I live in a area with a lot of wild life, I have installed a bumper that will mount a winch, does anyone have an idea which brand I should purchase.

 

I forgot to say that I have a 1994 extended cab 4x4 Ranger with the 4.0 V6 engine.

 

Personally, I like Warn or Mile-Marker

On a Ranger I would want a 6,000 to 8,000 lbs winch. The weight of the bumper and winch will probably lower the front of your Ranger a couple inches.


Now, in all my years of off-roading, trail running, mudding, snow, deep water crossing and any other situation you can think of getting stuck.
My front mounted winch was useless, I didn't need pulled deeper into what ever got me stuck, I needed pulled backwards, Thankfully the guy behind me had a front mounted winch.
My winch got a lot of use, but it never got me out of a bad situation, It was always someone else that got me out.

If you put a winch on your truck, DO NOT think "I'll try it, if I get stuck, i can just pull myself out"

 

I have never been stuck in my Ranger I just thought I could help other people when they get stuck. The last year I have been working on my daughter-in-laws jeep which has a winch which I have used quite a bit. This spring I will be giving her jeep back to her so I thought a winch would be good.

 

 

Very nice winch bumper, I purchased mine from affordable offroad which I had a powder coated paint job put on. Probably this spring I will be installing a multi connector for my battery then installing a nice 8 to 10 thousand pound winch.

 

upgrade ours toys is like a drug.

 

One thing to remember about winches is the cable wraps on the drum
A winch's rated power is with NO WRAPS of cable, just its drum diameter pulling the cable around the first wrap
At the second layer/wrap of cable the diameter is now larger so less pulling power, 8-10% less pulling power
5 layers can be 50% less than rated power

So................don't use a long cable on a winch, 3 wraps
A wider drum can hold more cable without losing pulling power as fast

Carry straps and extra cable in the truck not on the winch drum, lol


If you just need a short pull to get unstuck, pull out all the cable and wrap or ??? to get best pulling power from the winch

 

Thanks for the advice on using a winch, I have two ATV's with winches and have had to use them a lot for moving large and heavy rocks and downing trees. Having a winch on my Ranger will save my ATV winches which I need to replace the cables.

 

I almost forgot to add that I have used winches quite alot on C130"s and C141's when I was in the military.

 

I just got a 9500lb stegodon one. I was gonna get an xbull but from the reviews it sounded like their quality control wasn’t very good. But the winch won’t be here for like a week so hopefully their good.