Smittybilt Winches

About Winch Line Speed

In the graph above, we're looking at the speed of winches as you pull more and more weight.

The more load a winch needs to pull, the slower it is. To measure-wide this, we calculate line speed. This is pretty simple:

Imagine standing next to your deployed winchline: You attach a ribbon to the line and reel the winch line in (standing in the same spot). You do this for 1 minute. When you measure-wide the distance the line has moved (usually in feet), you'll have a line speed.

Winch line speeds vary a lot! Some of the fastest line speeds are around 45 feet/minute. Some of the slowest linespeeds are around 2 feet per minute.

Is line speed important?

Fast line speed is helpful when:

• You need to be able to get out of a situation quickly (you're hanging off a cliff)
• You're in a competition
• You don't like waiting around

Loaded vs. No-Load Line Speed

With no load on your winch line, your winch will be at its fastest. This is no-load line speed. If you winch all the time, no-load line speed is important - it drastically affects the speed of "clean-up" after a recovery. This can be important if you're on a trail ride with lots of other 4x4s.

Loaded line speed varies by the weight you're pulling and how badly stuck you are. In truly bad "stucks", it's easy to come close to the breaking strength of steel winch cable. Consider upgrading to synthetic if it makes sense.

You need to decide for yourself how important line speed is.

Sometimes you don't have much of a choice:

If you want a larger winch, there aren't as many options out there, so you'll probably have only a couple options.

However, there are many 10,000 lb and 12,000 lb winches that have varied line speed.