Going to add a winch after my latest crazy ass outing. Local water management district lowered the water level at my hunting spot by 6" during a 2 day backcountry hunting/camping trip.

Turns out 6" became 12" . Had a couple of sandbars (2-4") of water. Boat was getting stuck all over the place.

My boat loaded is about 1600#. I was thinking about the viper winch. 2000# with synthetic rope.

Any ideas ?

Thank you.

I would at least do a #3000

I highly doubt a 2000lb winch will pull a 1600lb boat across sand. I would go as bi as you possibly can go. Warn VR series are a really cheap winc but the smallest one they have is 8k if I'm not mistaken. And there only like $400 or $500. But that might be a little too much!!


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No such thing as too much, I have a 6000# pull on my tin can.

They had some good deals on superwinch at amazon a few months back on 4500 with rope for less then 300 shipped

Anyone use a Lewis Winch with a chain saw engine attached? It is portable. I think it is rated at 4000# and can double that with a snatch block. I have been looking at them and though pricey, look like it may be better than an electric winch.

My luck with cranking a 2 cycle engine is not good
Prolly end up using the 2 cycle gas to burn the whole set up after winch didn't crank

I'm putting a 3500 Warn on mine, just cant decide between vantage or pro vantage series or synthetic vs steel cable. Should have already done it, we sell 100+ every week at work.


Something that does make winching/pulling across sand is laying down small PVC pipe the width of the boat down every few feet. We jumped quite a few islands and sand bars like that last year when the place I hunt was low.

I have a super terra 35, it has pulled my boat across dry ground.

I went with super winch terra 35..... I liked the gearing in the 35 over the 30. Its the fastest pulling winch I found. And for the price was a no brainer. Amazon has some of the best deals I have seen on them.

sent from the former Republic of Texas.

Oh and go synthetic..... no need for steel rope that rusts and frays. ....

sent from the former Republic of Texas.

Rope no questions! Yes it will dry rot after a long time prolly faster on the cheap rope! I had it on my crawler and when I would get it wet I would just role it out and let it dry! Say do that and will last!! I don't want wire rope on a boat, I don't like buying waders and my look wire rope would cut my waders every time I used it!

Oh and the rope was ab 5 years old and was in good shape

I have the one woodsman is talking about. Hands down best way to winch your boat. I pull my boat about 130ft over dikes in a WMA and at mud runs I am the tow truck. You can do a lot of pulls on just the gas tank in the saw, and its so much faster than an electric set up, no extra battery, its the best, and its a beast. This link you can see it run, never opened it up, but you get the idea, it shows it running at 5:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43wv_Sjt-3U

Know some guys that had a 2500 lb electric and three guys pulling - hardly budged the 18x54. Said they're bringing a 3500 next time. I wouldn't go less than 4500.


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I picked up a CPE #4500 winch at tractor supply and it works great. Its only 17" long and weighs only 27lbs. Its gotten me out of numerous situations where the boat wasnt moving at all.

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Dont know about the tape, never used it. Sounds like it might be a great combo as long as it does not bind. The stock cable that they send is pretty thick, I spooled mine with smaller cable for more length. I was doing 130ft pulls over a dike the past few days, you made the right choice, it was clock work. I will have to look into that tape, what powerhead are you going to run?

I use an 066 mag, it's way more than enough saw, but I got a deal on a used one. I started with an old 60cc McCullogh and it did the job just fine. Had to use the bar mount though and I didn't like that. A lot of the guys at the WMA use a ms290 Stihl and that works just fine. I think they are around $300 new. Best set up is going to be direct drive mount (Stihl) and a ms290 or bigger.

These are former Gorilla winches that a bunch on here were using at one time. Damn good for the price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200962324015