Anyone ever run a rear winch?

[Curious Hound]

Why?

Lowers center of gravity and stiffens suspension. Usually used during a climb on rocks. I've seen the same done on the front end also. Just gives better control in some situations and can prevent an unwanted bounce when the suspension wants to unload. "Sucking down" the front can help prevent rearward rollover (end over end) on steep climbs.

 

[Shran]

^ what he said.

 

[Rick W]

When you’re compressing all that stuff, what do you hook it on on the ground? And does it that limit the mobility?

 

[Curious Hound]

When you’re compressing all that stuff, what do you hook it on on the ground? And does it that limit the mobility?

Nothing is attached to the ground. The winch is mounted to the frame and hooked to the axle. You are pulling the frame and axle closer together.

It's not being used for recovery in this case. It's being used for control of suspension and center of gravity. It is used while driving, usually steep climbs or descents.

The first time I saw it done, a friend had a small winch mounted in the "back seat area" of his XJ, with a hole in the floor. That winch was always connected to the top of his rear axle.

 

[holyford86]

I haven't seen it done, with my own eyes. I do know it's a thing, usually in competition or in different terrain that isn't super common around my area. It does make sense to keep the suspension from unloading or lowering CoG though.

 

[JoshT]

I'm late to the party and haven't read everything. No rear mount winch for me.

No front mount winch for me either. My F-100 has an 8274 mounted in the front bumper, but it hasn't had anything on the spool in over 30 years. It'll probably need to be rebuilt before it'll be usable. The winch is staying, but it'll be rebuilt along with the rest of the truck. Still probably won't get used.

I've got a 5k badlands mounted on a hitch mount. Swapped the steel cable for a rope so it's a little easier to handle. It's only been used once or twice to load a dead vehicle on a trailer. Still need to set up a control box for it, so far we've used jumper cables straight from battery to winch posts. Works, but probably not the best idea.

it's hard to use a reciever mount winch when a trailer is hooked up.

That's why my trailer has a reciever hitch built into it just in front of the bed. Trailer connected to truck, winch mounted on trailer. Dad has used it with his trailer that doesn't have a receiver. He used onedouble hitch recievers between the ball and the truck with the winch poulling from there. It was just loading a dead first gen Ranger, but did fine.

Nice thing about reciever mounted is mobility and versatility. Remove when not needed, plug into vehicle reciever if necessary. Push come to shove, chain the winch around a solid object and pull away. Just be mindful of the strength of the object and the load on the winch.

I bought another Badlands winch during holiday the sales. Got a 3500lb to mount on my Honda Rancher. Will probably never see much load, but I wanted one to drag deer out of wet swampy areas that I wouldn't drive into. Didn't like how the smaller ones were built without tiebars. It'll never be taxed with a deer, but I can't day I'll never overload it and I've seen the smaller ones break from the drum support bending/spreading apart under load.

 

[Rick W]

Nothing is attached to the ground. The winch is mounted to the frame and hooked to the axle. You are pulling the frame and axle closer together.

It's not being used for recovery in this case. It's being used for control of suspension and center of gravity. It is used while driving, usually steep climbs or descents.

The first time I saw it done, a friend had a small winch mounted in the "back seat area" of his XJ, with a hole in the floor. That winch was always connected to the top of his rear axle.

CH, thank you, but when are you going learn that there may be a bit of sarcasm in some of my comments…

I vaguely remember some of our giant drill rigs up north, big water well rigs, had woven steel straps about six or 8 inches wide that they would put on various parts of the rig and the suspension before they started drilling so there wasn’t much free motion if the drill hit hard in the ground. I might not have this exactly right, but I remember those steel straps look like giant truck tire trailer treads and they weighed a ton.