I'm researching winches of which one to buy. I don't want to argue brands, looking more along the lines of ratings. The lower the rating the less expensive winch is, but too low of a rating, and its not worth the money for our 4Runners.

The easiest part to upgrade is the winch line, but buying an winch line 2x the manufacture's original rating doesn't automatically make the rating twice as high.

So, what part of the winch is the weak link?

"A chain is only as strong as its weakest link"

Well... there is a balance to be had between the two...

I have good reason to believe whatever was included is more than adequate for the application.

You can upgrade the line, but one of the main reasons to do it is to save weight and to get away from cable.

The longer you let the line spool, the greater you can benefit from a thicker or a line with a higher rating. On the flip side, if the line is larger in diameter you can only fit soo much on the spool.

Personally I wouldn't not try to over complicate it. If it came with line, use it, run it, and replace it with whatever you want as soon as you see any signs of wear. At least that's how I would do it.

If you run a powerful winch and a line that is sized for the car, but under sized for the winch, you run a great risk of snapping the line... I much rather bog my winch before that happens, but I also prefer my winch not bog...

I am no expert at recovery but from what I gathered I see that someone more experienced in recovery can do the same job with a smaller winch if they know what they are doing... using things like snatch blocks and such.

I agree. My main thought on this is synthetic rope has many benefits, but is so expensive. Kinda thinking of buying a cabled winch and then changing it out, but I don't think there's any cost savings for this.

Yup! Definitely want the winch to stall before the line breaks.

I'm trying to learn and ask question. Thank you for your input.

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Of particular note, look at how to calculate the actual resistance. Almost always when using a winch you're really looking at some significant modifiers to GVW. Given that everything comes down to your weakest link, look at everything from this basis. Of course also is where multi-line rigging comes into play, but then you've got to look at a lot more.

Anyways, personally, I'd say nothing less than a 10klb winch and tackle rated at the same or higher. By the time you have a winch, you've likely already got several hundred pounds extra in armor/bumper/roofrack/etc, plus all the food/equipment you're carrying you're pretty heavy, add being stuck in whatever and I wouldn't want less than 10k rated, even with multi-line rigging.