Hand winch capacity

At no time (I hope) will you have the weight of your vehicle
suspended by your winch. The actual weight on the cable will
vary in accordance with the situation. With a hand winch of the
Tirfor or similar variety, I would suggest the limiting factor will be
the amount of human energy your team can bring to bear. I
doubt the capacity of the winch will be exceeded, providing
proper attachments are made..........oldbaz.

Hand winch capacities are based on their intended use as vertical lifting gear, hence the 1600 kg capacity.

You basically double that for a horizontal pull, put a few snatch blocks into the equation and the odds get even better.

" I hope to never get myself in that much trouble"

Well I did when on a lonely beach I got too close to a wash out and the troopy went forward, down and on her side....I thought I had lost her to the waves...but as luck would have it the tide was on its way out.

Out with the shovels and exhaust jack....a forward mounted winch was no use to me at all buried in the sand ( she was nose down...rear up...about 4 feet up in the air.

At this point I was wishing I had a tirfor as I could of held her to prevent her from going completely over on her side.

It took many hours of careful digging, jacking to get her level and more digging to be able to have a ramp to drive her out which was a great relief to be able to do....like the Pope....I kissed the ground when she was finally free.

I immediately, on my return to civilization, when to my nearest opposite lock store and bought a tirfor which is now part of my recovery gear and I never go anywhere without it.

My father explained this to me as, you will only have to pull the rolling resistance of the vehicle. That is most of the weight is going down through the tyres and even pulling against the worst obstacles you will not have to pull the entire dead weight of the vehicle. Dad was in charge of a recovery platoon in the Royal Australian Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (RAEME)
Stuart.

Thanks for the feedback all you guys. Not completely sure that answers my question. Yes the weight of the vehicle when bogged in mud with the suction effect etc could exceed the dead weight of the vehicle. That is why I am asking if the capacity of the hand winch rated at about 2400kg would be enough. I am fit and prepared to use the Tirfor or whatever. I built a pole home some years ago using a Tirfor to lift the poles some up to 11 metres in length so I know what work is involved. The thing is I don't have a roo bar mounted unit and can't justify buying a whole new roo bar and winch. The hand winch I hope never to have to use but if I do need it then I would like to feel that I would have half a chance to recover the old Nissan.