On the Hook: Testing the power of Ramsey winches

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Team AllSouth

Testing the power of Ramsey winches

Moab, Utah, was the perfect backdrop to test the power of the Ramsey Winch.

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Team AllSouth

Testing the power of Ramsey winches

With the Patriot 6000, other hardware included synthetic line from Bigfoot Winch Ropes and Factor 55’s Closed-Loop System UltraHook.

By Steve Fennell, photos by Team AllSouth

On a return trip from Reno, Nev., after qualifying for the 2018 King of the Hammers, Jeff McCullough and his crew of Team Allsouth made a slight detour in Moab, Utah, to take their Polaris rig to new heights – literally.

Armed with a Patriot 6000 Ramsey Winch on the team’s 2016 Polaris RZR Turbo (that has a length of three metres (10 ft.) and a wheelbase of 2 metres (7.5 ft.)), McCullough realized there was no better place to test the Patriot’s winching prowess than on one of Utah’s unqiue red rock formations.

"Ramsey’s winches have always been the winch of our choice as it has gotten us through so many situations and hasn't failed us yet," said McCullough. “What better opportunity is there than to put our winching equipment really to the test and show everybody the products that we recommend at Allsouth Autosports and that we use when we race."

With additional gear including Factor 55’s Closed-Loop System UltraHook and 30 metres (100 ft.) of synthetic line and soft shackles from Bigfoot Winch Ropes, the team scaled a 30-metre (100 ft) rock wall, hooked up its Polaris (weighing approximately more than 816 kg (1800 lbs)) and raised the rig to the top of the cliff without any issues.

Although winches are widely used for many applications in the off-road arena, McCullough explains traversing a vehicle vertically over a 30-metre (100 ft.) cliff is not among them. Nonetheless, it can be done and the Patriot 6000 (and associated hardware) was up to the task, and passed their off-road test with flying colours.

"The hardest part of all of this was physically getting up to the top of the cliff to actually hook the winch line to the anchor point," McCullough explains. "But a lot of people use winches to pull them out of mud, over rough terrain, or to help them if they break down on the trail. I know of a team that broke an axle and had to winch their off-road vehicle from anchor point to anchor point on the trail just to get to the end of a race."

The Ramsey Patriot 6000 Winch

The Patriot 6000 is just one of the several winches from Ramsey. With many different capacities and systems throughout its series, the Patriot 6000 has many highlights for competitors and recreational enthusiasts alike. For instance, users will appreciate the Patriot 6000's rated line pull of 2,722 kg (6000 lbs.), a cable capacity of 30 metres (100 ft.) and gear reduction ratio of 90:01:00. Add the 5.5 hp motor and users are benefited with a speedy line output of 13.7 metres (45 ft.) per minute.

"Some features to look for in a winch include the maximum line feed, how much load the winch will be under and how many spools of cable the winch can handle," says McCullough. "Synthetic rope is also very popular right now over cable. Cable is still used, but it can get very tight, become abrasive and if it ever snaps, there's nothing as dangerous as cable flying everywhere. But with the proper gear, a winch is something that is certainly worth having. It’s one of those items that if you don’t yet have one, you wished you did."

When McCullough isn’t competing on the off-road race circuit or scaling 100-foot cliffs in the middle of a Utah desert with Team Allsouth, he’s kept busy operating his company Allsouth Autosports in Buford, Ga. You can contact Jeff at http://www.allsouthautosports.com