I just recently purchased a 98 Ram Sport 4x4. I literally live on a mountain in Eastern KY and this is my daily driver but I do go off-road quite often. I got stuck in a tire rut on a trail last month and since then picked up a set of gently used 33x12.5x15's. And yesterday I found myself stuck again. I haul and use my bed frequently and lifting my truck isn't pratical. My only thought is to get a winch. My stock bumper is bent anyways so I wanted to get a bumper with a winch set-up for me to put a winch in down the road. And budget is very tight any suggestions?

Updated for spelling - thank you hey you!

 

I usually go to the pub to find a wench.

If you look on Ebay, they have Winches rated at 12K plus, for under three hundred bucks, reviews seem to be pretty good. Pick up a remote mount for it, and a front receiver hitch. That way, properly wired, you can use the winch to pull you out in either direction. (you don't always wanna go deeper into the hole.......)

 

Smittybuilt makes great quality winches in the 250-500 dollar range.

 

Tires are the single biggest thing I see why people get stuck, after that, open differentials. I see stuck 4x4s with open diffs and stock, big *** wheeled, rubber band looking, good for either the strip or cruising the junior highs for chicks tires being pulled out by good 'ol south Georgia farm boys all the time with their lifted, 4x2, locked rear end, farm work trucks running on cheap, black, steel 15" wheels and an aggressive tread with decent sidewall height.

As far as a winch goes, with all these cheap Chinese made winches flooding the market, there's really no reason not to have one anymore, although if it were me, I'd be looking for a used Warn in my budget, but that's me.
I have a fishin' buddy who bought an 8000# Smittybuilt (Chinese made) winch for $299 about a year and a half ago. He's blown the solenoid packs twice now and Smitty has sent him new ones both time, free, no questions asked - but it still don't help if goes down while you are stuck. As a rule, the Chinese winches are slower than American made ones and tend to have more plastic parts, and I read in an off-road magazine where they ALL come out of one of two factories in China no matter what brand is on them, so if going Chinese, find you the best deal and don't pay attention too much if it says Smittybuilt, Harbor Freight, Recon, or whatever on it.

I have two Warns on my vehicles and one on my ATV, my oldest one is going on eight years old, has been worked a lot when I was clearing trees all around my pond up at the farm and it still pulls like the day I took it out of the box.
My old man is still running the Warn 8274 he bought USED in the early '80s when I was in junior high. It's now on truck #4 of his.

Get a Warn, even used if you can find one/afford it, but even a cheap Chinese winch beats being stuck and having no winch. You may also want to price the new Warn VR series, still made in Oregon, same lifetime warranty, but made to better compete with the imports on price...

 

Do you go with friends? Way more fun and that way you have a recovery unit instead of shelling out a few hundred bucks for a winch. My .02 cents. Depending on where you live though, a winch bumper would be practical in your situation.

 

Harbor Freight has some sweet low cost winches. As soon as I get some extra cash lying around I'll have Thuren fab me up one of these bad boys.

 

Get skinny agressive tread tire and be done with it.

 

done at least until you come across some deep sand....

 

Very true but how often will he be seeing sand in the mountains of Kentucky? or anywhere in Kentucky

 

No clue.