Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hi all

Is there a minimum size winch for the weight of our Patrols?

Someone mentioned as if it seems i have a smallish winch fitted but i can't tell what is smallish. Its all fitted behind the front bumper.

Made me wonder what should be the minimum size winch for a Patrol.

The manufacturer's little guulty secret with regard to winches is this:
The rating on a typical winch is given as how much weight in pounds a winch can drag across a concrete floor.

Thus, an 8000lb winch can drag 8000lb of weight horisontally. 8000lb is 3571kg. The friction coefficient of the test setup is supposed to be 0.3. Thus, an 8000lb winch can lift just a little more than 1 ton. Also, that test is done on the first winding of the drum. Add more windings and the force it can exert comes down. The difference between a full drum and an empty drum is significant.

One can of course compensate by using snatch blocks, but if the anchor is far away that might cause you to run out of rope, and of course it halves the pull speed.

If I were to buy a winch for a Patrol, I would not buy smaller than 12 000lb. But if I already had a winch (or if some kind soul donated one to me) I would just carry more extension straps and snatch blocks.

Peter Connan wrote: ↑04 Jan 2021 16:33 The manufacturer's little guulty secret with regard to winches is this:
The rating on a typical winch is given as how much weight in pounds a winch can drag across a concrete floor.

Thus, an 8000lb winch can drag 8000lb of weight horisontally. 8000lb is 3571kg. The friction coefficient of the test setup is supposed to be 0.3. Thus, an 8000lb winch can lift just a little more than 1 ton. Also, that test is done on the first winding of the drum. Add more windings and the force it can exert comes down. The difference between a full drum and an empty drum is significant.

One can of course compensate by using snatch blocks, but if the anchor is far away that might cause you to run out of rope, and of course it halves the pull speed.

If I were to buy a winch for a Patrol, I would not buy smaller than 12 000lb. But if I already had a winch (or if some kind soul donated one to me) I would just carry more extension straps and snatch blocks.

thanks Peter. Now i need to figure out some how the actual size of the winch fitted. Depending on this i should look into investing in some snatch blocks if needed.

My een safari het n warn m8000. Hy is ietwat lig, so ek double maar gewoontlik up.

Vir my ander safari bakkie het ek nou die dag n 12000 gekoop, wat maar selfde motor in het as die 9000, dit het net n stadiger reduction box in. (Nog nie gefit nie, so weet nog nie hoe dit werk nie)

I have an 8500lbs tjm winch. It has never struggled to pull me (or others) out of trouble. I've used it literally hundreds of times... I get stuck a lot...

After doing some research i have decided that whatever the size of my winch i am going to invest in a snatch block.

Having the additional assistance cannot be that bad and they are fairly priced.

I invested in a snatch block before I invested in a winch.

10 years later I still don't have the winch, but the snatch block has been used several times...

Peter Connan wrote: ↑08 Jan 2021 11:52 I invested in a snatch block before I invested in a winch.

10 years later I still don't have the winch, but the snatch block has been used several times...

Peter this might be a stupid question but if you don't have a winch what and how do you use the snatch block?

Pete, being an engineer, in the presence of a recovery, would most likely have er'd on the side of caution, and offered his snatch block to be used.

So there's an argument on at 4x4 community at the moment. This oke recons if you are using a snatch block, jou should be attaching the end of the line (the one with the hook on) to a tree or a third vehicle.

His argument is that you are then reducing the load being put into the chassis of the vehicle.

I haven't said it there, but my opinion is that while that is potentially possible, most of the time it won't. It takes a certain amount of force to get the vehicle un-stuck. What you are doing with a snatch block most of the time is just spreading the load to two points, and halving the speed of the operation, thus giving yourself more control and probably increasing the life of the rope or cable.

Because in 99% of cases, I think it doesn't actually take that much force to get a vehicle un-stuck. Sure, there are cases where it does take a lot of force, but even then, I would rather spread the load.
But maybe he drives something with a spaghetti chassis.

So yes, Russ is correct, my snatch block typically gets used to help other guys with winch recoveries.
On one occasion though, we used it to winch my car from the side, from a direction where it was impossible to get a vehicle, but where there was a good anchor point.