Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Need Winch Advice

I had an 8K Warn on an '06 F-150 crew/5.5' box. BARELY enough. If I were putting a winch on my current '11 Supeduty F-250/6.7L crew/6.75' box truck it'd be no less than 16.5K. When the frame is resting on hard-packed drifted snow and the tires can't touch the ground, you're going to need an awful lot more capacity than just the weight of the truck to unstick what you've stuck.

I broke through some crusted over bushes with my tracked ATV. The ATV w/tracks is +/- 1K# and I'm 275# all winter-geared up. The 2500# Warn couldn't pull anywhere near enough to un-stick me despite having almost double the pulling capacity of the machine with me on it.

I figure my RZR with my wife and I aboard plus all of our gear will weigh in the 1500lb range. If we're stuck, most likely 1 or both of us will be out of it for the unsticking process. I have a 3500lb winch on it plus I carry a snatch block and the other winch toys that might be useful. So far I've never needed the thing but it's sure a good feeling to have it there. I did use it to winch it into my pickup just to see how it worked. Nice and smooth.

Yep, I have a 4500lb winch on my Pioneer 700. Better to have more than you need.

I got a Ford F350 4x4 flatbed dumptruck stuck in mud and winched it straight out with a Warn 9.5K. The truck weighs almost 9K. It required I anchor to a tree with the Dodge rear bumper but it yanked it out.

It's often as likely that you'll need a winch to rescue someone else as yourself. You never know what to expect so go strong.

BINGO!!!!!

"and finally a farmer came by with a 4wd tractor. Pulled them straight out."

A front mounted winch really isn't that great a tool for pulling yourself out. Great for pulling something else out.

The OP should invest on a four wheel tractor with a winch......................................and will find many other uses for it.

I've thought many times that a front mounted winch will pull you in deeper when you really want to backwards. I have a winch on the front of my RZR. I've been thinking of rigging up some way to run the cable through some pulleys to pull backwards. So far, I don't have any good ideas.
A pickup with a front receiver hitch is a natural if you mount the winch on a mount that will go on either end.

The 8K Warn on my ‘06 F-150 was on a carriage that allowed it to be plugged into the front or rear receiver hitch and I ran power to both ends as well.

If you don't to screw around, I'd go with a 20k hydraulic.

I've run vehicles so equipped and when all is right it's the best of all worlds. But keeping all the plugs clean and working can be a pain, and the carriage ain't exactly light lol. That being said, I do prefer this.



As to the winch on the front end, I've used it more than once to get me out of snow and mud. Just depends where you're going. If my goal is straight ahead, a winch on the front works great.

Sometimes a winch on the front will pull you through but you have to turn around and winch yourself back through it again.

Always carry a can of WD40. It'll clean power plugs nicely. I've l used it on trailer light plugs many times. No trucker will be without it.

In that case, I'd be tempted to use Trac-Grabber or Truck Claws, before I had people winching. You risk damage and injury while winching.

And, I don't know about you, but many times there are ZERO natural anchor points to winch from.

https://www.tracgrabber.com/

https://truckclaws.com/

I have 3 trucks, so the thought is, if I have a truck stuck, hopefully the winch on it will get it out.

If not, I can call and get one of my other trucks out there to unstick it.

Those will work IF your wheels have holes for them and IF you have room under the fenders. Many newer trucks don't.

One trick for an anchor point is to carry 2 steel fence posts cut off to about 3' above the spade. You also need a heavy hammer and some very strong rope, maybe some old winch rope or mule tape. Pound in 1 post where you need the anchor, angling it away from the stuck truck. Pound in the 2d one a few feet behind the 1st. Use the rope to lash the top of the 1st to the bottom of the 2d. Attach your winch cable to the bottom of the 1st one.

Man, I could really bury a truck with those!

This is a great idea.