This is an set up write-up and product overview on the Bulldog 10K pound winch. I’ve included “product overview” since I actually wasn’t in search of a brand new winch after I got here throughout this one. A good friend of mine wished to know what I considered this winch and so I agreed to guage one. I don’t declare to be a restoration guru however I’ve held on the top of my winch a couple of instances and have assisted in a couple of car recoveries. I’ll do the perfect I can with this analysis, good or dangerous, and allow you to all know what I believe.
This mannequin Bulldog is just not priced as excessive as an identical sized/rated Warn neither is it on the basement pricing that you simply see for some manufacturers. Line velocity, grunt energy, motor warmth up, had been just about unknowns aside from the guide which offers line velocity numbers. The match and end appear to be fairly good. I discovered that the impact of getting it in entrance of the radiator appears to be no worse than my earlier Warn and would possibly even be a little bit bit higher. My tranny ran a little bit cooler coming residence the opposite day despite the fact that ambient air temps ought to have seen it operating a little bit bit larger on the tranny temp gauge. I’m simply guessing right here however maybe the profile of the winch causes much less air stream deflection to my barely undersized tranny cooler that’s mounted in my grill.
The proprietor’s guide signifies the 5.8 HP motor together with the 265:1 gear discount will yield loaded line velocity numbers which are barely higher than my Warn XD9000i…..nonetheless, they’re so shut that I’m unsure I may measure them precisely sufficient within the area to inform the distinction. With the upper gear discount, the present draw on the motor is down a good quantity. Going by the printed specs for each winches, my Warn pulls 415 amps for an 8K pound pull. The Bulldog manuals reveals the identical pull at solely 310 amps. I’ve entry to a excessive present amp meter and can get some measurements after I get the possibility. If the decrease numbers are true, the battery an alternator will admire it. A 2K pound pull (most likely extra lifelike for the issues that I do right here in Arizona) has the Warn at 180 amps and the Bulldog pulling 120 amps….once more, that is an considerable distinction and the road speeds are inside 6″ of one another for a 1 minute pull.
So…..my Warn XD9000i got here off and I put in the Bulldog. Why? I had the chance to check a brand new product and perhaps discover a fairly priced winch that gives the reliability all of us need at a worth that extra people can afford. Also, I’ve been identified to make feedback that aren’t all that flattering with regard to non-Warn winches. I’ll admit that that is the primary non-Warn winch that I’ve personally seen that left me with a good first impression. Time will inform the way it does within the lengthy haul and I can’t report on that till the time has handed and I’ve used it. I’ll be giving it an preliminary exercise to see simply how correct the road speeds are and get some first hand expertise with it as soon as the cable has been stretched and re-spooled. While I used to be going to put in my Amsteel blue artificial winch line instantly, I made a decision that the winch needs to be examined in its present transport configuration. Later on, I’ll put the artificial line on it.
At least the Bulldog doesn’t are available a plain brown field. It’s labeled with line velocity specs and different misc information that one would possibly sometimes discover on a winch field. The winch weighs in at 88 kilos and as I used to be carrying the field to my TJ, I actually didn’t doubt that quantity for a second.
OK…..so let’s see what comes within the field.
I discovered one winch with 87′ of .36″ cable. In case you had been questioning, 3/8″ cable is .375″ diameter. My Warn 9K winch got here with 5/16″ cable which is .3125″ diameter. For comparability, the 12K Warn winch makes use of 3/8″ cable. It would appear that the Bulldog metal cable is greater than adequately sized for the 10K pound score.
The winch’s optimistic battery cable is already hooked up whereas the equipped floor cable will likely be hooked up by you. A winch hook is included together with mounting {hardware}. The mounting {hardware} is for mounting the winch to your winch plate and likewise to mount the curler fairlead to your winch plate. A purple hook security strap and a cabled distant (12 foot lengthy) rounds out the items and components assortment. An house owners guide which incorporates specs, plenty of security info, and exploded components diagram adequately qualifies as documentation (it was good to see a printed guide versus a photograph copied replica).
I needed to snap this picture after I noticed this on the winch. A neighborhood Jeeper not too long ago had an artificial winch line failure because of the cable being spooled incorrectly onto the drum. When I noticed this, I instantly considered his scenario and was happy to see this on the Bulldog.
The gearbox homes the clutch shifter. With it, you possibly can free spool cable off of the winch drum (OUT place) and energy it again in (IN place).
Before mounting the winch on the TJ, I eliminated the bolt on the underside of the motor and hooked up the bottom cable to the winch housing.
Bulldog 10K lb. Winch
First factor to come back off the TJ was my bumper. Most are held on with 3 bolts going into every body rail…..two on high, one on the underside. One of the decrease Torx bolts is being eliminated on this picture. Note the anti-seize on the threads. Even although Arizona is just not a lot in the best way of rusting, it takes so little effort to place a little bit of anti-seize on the threads throughout reassembly. I get pleasure from not preventing with rusted mounting {hardware}.
You know, the entrance of a TJ seems to be type of ugly when you strip the bumper off. You can see my energy steering cooler hooked up to the cross member.
I used the identical winch mounting plate I had on the Warn winch and so excuse the grime/mud as it’s removed from new. The winch has the identical mounting footprint as did my XD9000i. The solely distinction was that the equipped mounting bolts had been metric. The holes in my plate had been only a bit too small for the metric {hardware} so I opted to make use of the {hardware} I eliminated when the Warn got here off the mounting plate. Four bolts connect the winch physique to the mounting plate. You might should seize a drill bit and take them as much as the subsequent dimension for the marginally bigger equipped mounting bolts.
I additionally opted to depart the curler fairlead on my winch plate. Since it had been beforehand used with metal cable and the Bulldog curler fairlead was untouched, I made a decision it will do exactly tremendous with extra metal cable. Looking on the two curler fairleads, I may detect no notable distinction between the 2. While doable, I doubt my substituting one for the opposite will affect the winch’s efficiency outcomes.
I slipped the cable by the fairlead opening and hooked up the hook to the cable. I persuaded a good friend to assist me raise the winch and mounting plate again onto the TJ to assist keep away from bending the fins on my energy steering cooler.
With the winch secured to the mounting plate and sitting on the body rails, I put the bumper again into place and proceeded to tighten each to the body rails. The tow hook bolts (longer than inventory) safe the tow hooks and mounting plate to the highest of the body rails.
That took care of getting the Bulldog 10K winch on the entrance of the TJ. I routed the cables by a small opening alongside the passenger facet of the grill and into the engine compartment. The cables are then introduced up and zip tied to the grill help rod. They observe the rod and terminate on the battery. I linked them to the highest posts of my Yellow Top battery because the facet posts should not designed to supply the present load generated throughout heavy winch operation. (so states an e-mail from Optima customer support)
Bulldog 10K lb. Winch
With the battery connections made, it was time to check the winch. The plug on the top of the distant cable was totally different than what I used to be use to. That’s not a nasty factor, only a totally different factor.
The connector plug is keyed and so solely engages the socket on the winch housing a technique…..trial and error proved to me. If you insert the plug into the socket and rotat it clockwise about 1/8 of a flip, you’ll hear it click on/lock into place. The plug is eliminated by sliding the small metallic locking tab and rotating the plug about 1/8 flip counter-clockwise. (there’s a little arrow on the lock that reveals which approach it slides) It is tougher describing it than it’s really doing it.
Here is the enterprise finish of the winch controller. Personally, I admire the OUT and IN on the controller. I notice that the Warn controller makes use of the little icons to point which approach the cable goes and that does make for a really common management and isn’t language dependent. However, I all the time should cease and take a look at them (with my growing old eyes) to see which approach I need to transfer the change. I can learn this one simply tremendous with out squinting! Besides that, I’ll more than likely not have that many non-English studying spotters utilizing my winch distant. If I do, I’m assured that signal language and the arrows will accomplish the duty.
I picked up the telephone right now and known as the Phoenix, AZ telephone quantity that was on the proprietor’s guide. I ended up spending about quarter-hour talking with Bob, who I consider is THE fundamental Bulldog on the workplace…..at the least, that was the impression I acquired. On a extra critical word, I discovered Bob to be an enthusiastic one who was fairly captivated with his enterprise. I handed alongside some suggestions and acquired to ask a couple of questions.
Question #1: Can the winch distant connector or the connector with some hooked up cable be bought? The reply was sure, that might be organized. I defined that myself, and others, usually time prefer to wire an in-cab controller. By utilizing the manufacturing facility connector on the winch, it may be simply unplugged and the common controller plugged in when wanted. That result in some dialogue about in-cab controllers, and so on.
Question #2: Have you thought of utilizing SAE {hardware} versus the metric mounting {hardware}. The reply was sure, it was thought of and no, the metric will proceed to be shipped. Bob felt the marginally bigger metric {hardware} was factor and has discovered from private expertise that many manufacturers of mounting plates deal with his {hardware} with out concern. He talked about that his latest journey to Moab for the 2007 Easter Jeep Safari discovered him promoting a winch to an individual who had for sure a Warn manufactured winch mounting plate. Those holes had been simply barely undersized (as had been mine) for the Bulldog mounting {hardware}.
We mentioned artificial line, tree savers, and some different matters earlier than the dialog was ended. Since Bulldog is a neighborhood Phoenix firm, I consider I’ll should cease by and pay Bob a go to in particular person. I heard he has a killer 3K winch that works effectively as a TJ suspension suck down winch.
That is about it for now……not a lot else I can say till I get out to the path and pull some cable to see the way it works. As I stated, I’ll be reporting again what I uncover. Bob insisted that I let him know the way it carried out and to let him know if there have been any points, areas for enchancment, and so on. As I stated earlier, he’s critical about his firm and I’ve little doubt he means to enhance his product line the place ever he can.
Bulldog 10K lb. Winch
Update 05/14/2007:
A good friend of mine named Bob, and I, stole Troy’s TJ to make use of as a winch level for right now’s Bulldog 10K winch analysis. Before we acquired began, I first tensioned/stretched the wire rope onto the winch drum. Bob utilized some brake pedal on my TJ whereas I ran the controller and ensured the wire rope wound appropriately onto the drum. The proprietor’s guide states a load of about 500 kilos. I’m not sure simply what the load was….however given the strain of the cable, I’m assured we had a ample load to trigger some stretching.
With the tensioning out of the best way, I went to the underside of the wash and we lined up the autos for a straight pull up the facet of the wash. The financial institution is about 50′ lengthy and is “surfaced” with a sprayed on concrete combination to maintain erosion to a minimal. We positioned Troy’s TJ in order that I had the primary layer on the drum fully full of wire rope after I began the journey up the financial institution. We hooked up a mechanical clamp-on ammeter to the + winch cable….the ammeter reads 0-600 amps and we anticipated most of our readings to be within the center portion of the size.
I used to be going to time the occasion to see how lengthy it took us to get to the highest of the financial institution, however half approach into the pull, I opted to cease and let the battery get better a bit. I did this a few instances. As a lot as I admire what an Optima Yellow Top battery is constructed to do, I couldn’t see sucking it down all the best way for this analysis. I used to be monitoring the voltmeter on the instrument cluster whereas Bob stored an eye fixed on the ammeter.
I used no driveline help when going up the financial institution. I stored the motor at about 2000 RPM in order to coax some assist from the alternator…..not in contrast to what I’d do on the path throughout a winching session.
Once I had all 4 tires on the financial institution itself, Bob checked the amp draw….about 150 amps. It jumped as much as about 200~225 when the 2nd layer crammed and the wire rope transitioned to the third layer. Near the highest of the financial institution, with the wire rope shifting onto the 4th layer, we pulled a strong 300 amps.
At no time did Bob or I discover any type of change within the pulling energy…..it remained a clean and regular pull aside from the instances I finished and let the battery relaxation for a minute. Once we crested the highest with the entrance tires, line velocity started choosing up steadily whereas the amp load fell off (not surprising). Once all 4 tires had been off the financial institution and the car as soon as once more degree, it took about 50 amps to tug the car.
I did two issues throughout this analysis that I’d not often do on the path. I by no means winch with my tranny in impartial…..I all the time am helping the winch with energy from the drive practice. Today’s take a look at put rather more pressure on the parts than I’d usually trigger to occur underneath regular path use. I additionally don’t winch the prolonged durations as I did right now. I didn’t convey an IR thermometer so I can’t let you know how sizzling the motor acquired….it was definitely sizzling to the contact on the finish of the pull and also you weren’t going to maintain your fingers on it. However, I did stick my nostril down subsequent to it to see if the faint odor of sizzling motor windings was current….it was not. I’ve smelled a sizzling winch motor on the path earlier than and didn’t discover it on right now’s analysis. So that too is an effective factor.
One factor I seen was that the road velocity gave the impression to be slower than what I anticipated. I’m not saying this a nasty or good factor. My private choice…I prefer to winch with a slower line velocity. As I discussed, this was a lifeless pull take a look at….no help was coming from the tires. I’m not use to winching on this style and so this might trigger the road velocity to be slower than what I’m use to seeing from the driving force’s seat.
First impressions? I used to be very happy with the winch’s efficiency. I’m not a winch knowledgeable….by no means was, by no means will likely be. I’m counting on my earlier expertise with my Warn winch as a bench mark for right now’s analysis. In my opinion, the Bulldog winch carried out effectively and didn’t go away me wanting for something. OK, I confess….I’m nonetheless not in love with the form of the winch controller, however I’ve been informed that’s being modified. In the grand scheme of issues, the controller’s form is minor.
I’ll report once more as soon as I get an opportunity to hold on the top of the cable on a waterfall (or one thing equally enjoyable). In the imply time, my nearly new Amsteel blue artificial winch line will likely be occurring the Bulldog. I believe the blue line will distinction properly with the black winch coloration. (The earlier assertion was made for those who have larger ranges of “Does this blue line make my winch look good?” than I do.)
Update 06/02/2007:
I made a decision to put in Amsteel Blue artificial winch line onto the Bulldog. (yeah, that does appear to point I’m going to be maintaining it on the TJ)
The Bulldog makes use of the identical technique of attaching the road to the drum as do most winches…..a screw holds the crimped on connector to drum. The screw used within the Bulldog is metric which is not any large deal. However, the attachment connector equipped by Winchline.com for his or her Amsteel Blue line was to large for the Bulldog screw. With the Bulldog screw in hand, I made a fast journey to the native ACE Hardware retailer (they’ve, arms down, the perfect fastener choice of any chain retailer round). The metric screw is a M6x1.0 (dimension and thread pitch) and one about 12mm lengthy labored good for me. Depending on the kind of attachment connector your line has, a unique size could also be required.
Once residence, I hooked up the Amsteel Blue to the winch drum and spooled the road into place. The 100′ of Amsteel Blue I used had no points becoming on the drum.
