Milemarker Winch?

[vmajor]

Anybody tried a hydraulic Milemarker winch on their Tundra? Had any problems?

[RockLobster]

I have used and owned many different winches.

Hydralic powerd winches are slow unreliable garbage.

There are many reasons to have an electric winch. Not the least of which is that if you truck dies in a mudhole or drinks in to much water the electric winch will get you out but hydrulic winches don't work too well when the engine is not running.

In wheeling situations there is already enough stress on the power steereing system the last thing you need is more.

Warn winches are head and sholders above everyother winch on the market.

I have not seen a warn winch fail and belive me we have abused them.

I have seen milemarker winches fail LOTS. And many other winches made by other companies including superwinch and ramsey i have alos seen fail. I have seen pictures of ramsey winches that have broken in half....

This is one of thoes things that you learn very quickly when you wheel. Buy WARN winches.....

I personally own an M6000 currently (on my samurai) but i have lots of experience with, M9000s, HS9500s, 8274-50, 8274, and the M12000.

[leadsled]

I have owened 3 winches.

The Warn 8274 (8000 lb), Ramsey 8000, and currently the Warn HS9500.

The Warn 8274 was extremely reliable. It never failed, even after years of heavy abuse.

The Ramsey is a good light duty winch. It did fail when an internal bolt came loose and cracked the main drive gear. I replaced it myself at the cost of $150.

I have only used the Warn HS9500 a few times, and it has performed very well.

Whether you choose to buy a hydrolic or electric winch is a personal choice. I chose the electric since it works even if the motor is dead.

leadsled

[vmajor]

Great advice. Thanks!

With an Optima yellow top (or equivalent), how long do you think the electric winch would work in a dead-motor scenario?

[leadsled]

It depends on the difficulty of the pull. Here are some specs from the Warn website:

pull amp draw
----- ----------
0 47 amps
2000 160 amps
4000 230 amps
6000 305 amps
8000 370 amps
9500 425 amps

leadsled

[RockLobster]

Originally Posted by vmajor

Great advice. Thanks!

With an Optima yellow top (or equivalent), how long do you think the electric winch would work in a dead-motor scenario?

I wouldn't depend on it for more than just getting you out of the immediate problem you're in. They will pull fairly strong for a while but it sure does suck alot of juice to use the winch without the alternator. I have never had a problem with a yellow top battery not being able to do its job when i needed it without the engine running but it is just a battery pulling the truck around.

The yellow top certainly helps but yellow tops are very sensitive to cold temps. They dont seem to want to hold a charge in the minnesota winters here. I have one in my samurai. Works great in the summer but if i dont start the truck every couple weeks in the winter it dies.

Gell Cell batteries are great stuff but they reqire some care. DONT EVER USE A FAST CHARGER ON THEM. If they die, drain the battery all the way then trickle charge them.