THOMAS ELECTRIC WINCHES

They used to be readily available but i haven't seen one for a while.

From what I remember they had a pretty good name but something is whispering in my ear that they were a bit heavy.

There was one fitted to my GQ when I looked at it but the seller wanted to keep it, drat, drat and double drat. He was very impressed with it, obviously.

My concern would be spare parts.

Duncs

We've used the old Thomas electric winches extensively in the power industry. They are a solid unit that were extremely reliable. I don't ever remember one breaking down despite plenty of debogging & cable hauling. They are fairly heavy over the front end so an 80 would need a spring upgrade to carry it. The only problem they had was the dog clutch could vibrate out a little & jump out under load. Easily fixed with a simple locking pin. Some of them have a slot at the front where a hand crank can be used if the batteries were flat. Very slow but could get you out of trouble. Certainly not the fastest winch by todays standards but the worm drive is reliable & needs little maintenance. Haven't seen a new Thomas winch for ages but the Powerauto winch is very similar so they may have been bought out. They fit a full 50m roll of wire on too unlike many of the lowmounts.
Cheers Craig.........
Ramsey 9500lb low mount.

I had one for over twenty years, very reliable, slower than most of the competitors, but pull better than most, some have a hand crank facility for when the battery is flat.
I sold it with the last troopy ;-))
Parts shouldn't be a problem as they are still sold under the Powerauto name and all parts made in Oz. Never needed any bits for mine anyway.

I have one to give away, it does need a new motor. Came off a 47 Series and the mounting cradle is with it.

My Dad has a 8000lb Very slow 6 mins to wind in 30m of cable but is almost impossible to stall My opinion is its far to heavy to put on a LC 80 you need two people to lift it other than that they are Bullet proof !

BJ,

Have one here that was on a 75 series. Worked well, but had some problems when it stopped. Auto electrician reckeoned they had a "poxy" (his words) brush system, which made them a bit ordinary. The time it stopped, it had got the vehicle out of the bog, before spitting the dummy.

Don't use winches anymore, when it rains, just park the vehicles, and work in the shed......or watch a DVD.

Hooroo...