It also depends on whether the Excursion is the only thing you are trying to winch out. The one on my Ex is a Warn 16,500lb winch. I have all the tackle, line, shackles, straps, etc you could want rated to handle it and double line loads.

Why, because I also pull a 9k lb trailer overland. It really makes a dent in your wallet if you get stuck with that rig and have to call a tow truck.

I you expect to get stuck in deep (as in up to the bottom of the doors) heavy mud at times, then by all means get the biggest, baddest thing you can afford.

halfway up the wheels you can get something lighter, like a 12K to 13 K.

Just up to the bottom of the rims, a 10k should do it.

Decide for yourself what are the chances of you ever getting stuck, how deep, and in what. That will determine the proper size winch for you.

 

Yeah, but that's where being realistic and creative goes a long way.
Realistically most of us don't wheel with a trailer behind us.

And being creative means unhook the trailer, winch out turn around and winch the trailer out next... Done that before.

 

If you are looking above 10k, electric winches should stay on the shelf. When is the last time you saw a tow truck with an eletric winch? I would be looking for at last a 15k milemarker or ramsey hydro winch. Before someone says "you cannot winch if the engine is off", try your electric winch with the engine off. You will get about 35 seconds before your battery/s are dead.

Plus, hydro winches are 100% duty cycle...no cooling off period.

Also remember, winches are rated at one wrap on the drum. Your 15K winch can only pull 8K with 4 wraps of rope on the drum...like you would with a 15 or 20 foot pull.

Do a google search on the army recovery manual. Lots of good info and formulas for line pull and ground resistance calculations. One I remember offhand is stuck to the axles equals 5x vehicle weight for line pull.


Also look for a land anchor...there is never a tree or post where you need it.

 

Hydro winches are fine for commercial applications but aren't ideal for most of us. They require a dedicated hydraulic pump which usually only works with the transmission in Park or neutral. Not ideal for recovery. Iirc excursions aren't equipped with the pto trans anyway. Not to mention it's expensive and overkill for occasional use.
Tow trucks use hydro winches partially because they already have big hydraulic pumps to run all the hydraulic cylinders, not to mention they are used dozens of times per day so the reliability is worth the extra money. Those are trucks that have to work to make money. And fwiw Lots of old tow trucks with manual booms use either pto or electric winches.

Then there are the ****ty mile marker ones that are supposed to run off your power steering. They suck and don't have anywhere near the duty cycle of an electric winch. They are slow on a stock pump and an aftermarket hydro pump will blow the seals. I'd avoid those like the plague.


Realistically, the electric ones are an ideal solution for most people's occasional use. Easy to hook up, don't require any special equipment, reasonably reliable, etc. Even the military is starting to use 24 volt electric winches over the hydraulic ones they all ran previously.

As for the engine being off, I'd rather be 30 seconds of winch pull to roll my carbed truck back on its wheels, or 30 seconds of winch pull to roll my rear tires past a boulder or puddle so I can change a broken engine part.It's not much but sometimes it's a long walk better than no seconds.

 

I was driving a load of wood on a little 5x10 trailer through what I thought was a dry pasture. I found the only hole in the place and quickly made it bigger as my trailer jack plowed in and set root and my truck frame sat down on the ground. I had the back of the truck full of junk also as we were planning to move to Texas.That was also the day i realized I couldn't trust my auto hubs because by the time I locked them by hand, it was too late. I had to get a shovel and dig under the trailer tounge/hitch to relieve enough pressure to unhook it, due to all the weight sitting on the ground, that was after unloading a thousand pounds of wood where I didnt want it. Then it took a tractor and another 4x4 pulling in 4low at the same time to get free and I was just stuck at the rear axle and only one wheel was really in mud. I cant even imagine pulling one of these that was really all four wheels stuck in some gumbo with a trailer behind it. I would get the biggest winch I could afford/fit if I had to trailer through nasty stuff on purpose.

 

Spoken like someone that never ran a hydro winch. 3 gpm and 1100 psi will run any sub 20k hydro winch....and guess what..that is what a stock ps pump puts out. A 15K electric has a 6hp motor on it...that means it is about as big as a diesel starter...how long can you crank your diesel before the batteries are flat? That is about as long as your electric winch will pull with the engine off. Warn, Ramsey, MM and many others make perfectly servicable hydro winches designed to run off a ps pump at100% duty. Suggesting an electric winch for a 7500 lb vehicle is laughable.

 

Suggesting that there is only one appropriate option is laughable.

I have run hydro winches in the last as well as a handful of electrics. The hydro was reliable, steady, and powerful, also slow as a turtle and expensive. They have their place. I've thought about running one on the excursion for the higher duty cycle but can't get over the slow line speed. Electrics are easy to install and remove as well, something important for a lot of people.

No one option is suitable for 100% of uses. If it were, we would all drive the same exact vehicle modified in the same exact way, running the same exact tires. What works for one person may not work for another, and this is the reason there are so many options in the marketplace. Warn is a great winch but they are not the ONLY right choice. Neither is a hydraulic.

For the people that have mentioned t-max...I ran a t-max 12.5 for a couple of years and loved it.

 

We aren't running king of hammers here. Needing a 20fpm line speed is not high up on the requirement when doing recovery.
Compare the duty cycle of an electric, with the slow line speed of a hydro and accounting for the cooldown time of an electric, the hydro wins again. It is the op's truck and he can do as he wishes, but if he is mired as deep as the pic above, an electric will show its shortcomings quickly. Any winch is better than no winch, but why buy a toy, when a hydro winch designed for daily use will last almost an order of magnitude longer?

 

Very lucky that you were able to unhook the trailer. That does not always happen.

 

Why would you not be able to unhook the trailer? Anytime I tow a trailer I have a few pieces of wood stowed in the trailer tongue. And if it really gets screwed up I have a spare tire and a high lift jack!
As for hydro, it's your truck do what you want. Hydros have some advantages but they are slow as all get out on a ps pump. I mean like turn the winch on, walk home, post on fte about how stuck you are, then walk back to your truck and it's 10 feet further forward than it was!
I've never used one on an excursion pump specifically. Maybe with hydro boost and etc they have a little more oomph than the old Saginaw my old Ford ran.
If you ask on a more hard core off road forum about the ps pump hydro winches you will get a lot of reviews from people who used them and were not happy with them... But I'm sure that's true for almost anything. As usual your mileage may vary. I will say if you want to use one you need a ps fluid cooler and a larger ps reservoir would be a plus. If you have a long hard pull it will actually boil the ps fluid. You can pull the factory cap and watch it steam. Smells awful too.

 

Talk about multipliers, I found this interesting.


Stewart

 

Impressive Stewart!

 

I thought it was a great example of how to multiply the power from his little tractor. You could tell he was pretty pleased that all his planning and work paid off perfectly.

Stewart

 

This is local to me. My brother witnessed it. The stuck guy (44's buried to the frame) had a receiver mounted shackle and the hitch pin sheared. The pulling vehicle (Rockwells and ags Iirc) was backing all the way up and tugging 30 feet on a 6" strap when the pin sheared. Sent the receiver d ring mount through the rear window, through the guys heads, out the windshield, and embedded it in a pine tree.
http://theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/513682.html

 

Oh man, this is one time I really don't wanna see pics, I believe it.

Condolences to his family.

Seems like people yanking a buried rig out forget to hang something across the line to absorb the energy if the line or equipment fails.

Stewart