Do You Really Need a Winch?

As many of you have noticed, I’ve spent the better part of the past year and a half driving around without a winch. In that time I’ve had numerous discussions, most of which start with “you’re an idiot” and and all which end with me replying “it’s cool bro I drive a Jeep, they don’t get stuck.”

Now in full disclosure I’ve finally wizened up a little bit (not much, but enough to know when to call a spade a spade) and have installed a winch on the Jeep. You’ll be able to read about it in a few weeks, but for now I’m going to let you know why it took this long and hopefully help you answer the age old questions of “do you really need a winch?”

Before I owned the Jeep I used to drive a 200 Series Land Cruiser, and that truck was a beast. It had power for days, comfortable leather seats, rear seat entertainment, beer stained carpet, and a headliner so soft you would wipe your ass with it. Although there was one major downside to the truck, all of those features came with a cost; weight. The best investment I ever made on the 200 Series was a Warn M12000 winch, and it pulled more weight than… well just use your imagination.

Fast forward to the spring of 2014, or as my Jeep brethren call it, “the day Alex became a Jeep bro saw the light.” My first impression of the JK was that I had made a grave mistake, then on my first trip out into the woods something magical happened. I walked every obstacle that used to get the 200 Series stuck in a stock Rubicon (in all fairness a stock Rubicon is easily the most capable factory built off road rig).

Then a few months later I joined the 35″ tire club and every time I hit the dirt, the Jeep just seemed to be unstoppable. VOT trails that had challenged me just a year prior only took one pass and when we hit even the hardest stuff, I was the only one not pulling cable.

Now let’s be realistic for a moment, a JKU Rubicon on 35″s will go damn near anywhere on the east cost without issue. So if you’re buddies are telling you to get a winch for hitting fire roads or general “overland” style travel, forget it. All that winch is going to do is make you buy a bumper to put it in, and add a lot of unnecessary weight on your front end. You’re really better off  spending your money on a good set of tires and investing in a traction aid like MaxTrax.

So why did I give in? As my good friend Mark pointed out, when I get stuck, I get stuck bad. On one of our trips to WV, I had finally run out of luck. The trail conditions were pretty soft that day, but I insisted on pushing forward, the next thing I know the Jeep is sunk down to the axles and my tires look like drag radials. Luckily for me, I always follow the most important rule of back country travel, don’t go alone, and Mark was there to pull me out with his trusty Tacoma.

So what’s the moral of the story/answer to the question? Well like everything else in life, it depends.

If every time you hit the trail you turn into Ben Jones Bobby Gordon at the Baja 1000 and you refuse to turn down a challenge when the trail get’s tough, you might want to buy a winch. The one time you really need it, you’ll be glad you spent the cash on it, and it could be the difference between driving home and spending the night.

If you spend the majority of your time exploring back country fire roads or travel with a friend with a winch, then you probably don’t need one. Please be aware though, winches are not like boats, the best winch is not the one your friend owns.

To sum it all up, I would probably live a year and a half without a winch if again if I had to do it over. Driving without a winch really made me think about my lines and my next moves. Not having a winch substantially reduced my risk tolerance, but then again I only had to be saved once (thanks Mark).