For years, there have
been only a couple manufacturers in the recovery winch business. Ramsey has
long been considered to be one of the best. Now, you'll always have the analogy
of Chevy vs. Ford and the winch business is no different. But, ask just about
any Ramsey owner if they'd buy another one, and they willalmost always tell you
"yes."
The Platinum 9000
winch is Ramsey's latest entry into the winch race. The winch uses a 3.6
horsepower motor, which is about 44% stronger than their previous models.
Faster line speeds are acheived by a 138:1 planetary gear setup. The winch also
comes with Ramsey's standard twelve foot remote, which is weatherproofed and
comfortable to use. 150 feet of cable comes standard. Our Platinum came
complete with a roller fairlead, as well, which is great for increasing the
life of your cable.
We've always been
happy with our Ramsey Pro Plus 9000 and when the opportunity came to try out
the Platinum, we just couldn't say no. Ramsey made a lot of promises about
faster line speeds (7 feet/minute with a 9,000 pound load) and lower power
draws (400Amps at 12Volts), so we wanted to find out if they were true.
Installation of
just about any winch is a snap. We already had our winch mount from the Pro
Plus, so we, simply, removed the Pro Plus and put the Platinum in it's place.
The winch is held down by four bolts to the mount. The power leads then were
run under the grill and up inside the engine compartment and attached to the
side of our battery.
As with any winch,
you should run either a dual battery setup or, at least, a deep cycle battery.
We have a '97 TJ with a 4.0L motor and air conditioning, so the engine
compartment is very tight. We run one Optima blue top (marine-type) battery.
This battery has held up well to many winching and welding sessions so we'd
recommend it.
So how did the winch work in the real world? We got
several opportunities to try it out at the Rosser Roundup during Memorial Day
weekend. The first use was on the Slick 50 trail toward the end. We were in a
nasty spot and we needed a good 70-80 feet of the 150 available in order to get
to a safe anchoring tree. The hill was very steep and this was going to be a
wonderful test. We wrapped a tree-saver around the tree and attached the winch
hook to a clevis hook. We also put our hood up and put a jacket on the line as
safety measures.
We weren't
expecting to notice as much of a difference from our previous, Pro Plus 9000 as
we did. The first part of the pull was almost a dead lift upward over some
stubborn rock ledges. The Platinum kept pulling hard and fast and we barely
cracked our hand throttle to keep the battery charging. We went the whole way
up without having to stop to recharge the battery and without having to high
rev. the motor. Before we knew it, we had crested the top.
The Jeep behind us
took almost twice as long to get up the hill, using his hydraulic winch.
Within another 50
yards, we had to winch again, and the Platinum was stellar on that step, as
well, producing the same results; fast, low amp draw, and steady pull.
We give the
Platinum 9000 winch two very certain thumbs up for performance, price, and a
pretty sharp appearance, as well. Street prices can be found under $800.
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