Off road upgrades

BurbanAZ

Explorer
yea you would be fine with a 10k winch or even probably an 8k for most situations. I have a 12k winch though id rather have more than i need than not enough, especially if its 2 wheel drive and if you get the winch first then you basically have 1 drive tire, keep that in mind
 

WILLD420

Observer
Keep as much weight on the back tires as possible. Use lower air pressure in sand and soft dirt. Let someone know where you are going, since 2wd is only half the truck you will need sooner or later. Pull Pal, or other home made type winch anchor in case there are no trees.

Common Sense. It's available anywhere hard lessons are taught, but it costs an arm and a leg to get if you aren't careful, maybe more.

Once you get tired of that, if you can legally do it, convert it over to 4wd, or sell it and get one that is 4wd. It's the only way to fly when you want to venture out of the mall parking lot.

Watch out for 8274 winches on Craigslist or other places. They are an 8K rated winch, but they will pull 9K or more. Cheap is good, but do your research. Older designs are simple and more proven. Some of the new MOSFET stuff is fancy, but can be unreliable, and there isn't much you can do to fix them in the field without a $$$ spare part.

I bought an old Ramsey worm drive for $200 last month, works just fine and will outlast the truck it's going on if I keep it full of grease and don't burn it up from abuse.
 

toymaster

Explorer
If any are on a budget look at the engo winches. Newer brand that has test well; matter of fact better than warn. I have a warn on my front but will be putting an engo in the rear soon. A 9K with syn rope you can -get for ~$400 shipped if you look around. 10K was around $30 more. Even cheaper of you want wire rope, but who wants extra weight now-a-days.
 

Saiyan66

Adventurer
So my recommendation is this: buy a Tuff Stuff 12.5k winch from these guys http://truckandwinch.com/tuff-stuff-xtreme-12-500lb-waterproof-winch.html. That will only cost you $350 with tax. Now mount that thing in the REAR of the truck where the spare tire currently sits. Mount the fairlead where the license plate is and be creative with your license plate attachment. This will give you way more than enough winch for whatever you need, do it very cheaply, and add 120lbs to the rear of the truck where you need it most for traction. Sounds like a win, win, win to me.


P.S. This is exactly my plan for my truck as well so not like i'm recommending something that I wouldn't do myself.
 

TurboChris

Adventurer
I had a 6000lb Ramsey on my 89 Bronco for 10 years. Stalled more times than I can count....BUT, that and a shovel always got me out. I had a m12000 Warn on my 01 F250 Crew Cab Powerstroke (8000lbs) and I stalled that many times as well, but same story, that and a shovel or a snatchblock always got me home.

That said, I'm running a 17,000lb winch on my 98 Suburban now. Haven't stalled it yet....happy about that. Buy the most your budget allows. Anything is better than nothing.
 

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