Forum:
Hi all Just bought a sportrak and want to take it off road 
ive been looking into winches and have found many that would do the one i am looking at at the moment is a yeti 13000 lb WINCH with a removerble solenoid pack so it can be put eather in side of the engine bay or even inside the cab ....
so what do you use ...
All comments welcome 
Sportrak winch
I can't help thinking that 13000 lb might be a bit big for a Sportrak.
The vehicle weighs at about 1500 kg, about a ton and a half. 13000lb is 5.8 tons, nearly 4 times as much, so the weakest link could end up being the Sportrak chassis! A 6 ton winch is what was fitted to 4 ton Bedford army lorries, the MK and RL. There are issues with large winches with current draw, you would need a split charge system and a LARGE supplementary battery, the original wouldn't last 20 seconds pulling that large a winch. Also theres the weight to think about, the weight of the bumper mount and the winch itself would be considerable on a relatively small vehicle. My advice if you really do want a winch would be to go down a size or two and get a 6 or 9000 lb winch.
I have been off roading for years and still haven't got a winch, (although I'm in the process) what is needed off road ultimately is lots of grip. I'd recommend you to spend your money, at least initially, on tyres and suspension improvements, so you don't get stuck in the first place. Hope that helps.
yer id kinda go along with
yer id kinda go along with steve, I now run a champion 12,000 lb winch on a big single battery on me ftrak, but I must fit another inline battery when I get round too it, a 9000 will be fine on your sporty, there is some real good quality popular 9000lb 'ers out there, its not a really good idea to fit a huge winch on a light vehicle, the power...corrrrrr squeeze the suspension etc but I use mine for work too if you look on me youtube.
Full of ideas but no time to do them!!
www.bloodredoffroad.com
www.milneroffroad.com
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youtube: Redfourtrack
9500lb is well in excess of
9500lb is well in excess of what you would need, i would advocate one of this size as it has plenty of spare capacity.
I would suggest a split charging system and a second really heavy duty battery to power it all. This needs the correct sized cables and a battery isolater fitting as well.