Electric Winches vs Hydraulic Winches

And then there are Hydraulic Winches, which are a totally different animal all together.

http://www.4x4winches.com/

RELIABILITY may seem a pretty boring attribute, especially when applied to Motor sport, in the same way that “Safety” used to be considered. Well the H12-2speed is reliable and because it provides inexhaustible power, that 200 metre bog hole will be child’s play, instead of a nightmare.

A CAR BATTERY is designed to provide a lot of power for just a few seconds, i.e. to crank an engine, or a few amps power for a much longer period, whilst being recharged from an alternator. Electric winches require extreme levels of power 150-400amps (2 - 4 kW) for a long period of time and there lies the weakness. Hydraulic systems, on the other hand, are designed to provide enormous amounts of power for an indefinite period and there lies the H12’s strength.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF HYDRAULICS they are really simple systems, indeed the concept goes back many centuries. The H12 works because it is based upon principles used every minute of every day, from the little tough Mini-Diggers, to the largest piece of earth moving machinery, working relentlessly in the most extreme conditions imaginable.

WE LIVE IN A "DISPOSABLE" SOCIETY, well maybe? But instead of buying another electric winch next year, or a pile of spare parts this year, why not buy an H12 now. Then get some of those awesome new Mud Terrain tyres, or the diff-lockers you always wanted, with the money you have saved?

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A WINCH, by switching from electric to hydraulic, you will be ridding yourself of what is statistically the most unreliable 4x4 accessory available and changing to one at the top of the reliability charts.

THERE ARE SOME SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUES TOO. Concentration is an important factor when using a winch and anything that distracts the operator from the task of winching is a clear and present danger. If the winch doesn't stop when you release the button, if you are constantly wondering whether the winch is sustaining damage by overheating, or if you are worried about using lights or wipers because it will further flatten the battery, these will all effect your ability to use the winch safely

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Electric v Hydraulic Rivalry 1. There is, here in the UK, a great deal of rivalry between fans of Milemarker winches and those who favour the more tranditional electric winches. Milemarker owners have always claimed high reliability, with no possible danger of system or vehicle electrics burn out. But stories were beginning to circulate, mostly emanating for the USA, about the possible dangers of burning up your steering pump with a Milemarker, instead of just flattening your battery. So we thought that by going completely "over the top" with our winching marathon, we could simply ask the question..................... "How much further do you want to winch?"

Previous Winch Test 2. Six months ago we were invited by Tom McGuigan and Tony Pritchard of 4x4 Mart magazine to put our Milemarker winch up against the best electric winches from Warn, Ramsey and Superwinch and take part in the UK's first ever independent "Winch Evaluation" at "Weston Park" in Shropshire England. Not surprisingly the Milemarker full-pulled everything and the others didn't. But with a maximum line pull of less than half the winch's capacity and just a single, short 15 metre pull, this wasn't much of a test.
Cheap Publicity 3. Milemarker was not that well know at the time and thanks to a well know off-road magazine, many people thought our winches were battery powered. So we wanted to show that an impossible task for a battery powered winch, was achievable with the right equipment.

The Venue...... The marathon was planned to run on a military vehicle training site (near Stone Henge), come rain or shine and not surprisingly it rained ....all day. We chose a hill steeper and twice as long as the most demanding used at "Weston Park", an expedition prepared Land Rover 110 weighing in at just under 3 tons and a neutral, UK 4x4 magazine editor, to umpire. Bob Cook from "Off-road & 4WD", Dave Heard and his son Ashley all stood patiently in the pouring rain as the MileMarker effortlessly pulled the big 110 up and down the 32 yard slope 55 times. The sun went down just over half way through our winch-a-thon, so last two hours took place in the dark with the Land Rover itself provided the lighting.

The Cost...... After around 7 hours of powering up and down the steep slope non-stop, the only damage was a slightly frayed wire rope, a sore thumb and two pairs of sore leg muscles. The pump and motor ran at a fairly constant temperature (just touch hot) throughout and we could have easily carried on for another mile or two, since on tick-over, the 3.5 litre V8 had only used a couple of gallons.

Disturbance...... We were in the middle of "Sidbury Hill Military Vehicle Test Site" without official permission and until we put the headlights on, only a couple of kids, who had happened upon us, actually knew we were there. The winch is silent, the big V8 was just running on tick-over and the loudest noise was the creaking of the straining wire rope. When we left the site, the steep slope we had been up and down so many times was merely compacted, with no deep ruts. The "tread lightly" attributes of a winch that can pull unassisted, should not be understated, after all just two of three "drive-assist" pulls with a lesser winch and the 110 would have been axle deep in mud, in such wet conditions.

The Challenge We challenge any of our battery powered competitors or winch owner to a similar tough test, or a competition. We reckon that no battery powered winch could have even completed one pull of this marathon without overheating. Indeed at "Billing" (Europe's largest Off-road show) last year, we all saw an electric winch burn out, pulling a Land Rover 90 just a few yards on flat ground, because it hadn't been allowed to cool down properly. Goodness me! If there are any sceptics out there, we will repeat our test, for a small fee and please on a sunny day.
 

Hydraulic v Electric At the end of the day the comparison is simple, the MileMarker draws around 2 horsepower from your engine and an electric winch draws 4kW from your battery, so one is easily sustainable and one isn't.

QA

Question
I have heard that although electric winches burn out their electric motors, solenoids, wiring, vehicle wiring and in some cases batteries, Milemarker winches burn out the vehicle's steering pump instead. Admittedly I have heard this from electric winch suppliers, but is it true?
Answer
Well they would say that wouldn't they, but just think about it logically for a moment. An electric winch drawing 3 to 5 kilowatts from a battery is an incredibly heavily loaded system with a totally unsustainable power source. It is generating a massive amount of heat which cannot easily be dissipated, so some sort of overheating is inevitable. If you then take the example of a Land Rover power steering pump, during rough off-road driving the shock loading on the power steering system is quite high and the fluid can and does get hot, mainly due to intermittent pump overload. However the heat can easily be dissipated through the circulating fluid and it rarely causes a problem. If this power steering pump is driving a Milemarker winch motor, there is no shock loading, because the pull may be hard but it is steady and pump overloading occurs only once at the most. Therefore the heat generated by the winch is even lower than during off-road driving. In some cases where we know the winch is powered from a high flow pump and it is going to be working all day long we recommend that a small oil cooler is fitted. If you read our "Winch-a-Mile" page, this test backs up our answer. Indeed the reason we ran the Winch-a-Mile was to try to disprove what we believed to be a bogus test carried out in the USA a short while before. This American test is, we believe, the main source of this rumour, as I hear it wherever I go, but no one knows when it has actually ever happened.


Question
Are your hydraulic systems easy to fit?
Answer
We have designed our kits to be just that. If can use a spanner, screwdriver and drill a couple of holes, then you can install one of our winch kits. One advantage with a hydraulic system is that if you get a poor joint you get a small oil leak which is easily detected. A bad electrical connection will get hot, but the system runs so hot normally it is often hard to notice and may result in a fire.

Question
A car tyre when it blows out can be quite dramatic and even dangerous and it is only pressurised to 2bar (30psi). A hydraulic winch operates at up to 100bar (1450psi) and with 50 times the pressure isn't this a major hazard.
Answer
No, not at all. The crucial factor is that a hydraulic system has no stored energy, since the hydraulic fluid is not and cannot be compressed. So the much higher pressure that the winch generates is almost irrelevant. It should not be confused with a compressed air system, where the air is greatly COMPRESSED. When such a system suffers a rupture this considerable energy is quickly released often with quite violent results.