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The Big Book of Buyers Guides

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BUYER'S GUIDE WHEN IT COMES TIME TO O PULL OUT THE WINCH CABLE YOU WANT TO BE RUNNING ONE OF THE BIG DAWGS By Bruce W. Smith W hen you work in the construction world you never know when the winch on your pickup is going to be called upon to save the day. On one outing it could be used to pull a high-centered skid steer back to solid ground or winching a broken-down front-end loader up on the trailer to be towed back to the shop. The next day it's freeing your own pickup buried in the sand or sliding a blow-down off the road on the way to a remote jobsite. The need for a heavy-duty winch – one capable of pulling a loaded diesel 4x4 crew cab up a bank as easily as it can roll piece of equipment onto a trailer or slide boulders or trees out of the way – is a must-have tool for the professional contractors who work every day outdoors. 40 PROPICKUP Buyer's Guide 2012 To choose the right winch for heavy-duty use boils down to knowing a couple of simple items: 1) the weight of your pickup, and 2) the type of winching needs. "Selecting a winch isn't just a case of considering the vehicle weight. The contractor has to consider how a winch works and the forces involved in extracting a stuck vehicle or piece of equipment," says Jeff Bimson, CEO of Warrior Winches. "A general guide for those who actually use their winches on the job is to take the curb weight, add 50 percent [the effect of being stuck] and then multiply by two. This will give you a guide to the winch capacity required to be an effective tool in the field." So if a 4x4 crew-cab diesel has a curb weight of 6,500 pounds, adding 50 percent and doubling that number equates to 19,500

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