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 First Four Off Road First Four 7 The Laurels Flightway Business Park Dunkeswell Honiton Devon, EX14 4RS England
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ZF74 Steering Pump
For High Pressure Ram Systems
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Ladoga
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Military Users
Commercial Users
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WINCH-A-MILEA winching marathon ..........why? .......three reasons:
2. Previous Winch TestSix 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.3. Cheap PublicityMilemarker 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 e ffortlessly 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 ChallengeWe 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 ElectricAt 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.
Vehicle supplied by - Ian Middleton (+44 1425 277294) |
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© 2010 First Four Off Road. All Rights Reserved. |
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