A few months ago my buddy Sean and I both purchased Warn VR10000 winches for our jeeps. I finally was able to use it twice this past week. While on the trail Tuesday, I broke out the winch for a 30ft or so uphill pull. I noticed the winch drew a bit hard on the battery. Later on the trail I had to pull myself and my buddy out of a nasty uphill muddy rut. My buddy's jeep at the beginning of the pull was situated in such a way that I had to drag him slightly sideways and uphill. The winch performed flawlessly. On Saturday we returned to the trail and found it to be a bit more difficult. Sean and I used our winches for much of the end of the trail. One pull ended up at around 80ft. Prior to that section, I found myself in a near impassable section of uphill, deeply rutted muddy trail. The winch pulled my jeep up and out without any issues. I would feel the winch after each pull and the winch never got anything more than warm. I'm completely satisfied with the VR series. It was priced cheaper than their other winches and at the time featured an $80 rebate. Unless you compete in time trial runs where winch speed is a big factor, this series is good for any off roader.
I spent a lot of time considering which winch to purchase and one of the things i spent a considerable amount of time researching was whether to purchase an 8000lb winch or a 10000lb. Off roading on any good, challenging trail can present you with situations where even the classic, reliable Warn M8000 can find itself pulling near capacity especially if you find yourself unable to pull straight on, if you are pulling uphill or if you happen to be dragging the vehicle where it may not be able to help out a bit. Considering all of the above, i decided i would want a winch that had some pulling power to spare and had enough of it that i wouldn't be coming close to the limits of its capacity.
Before I returned to the trail on Saturday, i decided to ditch the old battery that i had in the jeep and swap in a battery that could handle the rigors of the trail and the strain from the winch. Sean and i did a bunch of research and to my surprise it turned up a lot of negative remarks from Optima owners. My first choice would have been an yellow top battery, but given the negative reviews i decided to go with Diehard platinum which features better specs than the optima battery and good customer reviews. I noticed the difference on the trail as the battery recharged far quicker and handled the strain better than the older battery.
Below i've provided videos and pics of the winch in use.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/O5M8_3z0Gz8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/O5M8_3z0Gz8</a>]]><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AQbSBzEedDA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/AQbSBzEedDA</a>]]> So again, very satisfied with the winch. I figured it would be important to get the word out about this series as many ppl tend to regard winches as very expensive and therefor don't invest in them. On the other hand, some people dont want to take the risk with the cheaper brands as their reduced reliability could potentially leave you stranded with a $200-$400 dent in your pocket. At least with the VR, you get the affordability and the Warn reliability.
