A friend of mine and I are in the midst of a massive VW recovery operation. We are saving approximately 25 air-cooled VW Beetles and Busses from the crusher. The problem is that some of these vehicles either have seized drums from sitting for so long, perhaps a seized transaxle, or could be missing a wheel or two. I have the task of loading these vehicles onto my 18' trailer, and for now have been using a 2-ton come-a-long and two long chains to drag these vehicles onto the trailer. The problem is that the come-a-long is quite a bit of work, not to mention the amount of force I am exerting on it during winching. I've already snapped one pin that the pulley rides and another pin looks like it is getting ready to pop. I have also bent the reversing pin that pops the release when I want to remove tension and back it down. As you can imagine with the issues I'm having with Beetles, a Bus is going to be much worse, as they weigh upwards of 2,300lbs.

So, I want to get a winch for my trailer. I need something strong enough that will pull one of those bad boys right up onto the trailer. I need torque, not speed. Also, I fully intend on securing the winch permanently to the trailer and can run a secondary battery off of the truck to power it if needed.

So, who can recommend a good winch. Let me come straight out and say that I will NOT CONSIDER A CHICAGO ELECTRIC POS from Harbor Freight. Warranty or not, Chicago Electric is SHIAT and I won't waste a dime on it.

Thanks, people.

 

I havea Warn 9000XDI on my 2000 Ram. It is electric (12V) with 125 foot of cable.

I have used it in self recovery operations on my truck, skidded logs out of woods both up and down hill while getting fire wood, and recovered a loaded F550...pulled it uphill out of a ditch.

I think youshould be able to pull VWs with it.

 

Cool. Just have to remember that they don't always roll free.

 

Those cars at that weight is nothing for a 9000 lb winch. I set my rear parking brake on my truck to respool my winch line and it drags the truck just fine. A car that size will be cake. With what you'll use it for (non life saving) most 9000 lb winches should be up to the task. I have a Tabor and like it.