What type of winch and what size winch do you recommend for a
1999 Super Duty Ext. cab Long Bed w/ 4 inch lift with standard
grille guard? Thanks for your input.

 

 

Well...you can use the formula: Weight of loaded truck (passengers, gear, gas, etc.) x 1.5 = Ideal winch capacity. The .5 is to account for other things, like the mud you'll be dragging along when winching your truck out. But if you're like me, and you LOVE overkill, use the GVWR (total weight of truck with max cargo weight in bed) of your truck. So mine would be 8800lbs x 1.5 = 13200 lbs. Now I know my truck will never EVER be anywhere 8800 lbs, but I'm going for a 15,000lbs winch just for kicks. You could get away with a 9,500lbs winch, but most opt for a 10,000lbs or 12,000lbs winch. You say you've got a standard grille guard, unless it's frame mounted, don't use it for a winch mount. Heck even if it is frame mounted, see what the manufacture of the winch has for mounts. I've seen a few guys running about with the winch coming straight out of the stock bumper, looks slick, but I've got no idea what's behind it. Good luck!

 

Hey Munkey,

Thanks for that formula, I often wondered what size winch I would go with, I always figure, if your gonna error, overkill is the way to go

 

No problem Yeti, but there's one thing I left out of the mix. You can even use a 8,000lbs winch and still have more pulling power than a 15K winch. All you need is a ****** block! Basically, a ****** block is just a pulley with an eye on the end of it. You take your ****** block, hook the eye up where you were going to originally hook your winch up (tree, another vehicle, concrete cylinder berm), and then run the winch cable through the pulley, and attach the winch hook back onto your truck at a strong pulling point. You double the pulling power of the winch, but at a slower speed. So if you just had a 8K winch, it would become a 16K winch in theory. Actually Peterson's 4-Wheeler did a test between the 8K w/****** block, and a 15K w/o ****** block to see which would pull faster. The 8K won by 2'6". Not much, but something to consider when the 15K winch pulls at 3.31 feet per minute! Very slow...but I wouldn't complain if I needed to winch myself out. Also the weight of a 15K winch is massive, 136lbs hanging off the very front of your truck. You've gotta take all these things into consideration when choosing a winch...but as for me...I'm fat, I plan to get fatter, so 15K it is!

I'm getting goose bumps thinking about that 15K with a ****** block...30,000lbs

 

Don't forget the Braden line at Paccarwinch.com
The HUP12 is available in a 72" model, hydraulic, and is a 12,000lb first layer line pull ( smallest bumper model )