Winch on a Subaru

taza · Post by **taza** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:43 pm

Ive been looking into D_Generates idea of getting an electric winch and mounting it to A. the tow bar B. so it can get attached to a distribution strap making it portable and able to use on the front of back of the car.

I think this would be doable with a long power cables and safe if mounted studily and properly.

My Forester when loaded up weighs about 1.5 tonne roughly and I have been looking at winchs on Ebay. Do you guys thing that a 4000lb (1850kg) winch would be strong enough to pull my Forester say from a rut off a tree. Or should I be looking at something with more power and more strength like 3 or 4 tonne? im willing to play with this idea and it would only cost around $400 to do.

Any advice or opinions would be great.

Cheers
Taza

Brumby Kid · Post by **Brumby Kid** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:47 pm

Im interested to know if they can go onto a bullbar. I believe they cant go on alloy bull bars. Is this right?
Cam

taza · Post by **taza** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:54 pm

Brumby Kid wrote:Im interested to know if they can go onto a bullbar. I believe they cant go on alloy bull bars. Is this right?
Cam

From what ive read Yes. They will just bend and arent mounted strogn enough on Subarus or even big 4x4's for that matter.

But since we snatch, pull and tow from our tow bars and front two recovery points making a portable electric winch would be great and the points/tow bar would be up for it.

I had a bad experience last friday night when my mate was driving my car and I was a passenger and he was driving around this track at about 8pm then all of a sudden the front end of the Foz falls in a 1meter hole. Some bastard had dug part of the track out at the bottom on a hill around a corner then put the pile of dirt infront of the hole. We were stuck but I remembered I had my cheap $80 hand winch in the boot anfd there was a pole to winch off. But it jammed up, broke and was useless. Although rated at 4.5tonne. Only took an hours to get out though but if i had an electric winch especially with no other car around we would of been out in a few mins.

GOD · Post by **GOD** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:55 pm

Brumby Kid wrote:Im interested to know if they can go onto a bullbar. I believe they cant go on alloy bull bars. Is this right?
Cam

Not without serious steel reinforcement behind the alloy bar.

benwarn's forester winch: showthread.php?t=12265

Dane.

Brumby Kid · Post by **Brumby Kid** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:56 pm

Ok so if i wanted a winch i couldn't mount it, i would have to have it portable and use the tow points?

GOD · Post by **GOD** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:15 pm

Hand winches are the go. Cheapish, easily transferable between cars and they can pull you in any direction. A hand winch hanging from a beam makes a pretty good engine hoist too.

My ebay one hasn't broken yet.

Dane.

taza · Post by **taza** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:19 pm

I like what Benwarn has done iwth his Forester in the rear and I could consider doing that but I think in the front would be more useful. Or being able to use it on both. I know it would be abit of a pain being portable but then it would be used on both sides.
Since Benwarn has a 770kg winch with 1.6hp motor I might be the 1800kg one. This should have no problem then moving the Foz.

Taza

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:08 pm

Saw this on USMB...,

purp · Post by **purp** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:26 pm

This winch came one the bullbar from a parts car. Pretty small (2000lb I think, or 2500lb) but seems strong enough, without too much danger of pulling the front off.... And for the price (free) I couldn't *not* install it.

taza · Post by **taza** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:35 pm

Cheers for the ideas guys. I could quite easily mount one to the rear towbar under the bumper of my Forester but im not sure how I would do the front if I had them both fixed there... I don't have a bullbar or roo bar either. im still learning towards the portable one and after my experience with the hand winch ive gone off that.

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:53 pm

purp wrote:

Hi, would you be able to give more detailed pics on the mounting of that winch would be nice and how useful was it, did it help you much?
Very interesting:)

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:06 am

I can't remember if I posted but I ended up with 2 for the price of one, I'm going to take the cable off one and I'll hook it back to the car through a pulley which halves the strain or doubles the pulling power but these are only designed to run for about a minute at a time according to the Chinglish instructions, I'm still in Thailand but will be back somewhere between 3 & 7 weeks to continue sorting them out and put my DCCD in, gonna put a tongue on my bash plate for portable front mounting, you could do that off one of the tow points by removing it and using the bumper mounting bolts, the mount Neil made me is designed to swivel so the winch is pointing toward the tow point.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:41 am

just a bit of lateral thinking here. A portable winch is preferable but its yet another loose item in the car, cables to haul around etc. Then there's the alloy bull bar concerns mentioned already. The rear mounted winch on the tow bar seems a good place to tuck it away.
My idea is unconventional (surprise surprise!). Permantly mounting a winch to the tow bar area but being able to use it to haul you out from the front also. a steel tube running the length of the vehicle that has its own connecting cable that you pull out from the front, with pulleys at the end to reduce wear. I thought of detatchable pulleys front and rear so the cable can go under form the rear moutned winch but would not be accessible if you are up to the floor in mud etc.

Alternatively those square tow bars. If your winch mounted permanently on one and slotted into your female tow hitch...all you'd have to do is have on at the front also. Your only concern would be to have it securely mounted. Apeparance wise it would just look like a square hole under your bumper.

Brumby Kid · Post by **Brumby Kid** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:36 am

If it was portable, how would you attach it to the car? (What with,) I know where,(chasy frame).
Cheers Cam

Davidov · Post by **Davidov** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 2:04 pm

Tweety wrote:just a bit of lateral thinking here. A portable winch is preferable but its yet another loose item in the car, cables to haul around etc. Then there's the alloy bull bar concerns mentioned already. The rear mounted winch on the tow bar seems a good place to tuck it away.
My idea is unconventional (surprise surprise!). Permantly mounting a winch to the tow bar area but being able to use it to haul you out from the front also. a steel tube running the length of the vehicle that has its own connecting cable that you pull out from the front, with pulleys at the end to reduce wear. I thought of detatchable pulleys front and rear so the cable can go under form the rear moutned winch but would not be accessible if you are up to the floor in mud etc.

I dont know if it would work in practice but i like the idea of the tubing to the front to be able to winch forward as well as backwards. In theory it sounds like a great idea.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:45 pm

Cable hauling, as I once did when with Telstra, the days when the Govt cared enough to employ people... is an art.

But if we assume there is a permanent 1.5mm thick round tube running the full length of the car say 40mm then all you'd need is to always have cable within that tube at all times. Unless you can thread it through on each occasion. It might thread through from the rear?? making it easy. Just that the eyelet on the cable end would need to be small enough to go through. A felxible rod that can be coiled could be used as a threader. Light and compact.

The REAL issue would be to mount the tube/pipe so it doesnt impede on other parts, suspension etc.

Its easier for me to raise the concept- leave it to those that breathe Subaru exhaust gas to put it in practice.

As for the portable idea- its sound all right. If the winch is permanently bolted to a tow ball tongue and there is a tow bar frame bolted to the chassis rails front and rear then it would be so easy to place the male square tongue in there either end and slip in the locking bolt and circlip. Just have to secure the front bar frame securely to the rails. A reverse tow bar really. I've seen reverse tow bars in places like caravans and boat sales where they tow units around their yard front the front of the vehicle.

daza · Post by **daza** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:18 am

taza wrote: Do you guys thing that a 4000lb (1850kg) winch would be strong enough to pull my Forester say from a rut off a tree?

I tried the winch tied to the recovery points thing with a very cheap 3000 pound winch on the Brumby.
It was completely useless, pulled the car a couple of inches then shut down for a couple of minutes till it cooled down.
I think a decent winch would work, but then the prices starts to climb.

Daza.

purp · Post by **purp** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:52 am

guyph_01 wrote:Hi, would you be able to give more detailed pics on the mounting of that winch would be nice and how useful was it, did it help you much?
Very interesting:)

I'll have to take some pics later, I only have a couple more online, and they don't show much. Basically it is a normal (or what I assume is normal) "wrap underneath" type steel bullbar. It bolts on in three places (each side, so six total). The bolt holes at the front of the factory bash plate, the front tow/tiedown points, and a third place up in behind the wheel arch (through pretty thin sheet....).

The bullbar has been modified with the addition of a solid plate of steel, as a kind of tray which the winch sits on. This means it is very well protected, but it takes away a little from your approach angle (i bounced it off a few rocks, but it doesn't show a scratch).

As for usefulness, it has only been there for one short trip, but it pulled a stuck suzuki vitara out, after he got all four wheels in muddy ruts at the same time (we came through no worries

)

I reckon a decent power winch would be great *if* you were confident that the bullbar (and front of car) were not going to come right off. Some extra bracing from the mount points back to whatever hard points are well placed would probably not be the hardest thing to add....

I also thing the "removable winch bolted to a square tube tow bar" approach would be pretty versatile (with a towbar tube on the front as well).

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:31 pm

We designed mine to have two 8mm thick triangular tabs that slide over the tongue top and bottom then you just drop the ball in the hole and it holds it securely in place, no real need to put the nut on as it's a pretty tight fit, tow ball is kept in the wheel well as I rarely tow so fitting takes about 3 seconds.

purp · Post by **purp** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 11:44 am

Went for some bashing round Bungongo State Forrest on the weekend (in quite a lot of rain and mud). The old girl held up, only stuck once, and was steep enough I managed to roll back out and have another go. Some pretty deep water made it on top of the engine and cause it to run on three cylinders for a while... serious loss on power with a 300k+ EA82 towing a trailer.

The winch collected a fair bit of mud (and grass) in a few places, and has made me thing that a custom bumper replacement type bar would be the way to go if you seriously wanted to try the permanently mounted winch idea.