Philberto wrote:I still think you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who wheel with two winches "just in case one fails" and they need to use another one. Maintain your equipment, carry spare parts, and have a backup plan, but that doesn't mean you need to go overkill and carry 2 80+lbs winches everywhere you go. I simply propose this as a means of being able to winch front and rear without a) having to count on anchor points that may or may not be there for at least 3 snatch blocks; or b) Moving said 80+lb winch from front to rear, given you have receiver mounts, where there may not be sufficient clearance to remove the winch from its mount (wedged up against rock, dirt, mud, underwater, etc.) Overall, I feel that having a mid-mounted winch (balance the weight of the winch between the 2 axles), running it through frame-mounted snatch blocks/pulleys (No need to worry about finding anchor points, as the vehicle is the anchor), and having the ability not only to pull front or rear, but also to rotate the vehicle in place or slew it somewhere/ drive it along the cable is the best of all worlds, and is only disadvantaged by finding somewhere to mount said winch, and engineering sufficiently strong mounts for the pulleys to route the cable.
Having said this, I plan on bringing this up with Neil when I get down there to fab some stuff, mounting the winch so that it is in the spare tire area, with the top accessible via the underfloor storage in rear, running to a rear snatch block, and then running through pulleys to one of the front frame rails (probably the passenger-side one). I'll let you all know how it goes, but I have high hopes for what is actually a relatively simple setup.
Again, mechanical things break... I suppose you could carry a spare winch motor, a spare winch solenoid system, a spare winch gear reduction planitary set, and spare cable... but at some point, if you're going to carry spare parts, it just makes sense to carry a spare assembly...
Having said that:
It may be easier to just mount it in front, run a line to the back and mount solid, then use a snatch block in front, or use the line itself from the rear... That's basically what the "line under the vehicle" picture that James is using, is doing... It'll also keep your winch out of more of the crap that the underside of the vehicle is exposed too...
Mike