I pulled the 10.5 apart yesterday, it has the same sticky glue/grease.
altho it did free spool decently, I cleaned and regreased it.
the end cap was really stuck on there good. I had to drive a razor blade down in behind the gasket to get it to break free.
the large planetary gear set in this one was probably 75% larger than in the 8.5. the middle one may have been a bit bigger, and I think the smallest one was the same size/part.
beefy. all the gears spun easily.
along with the outer/small planetary, they also shared the same inner gear, and driveline. as best I could tell, they were the same part, I didn't measure anything and im too lazy to look up the part numbers to confirm.
a few things to note on this one,
the free spool feature. it uses a sliding collar. I don't like it. it doesn't seem as positive, or as easily switched as the other one.
its working nice and smooth there, but later, when I turned the drum a bit, it didn't engage as easily. it may end up being just fine as I actually use it.
also the lever itself is a bit floppy. I may try to replace the set screw with a larger one, to see if that tightens it up a bit. there is an o-ring on it, to keep crud out, but the lever is so sloppy, it doesn't really touch.
a bad cast. its in an area that shouldnt cause any issues. I expect I just got unlucky with this one, I doubt many/all are like that.
the above 2 issues are things I wouldn't expect to find on a more expensive winch tho.
and lastly, once I got the end cap cleaned up, I noticed this.
interesting. id read rumors about them being the same. pretty sure the box says "made in china" but t-max is an Australian company...
that's just sad. oh, and free spool didn't work on it either. lol. we had to power it out every time. I guess that explains why our trips were so long. we were still winching. haha.
oh yeh, I mounted the new 10.5 winch for that trip. we ended up using it quite a bit, but no really bad stucks. but it worked well.
the thing I noticed tho, was how quiet it was. im sure its because of the good grease. sitting in the cab, with my buddy winding it back on the drum, I couldn't even tell the winch was running.
I wired a switch out on the front, so whoever is working the cable, can power the winch, so I literally didn't know the winch was running.
id like to make note, that is one of my favorite mods. I have the same switch inside the cab. have had for years, but the one out front is new, and its SO NICE.
I don't get to wheel in snow that deep. Our mountains are too steep.
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'My needle always settles between west and southwest. The future lies that way to me, and the earth seems more unexhausted and richer on that side.' - Thoreau, sort of.
Where are you headed this weekend for that level of snow? The cascades or Olympics? Evans creek?
Not sure Evans is open yet, though if you take a left at the fork after the sketchy bridge and head towards the Snoqualmie Federation Forrest you may hit some.
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2001 4runner SR5 4x4
1991 4runner SR5 4x4 Sold
1995 4runner SR5 4x4 Sold
heres another vid from that last trip. this was right before we turned around.
we could have worked our way up to the trail(at the end of the road) but it would have taken a long time.