Posted by Harris Neil on December 05, 1998 at 22:45:56:
In Reply to: Re: ELECTRIC WINCH? posted by Jim Pace on December 05, 1998 at 20:35:16:
Jim,
Having owned both, here are my 2 cents worth (I'll mail you your change):
The electric winch is designed for "intermittent use". This means loaded winding for no more than about 10 or twelve seconds. This is because of the tremendous heat generated by the motor. To discover this fact, you have to either read the fine print, or burn up a winch, and try to get warranty service, at which point the company will help you find the fine print. Oddly enough, the advertisements make no mention of this fact. The PTO on the other hand will run all day. It doesn't care. The PTO has been replaced by electrics in non-commercial applications because of the reasons Jim mentioned, and more specifically, because each truck model required a different drive shaft arrangement. Commercial use continues to favor PTO, and probably always will. Almost every wrecker uses a PTO winch, and that makes sense, since they are lifting more than pulling usually, and using a winch many times a day, not a couple of times a year.
However, since you have a truck for which PTO winches are readily available, get one. Even if you only use your winch once, the extra peace of mind will be worth the cost. After all, if you've got a six thousand pound truck stuck, do you want a ten HP electric motor, or 100 HP gasoline engine powering your recovery effort. If you buy the electric, the wrecker operator you have to call will have the PTO, and you will pay for it, but he'll get to keep it once your out.
Harris