at a cheaper price. And it will pull a zook with heaps to spare.

I have one for my Rocky, and it has pulled it out of chassis deep tidal mud once, using the snatch block, with out a drama, just the effort that any hand winch requires.

Problem with that suggestion is that these Tirfor style winches require something in excess of 44 full pumps of the handle to travel 1 metre. Put it through a snatch block and you're looking at 88 pumps per metre and being totally f_____d before you've gotten the car even remotely close to unstuck. Go the 516 and then only use the snatch block if it's absolutely critical using this site http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavist ... index.html to calculate the force required for the recovery.

I've used my Tirfor once, the 516 model, to unstick myself when I dropped my zook onto it's diffs in a double set of ruts. I pulled it on it's diffs for about 2 or 3 metres, and rear diff with front wheels helping for another metre or two.
I'm a very fit man, I abseil, I rock climb, I mountain bike, and I walk to work and back everyday. And doing over 200 full pumps on that winch nearly killed me. THe thought of doubling that amount to pull an 800Kg Zook without good reason, is insanity.
Now the Patrol, well that one I'd have to snatch block and suffer the coronary to go with it, but then it also has f&r lockers, and way more ground clearance, so there's less chance of ending up HAVING to drag it on it's diffs up a hill.