Who needs a winch anyway...

Greybeard

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🏆 BR of the Month 🏆
Aug 17, 2023
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Huntington Beach CA
Current Ride
'23 Raptor
Current Ride #2
'22 4XE Rubicon
I have purchased 2 different winches in the recent past. Both on Jeeps. Both looked great new but the sun took it's toll.

The dilemma: I honestly like the front of the BRaptor and I don't want to replace the bumper or carry around a winch that I have yet to use. This I am considering a portable hitch mount winch. What do you think?

 
I use hitch winch setup on my 2022 Outback wilderness because the car was too new at the time and no one making a winch plate. I only use it once to pull other subaru out on a trail. it did what is does. However I found this setup is not so convenience. there are many bumper mount winch plates on the market for the Braptor to work with the factory bumper. you dont have to replace the bumper at all. even the ford performance winch kit can install on the raptor. but you need additional hardware to relocate the front cam and parking sensors.

beside, check the clearance form the hitch and the spare. It may not have enough room for you to put a 10k winch + the winch cradle.
 
I like the idea of a portable winch, however our Bronco Raptor hitches are rated at 4,500 lbs, sames as maximum for a Gladiator. As mentioned above it's unlikely to clear our spare tire. You could use a receiver extension but then that will reduce the hitches load rating if the pull is not close to parallel to the Raptor. Basically, the hitches aren't designed for recovery, that is why we have the recovery hoops on the rear.
 
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I wish them made a large capacity in line winch. That'd solve all our problems.
 
There was someone here or on 6G that installed the hidden winch on a Raptor. It required some mods but not too extensive. It does impact approach angle and it would sit in the mud if that's where you got stuck.

I ran a portable winch mount on a truck for a few years. It was off-road alot and that heavy winch and mount was a pain in the rear. Not to mention it took up alot of space in the bed- nevermind in the back of a smaller Bronco. It was difficult to get into the reciever depending on how/where you were stuck.

Hard to beat a correctly mounted winch.
 
There is a manual solution - Wyeth Power Puller
Good suggestion, I have one of these from a very long time ago, rated at 2k, used it numerous times to recover being stuck in the snow. Use to call them "come along". These newer models appear much nicer and pulls a maximum of 12k lbs. Light weight in comparison to electric power, attaches to our recovery points, smaller for easier enclosed storage, easily portable for multiple tasks.

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Update 14Nov24: Please see @JohnGalt post below as this places the user at much greater risk.
 
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Good suggestion, I have one of these from a very long time ago, rated at 2k, used it numerous times to recover being stuck in the snow. Use to call them "come along". These newer models appear much nicer and pulls a maximum of 12k lbs. Light weight in comparison to electric power, attaches to our recovery points, smaller for easier enclosed storage, easily portable for multiple tasks.

View attachment 13918
Probably great to have for an emergency especially minor snow recoveries. The major downside is the user is smack in the middle of the kill zone on a straight pull if anything goes wrong.

Making sure the come along is rated for the pull, it’s in good maintenance, rigging a snatch block if possible to get out of line of fire, using a line dampener, knowing when to stop the recovery if it can’t be done safely, etc will go a long way to avoid turning a small problem into a major one.

FWIW
 
Probably great to have for an emergency especially minor snow recoveries. The major downside is the user is smack in the middle of the kill zone on a straight pull if anything goes wrong.

Making sure the come along is rated for the pull, it’s in good maintenance, rigging a snatch block if possible to get out of line of fire, using a line dampener, knowing when to stop the recovery if it can’t be done safely, etc will go a long way to avoid turning a small problem into a major one.

FWIW
Thank you, understood and appreciated. I have updated my post above to refer to your post here.
 
Probably great to have for an emergency especially minor snow recoveries. The major downside is the user is smack in the middle of the kill zone on a straight pull if anything goes wrong.

Making sure the come along is rated for the pull, it’s in good maintenance, rigging a snatch block if possible to get out of line of fire, using a line dampener, knowing when to stop the recovery if it can’t be done safely, etc will go a long way to avoid turning a small problem into a major one.

FWIW
Purchasing the synthetic rope model (linked in my post above) will significantly reduce the stored energy in case of failure and will be much safer than a metal cable equipped unit.
 

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