[ihc] Warn and Ramsey Winches No comments about Ferris wenches!

[John Hofstetter <hofs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 12/21/03 5:18 PM, Peter Ferris at binder@domain.elided wrote:

> John: Around here (OK) we like Ramsey Winch (betcha can you guess why...
> Where are they manufactured?! %^)). But I certainly *DO* respect Warn!  I'd
> settle for either one. I'll have to check around and see if I can find a
> side-by-side comparison of the two brands.  I doubt one is clearly head and
> shoulders better than the other. Likely one exceeds the other in one spec or
> another, and come out more or less equal overall. I could be wrong and oft
> am. Probably over the years, Petersen's "4 Wheel & Offroad" has probably had
> such a write up. Ah well, I don't have the ca$h for one anyhow. Me? I'm
> married but winchless...
> 
> Enjoy what's left of the weekend...
> 
> --Pete

Pete, 

Ramsey has made good winches for many years. I had a PTO Ramsey on my first,
or was it my second?, 800 back in the 60's.

However, they also sold a lot of low priced winches whose motors weren't
series wound, and those winches burnt out all too frequently. Three
different times in Surprise Canyon, Ramsey winches on vehicles traveling
with us started to smoke and burned themselves into oblivion.

In a situation such as I described with the quartz boulder, a non-series
wound Ramsey would have rather quickly given up the ghost.

On the other hand, the well made Ramsey on my son's Jeep has held it
suspended in the air, defying gravity, on ascents quite a number of times.

To the best of my knowledge, Warn never made a winch so subject to burnout.
I've owned a bunch, and never had a bad one. Kind of funny, but we own three
vehicles and all three have Warn winches mounted on them.

Glad you made progress on your lights.

John