Re: how big of a winch do i need?
Winch ratings are very misleading. They give you the “capacity” of the unit but don’t give you the amount of “input” (your shoulder) required to produce that capacity so the question comes down to how shoulder do you want to put in it?
When comparing winches, divide the stated capacity by the gear ratio then multiply by the load correction factor(actual load/winch capacity). This will give you a idea of how much shoulder you’ll need to put into it.
Here are some examples from the Iboats website.
1800/5 = 360 x 1 = 360
2000/4 = 500 x 0.9 = 450
2000/9.8 = 204 x 0.9 = 183
2600/12.1 = 214 x 0.7 = 150
The #2600 unit will require less half as much shoulder to produce the same pull as the #1800 unit.
