Feeling The Winch: Should You Choose An Electric Or Hydraulic Winch For Recovering Off-Road Vehicles?
Posted on: 28 April 2017
If you have any experience with off-road driving, you are probably already bitterly aware of how vital a winch can be when your vehicle becomes irrevocably stuck. As such, any responsible off-road driver should ensure that they have a strong, reliable winch with them at all times, and that the winch they choose is capable of pulling their vehicle out of the most intractable jams.
However, choosing the right winch for recovering your vehicle can be more difficult than it first appears, with a wide variety of makes, models and configurations to choose from. One particularly important choice you will have to make is whether to opt for an electric or hydraulic winch -- both of these winch types have attractive advantages and less attractive disadvantages, so make sure the winch type you choose is suitable for your particularly style of off-roading before you commit to purchasing it.
What are the advantages of choosing an electric winch?
- Price: Electric winches are generally much less expensive than hydraulic models, and do not require peripheral devices (such as fluid hoses and connectors) which can further increase the cost of hydraulic models.
- Ease of installation: Electric winches do not require complicated tools or machinery to install, and can even be switched between vehicles while out in the field. Since they run directly off of the battery of the vehicle they are mounted on, hooking them up to a suitable power supply is very simple.
- Ease of use: Most electric winches are very simple to operate, allowing inexperienced off-roaders to recover their vehicles without extensive experience or training.
What are the disadvantages of choosing an electric winch?
- Limited power: Even the most powerful electric winches are no match for robust hydraulic winches in terms of pulling power. As such, they should not be relied upon for recovering very large vehicles, and you may find cheaper electric winches under-powered if pulling a vehicle out of a ditch or other deep obstacle.
- Heat buildup: Electric winches tend to generate a lot of heat during operation, and feature a cut-off switch that cuts all power to the winch if temperatures become too high. This makes them unsuitable for extended winching operations, leading to frequent pauses while you wait for the winch to cool.
What are the advantages of choosing a hydraulic winch?
- Raw power: Even compact, man-portable hydraulic winches are enormously powerful pieces of machinery, and a hydraulic winch can be relied upon to pull the largest vehicles out of the largest holes effectively.
- Durability: To handle this amount of power hydraulic winches are built very strongly, which makes them extremely durable and long-lived compared to many electric models -- perfect qualities for longer off-road journeys.
- Self-contained power supply: Hydraulic winches are powered by dedicated hydraulic pumps, and do not rely on the vehicle they are mounted on to produce power. The are subsequently ideal for recovering broken-down vehicles with no battery power to draw from.
What are the disadvantages of choosing a hydraulic winch?
- Heavy and bulky: The increased bulk of a hydraulic winch compared to an electric winch means they are both heavier and more difficult to carry as cargo. Hydraulic pumps and other necessary peripherals will also have to be transported.
- Difficult to install: Hydraulic winches are more complicated to install than electric models, especially when you take installation of the associated pump into account.
