Winches, To Have? Not to Have? Which One?
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
We are complete amateurs with regard to vehicle recovery.
Where the Land Rover is concerned, on it’s own, we are not really bothered.
BUT, with the caravan in tow, this has presented us with a bit more of a serious issue should we get into difficulty (e.g. jackknife, transit issues, chassis, terrain problems). Not that we’re planning on any serious off-roading (we think!) but, the scenario remains that we may have to be able to perform some kind of self-recovery at some point.
A hi-lift jack, air bag, shovel, rope and shackles are all part of the plan, however, these lend themselves to certain scenarios and situations and we remain unsatisfied without one final recovery tool i.e. a winch!
We weren’t really keen on having an electric winch mounted to the front of the vehicle (all lies! we’d love one really - just for the bling!). The main reasons we have found against having one though is with regard to weight consideration, lack of flexibility limited application in certain situations and frequency of use. An expensive option possibly for what we hope will be very rare use. So, accepted that we knew at this stage very little about our options , we set about reading, researching and asking questions. Our main source of information (as usual) came from the Landyzone forum where we always receive excellent advice and differing views. Please see the very interesting thread as follows which includes all our questions and queries regarding the arguement for/against/if/what winch: http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f15/winches-have-not-have-one-78731.html
Throughout our planning and preparation though, we’ve asked several silly questions and have several other threads on the Landyzone forum (see the Expeditions section).
The end result is that we plumped for a manual Tirfor TU16 hand winch. Granted, it is harder work than an electric winch but we figured we can’t lose here as this tool has a lifetime of use and application than just vehicles. If we don’t use, can probably sell again etc. but doubt it. We think a good flexible entry point as allows to winch from any side of the vehicle (not just the front as per front mounted electric), can be used without relying on a working vehicle engine (should it pack up for any reason and in this case an electric winch useless), less training consideration required (though we still need training for safe application and tool use-type for differing scenarios even with Trifor and hi-lift jack).
Based on tow weight of either of our vehicles, the Tirfor TU16 seems to be about right for our needs. Cost brand new approx £700 + VAT with 20m wire cable & not sure if delivery charge on top of this - so can be comparitvely expensive versus an electric winch but then an electric winch brings other things to the table ie heavy duty bull bar and other uprated bits and pieces. There are other hand winch brands out there than just the Trifor which look identical but pointed in the right direction by Landyzone, we managed to source a 2nd hand, reconditioned but original Tirfor TU16 Hand Winch on eBay for £160 plus £18 delivery. Can’t be bad! We’re just now waiting delivery.
