4X4 PROFESSOR
A winch is a useful tool to get you out of a tight spot, but do you know how to use it safely and how to maintain it?
If you’ve ever seen the movie The Gods Must be Crazy, you’ll remember the hilarious scene where Marius Weyers hoists his Land Rover up a tree. This scene impressed many a young viewer and probably created dreams about one day also owning a 4x4 vehicle with a winch. Add to that the SABC’s broadcast of the Camel Trophy, which undoubtedly etched the coolness of this device further into young psyches. Those hardcore guys who struggle through knee-deep mud with winch cables over their shoulders were the stuff of legend. If, however, you mounted a winch onto your first off-roader without so much as a second thought, you might have come to realise that it is, in fact, a mostly useless gadget but one you’re grateful to have that one time you actually need it.
BEFORE YOU BUY How strong?
The basic rule of thumb is that an electric winch must be able to pull at least 1½ times the gross vehicle mass (GVM) of your vehicle. A Jeep Wrangler has a GVM of approximately 2 500 kg. Times that by 1½ and you get 3 750 kg. Because a winch’s pulling capacity is given in pounds, you have to convert metric to imperial – in this case 8 267 lb. A T-MAX 8500LBS XPOWER that can pull 8 500 lb will therefore be adequate. If you want to tow an off-road caravan to the Epupa Falls – with provisions and camping gear – your winch needs to be strong enough to tow 1½ times your vehicle’s gross combination mass (GCM). A new Nissan Patrol has a GCM of 7 000 kg, which means you’ll need a monster of a winch, like the Warn Series 15-S Spydura ProMax, if you want to recover the Patrol with a heavily packed Aloe Lebombo on the hitch. So best to do your calculations in advance.
Steel or synthetic?
A winch is traditionally equipped with a steel cable, but these days it’s increasingly being replaced with synthetic rope (or plasma rope). It’s lighter, it doesn’t rust, it’s more flexible, floats on water, and is stronger than steel. And if it breaks, it’s fairly easy to repair. The most important of all is that rope doesn’t store kinetic energy. That means a synthetic rope won’t snap towards you through the air like a whip when it breaks – something that can happen with steel cables. Instead it’ll just fall limply to the ground. So why choose a steel cable if synthetic rope is so great? Synthetic rope is sensitive to sunlight and will weaken over time, especially if your vehicle spends a lot of time outside. It’s also sensitive to chemicals and heat and it will start fraying if bushes constantly scrape against it. Manufacturers have found a solution for these shortcomings by covering the rope in a protective sleeve. Synthetic rope is generally better than steel, but it’s far from a foregone conclusion.