Which Winch? Almost lost car to the Sea.

[Trailhawk]

We did the Carpenter's Rock to Robe SA drive over the Anzac day period and had a great time but finding myself bogged trying to recover a mate on the Beach in ultra soft course sand just out side of No.2 Rock camping ground watching each wave seemingly get closer was one of the most stressful things I've had to deal with off-roading ever.

So, I'm of the realization that a Winch may not be a bad idea.

Now I've taken this Jeep pretty much everywhere and always found my way out of trouble without one so can comfortably say, I've never really needed one but... Sunday was as close to loosing the car to Sea as I want to get and if I'd had one I would have spent 3 hours less digging fruitlessly.

How much to Spend: This is where it gets tricky.

I'm happy to pay for quality but a $385 1200lb Dominator-X winch is hard to beat...especially as it may only get used once a year if I stuff up.

Does anyone out there have any advise on buying a Winch?

Are you really getting 3 times the value at 3 times the price?

[Nanook]

I bought a Chinese cheapy off ebay when I first bought my TJ. The idea was to buy a cheap one for now to get me out of trouble and buy a more expensive and better unit later on.

That was 5 years ago now and it's been doing duty on the JK for nearly 3 years. I can't kill the bloody thing to justify buying anything else. I even bought a good Dyneema rope for it after owning it for 12 months.

To be honest, if I did have to replace it I'd buy the Dominator X anyway.

[SnakeDoctor]

Winch doesn't help you that much on sand, takes a while to get the anchor dug in.

Shovel and maxtrax or tredz on the beach are requirements for me.

Better still is to lower the tyre pressures more before it digs in.

[Clarky]

I'm quite happy with my Runva 11XP
http://www.runvawinch.com.au/4wd-electric-series/
Unfortunately the word is out on how good they are & the price has risen significantly.

[Trailhawk]

Originally Posted by SnakeDoctor

Winch doesn't help you that much on sand, takes a while to get the anchor dug in.

Shovel and maxtrax or tredz on the beach are requirements for me.

Better still is to lower the tyre pressures more before it digs in.

Yeah, two sets of MAXTRACK's, 10psi and all I did was bury the maxtracks in a foot into the sand. This is not your everyday sand like on Fraser or on Sand dunes, this was more like quick sand. We spent the rest of the weekend on soft sand the Jeep never had a problem... but this shit was not soft sand.

[Nanook]

Originally Posted by SnakeDoctor

Winch doesn't help you that much on sand, takes a while to get the anchor dug in.

True.

For myself, I carry a set of maxtrax, a shovel and a airbag (never had to use the bag though so I often wonder why I carry it around ).

If I'm helping someone else, I prefer to use the winch. I've seen too many expensive sets of maxtrax being ruined by people that think the idea is to go flat out on them to get traction, thank you for helping them and then drive off leaving you with ruined trax.

[tasjeep]

I did that track last year, didn't happen to find the number plate I lost?

Trevor