Winches, mounts, and onboard air

[Termite]

Chris,

You may want to consider a PTO type winch. It can be done on Dodge trucks. At the size capacity winch you are talking about, forget a "hidden" winch, if you want 100' of cable or more.

The only hidden onboard air system I'm familiar with is the one on Mrs Termite's Pontiac Montana. Yes, a minivan. But it's part of the rear suspension leveling system. It has a aux feature for airing up tires, float toys, etc, but wouldn't run tools or anything.
Most people that want serious portable air just mount a engine-driven compressor on the bed of their truck, usually a 1 ton.

I'm not saying you can't put a hidden high capacity air system on your truck. I've just never seeen one on trucks smaller than 2-3 ton rated.

[Netpackrat]

Warn makes an electric winch with a built in air compressor, but being meant for Jeep sized vehicles, they probably don't make it in a pull capacity suited for your truck. For onboard air, the first place to check is with Brad Kilby. He sells kits for most models of Jeep as well as several Dodge trucks. Even if he doesn't sell a bracket kit for your application, he can still supply you with everything else you will need.

As for mounting a winch, I am a believer in a purpose built winch bumper. ARB makes a nice one, and they probably have the widest range of applications out of any manufacturer. Compared with a standard winch mount, a good winch bumper will give some additional protection to the winch, and normally tuck it in lower, so it won't impede airflow to the radiator as much. And they usually look a lot better.

Winch type can go either way. I have a MileMarker hydraulic on my Jeep, and last I checked, they made a 12,000 pound model that may be suitable for your truck. This runs off your power steering pump, and is controlled by a couple of solenoid packs that send fluid to the winch motor when you toggle the winch control. It works well, and probably has the best sustained pulling ability of any consumer level winch, but they are SLOW, and share the major flaw of any engine driven (hydraulic or PTO) winch. If the engine is dead, you will NOT be operating the winch. With an electric winch, even if the engine is dead, you can run off the battery for a short period of time, which may be enough to get you far enough out of trouble to either work on getting the rig started again, or at least to relative safety while you make other recovery arrangements (for example, out of the middle of the creek where you sucked water into your intake). Most people opt for the electric winch, which seems to have the fewest negatives for most uses. People who do a lot of winching with an electric will often upgrade to a dual battery system and a high output alternator.

If you want some unsolicited advice beyond winches, air and bumpers, I would recommend buying a Pull-Pal, and as much extra recovery gear as you can practically carry. On my Jeep, I ALWAYS have a high lift jack, 10' strap, 20' strap, snatch block, extra shackles, jack-mate, and 10 feet of 3/8" transport chain. I was once in a situation where I used all 100' of my winch cable (minus the minimum wraps that need to be on the drum for safe use), both straps, and about 6' of my 10' chain. That is just the stuff that is always on the Jeep, for everyday driving. When I am going to be someplace where I might actually get stuck, I will load up the pull-pal, an 80' extension cable, and sometimes another 20' of 5/16" transport chain. It's pretty rare that any of that stuff is actually necessary, but the one time it is makes it worth lugging around.

[blackeagle603]

+1 to the ARB and Jack-mate recommendations.

As for winch capacity I like to have a snatch blockor two in my kit 'just in case' to help with angles and double winch power as needed. Don't currently have a vehicle with a winch though I have two 4x4's.

I'm no expert but the Warn/Ramsey debate smacks just a little of the blue vs red reloading press debate. Sent last winch (a Ramsey) down to my oldest brother who lives in rural Bolivia. Seems to like it as much as he liked his Warns. All his winches end up getting motors rewound repeatedly. They see heavy use in siltly rivers. When I was down there he'd just smoked his old Warn (again). He'd purposely sunk his Landcruiser p/u in to the axles on their river ford pullout and winched a friends ~'63 Dodge 2 ton dump over 100' out the river. They have a cable bridge that can handle a Samurai size vehicle. Larger vehicles and tractors have to cross a 150' ford to their mission farm/conference center.

[Rumpshot]

A local guy, Stu, that plays around rock crawling and playing other off-road games with his jeep has a website you might want to browse.

I know it is for JEEPS not full sized trucks, but the principles are the same and lots of resources.

I met Stu at my last Appleseed in Buckeye a couple weeks ago. Good Guy.

[Netpackrat]

A local guy, Stu, that plays around rock crawling and playing other off-road games with his jeep has a website you might want to browse.

I think I remember him from my usenet days on rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys.

[Windy Wilson]

I always wondered how to calculate how much winch power I would need. I have a 1970 Ford F-100 half ton truck and when I get more pressing things done I'd like to get a winch.
What specific brands and models do people have first hand experience with? The advertising will give me specs, but real-world experience is likely different.

[HTRN]

First, I would recommend either a Hyd, or a PTO winch, for the simple fact of it not totally depleting the batteries. As long as the engine is running, you can use it.

2)Onboard air - It depends on how much you want - alot - think belt driven York compressor(about a grand), with a pair of frame mounted tanks. Step down from that, and you're talking a Ready air, probably mounted underhood, with a small(under 5 gallon) tank. Step down from that, and you're talking the better quality. Another option is a 5lb CO2 bottle and a reg. Cheap and easy to set up, but it does take up space. The Jeepers seem quite fond of them, because they can put on tire racks.

3)Welding: Again, they're are multiple options. One is a "burgler bottle" setup, that gives you both welding and cutting, can be used anywhere(it's man portable), and doesn't require you to alter your vehicle. Then there's what you mentioned: the modified alternator welder. You can either make your own. The companies making them aren't cheap - Premiers models start at just under a thousand and go up from there. Premier makes another product that may suit you: the Readywelder. A 12v spoolgun that supposedly can use gas. Much cheaper than the alternators at just over 500 bucks, and best of all, if you do go with gas(say, a 14oz Paintball cylinder), you won't have the problems of welding rod, which only get amplified stored in a truck cab(The flux on weld rod is hydroscopic, which causes it to decay, giving bad welds. The best way to store it in a truck is to make a "safe" out of 2 inch PVC, and put silica paks inside to absorb moisture).


HTRN

[Netpackrat]

The Premier Power Welder has been around for a long time, and is a proven system, but I think if I were buying an on board arc welder I would go with the Mobi-Arc unit. It will work with your stock alternator, or any brand of high output alternator, and is all solid state. I don't think the PPW is solid state, and you have to use their alternator. It does have the advantage of a 120v outlet, although earlier versions of the Mobi unit also did, and I think they still offer it as an add-on box. Either of them is kind of limited in usefulness though, because they will fry a lot of newer power tools with variable speed controls. I'd rather carry air tools for use with a York setup like Kilby offers.

It shouldn't be an issue for Chris' monster truck, but a big obstacle in adding on board air to smaller rigs like my Jeep is where to mount the tank. Lots of people build or buy a bumper made of sealed structural steel tubing, with air fittings added, and use that for their tank. I probably would have installed an OBA system a long time ago, if not for that obstacle as well as the cost.

[Aglifter]

This is half-remembered from the Land Rovers -- but I believe the recommendation was that your winch have the ability to pull your rig straight up... A) Land Rover's, at least the Series ones, are fairly light B) These guys were pretty serious about their off road use but C) the suction from getting stuck in mud, etc can put a pretty serious load on the winch...

They also replaced the frame rails w. air tanks.

[Netpackrat]

I think the usual winch recommendation is to get one rated for 1.5-2 times the loaded weight of your vehicle. Jeep winches start at about an 8000 pound load rating. My 10,500 pound hydraulic is overkill, and would probably be better suited for a 1/2 ton pickup truck or SUV. But it sure works well on the Jeep, just slow. It's definitely a lot faster than having no winch.