I finally spent the money on a $700 winch for my dredge and it paid off in one afternoon. | Dredge Operators - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
I finally spent the money on a $700 winch for my dredge and it paid off in one afternoon.
I put off buying a proper winch for like two years because I figured I could just muscle through with my old manual setup. Last month I got tired of fighting with cables that kept tangling and slipping, so I pulled the trigger on a 12V winch off a local supplier for just under 700 bucks. First job with it was clearing a clogged intake on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, and I had that thing back online in under 15 minutes. In the past I would have spent a whole afternoon sweating and cussing with the manual crank. The winch handled the weight smooth and steady, no jerking or jamming at all. I actually looked forward to the next snag just to use it again. Has anyone else here gone electric and felt dumb for waiting so long?
Pretty sure you could have strapped a come along to a tree and saved yourself a few grand, @fionamurphy. Half the time people buy fancy winches just to show off at the trailhead. If you're getting stuck that often, might be time to look at your driving instead of your bank account.