MileMarker
2-Speed
9000lb Winch

 

by Chris Waterman
May 1, 2000  

Making the Decision

If there's any subject guaranteed to cause a loud, opinionated discussion amongst a group of four-wheelers, it has to be debating the merits of electric vs hydraulic winches. Most 'wheelers have strong feelings regarding which they prefer, and will happily rattle off several reasons why their choice is the best.

Buying a winch is a pretty big deal - they're not cheap but they are a necessary addition. There's a lot of thinking that goes into choosing one. So when it came time to grace my Jeep's front bumper with one of these beasts, I had some pondering to do.

For the most part, it comes down to this:

• Electric winches can be run for a short time when the engine is off, which is great for uprighting your truck after you've tipped over. Traditionally, they've also been a lot faster than hydraulic winches. The down side is that they draw a lot of power, making battery and alternator upgrades a really good idea. Extended periods of use raise the possibility of destroying an electric motor due to overheating.
• Hydraulic winches run off the power steering system so they can be run continuously with no risk of burning out the motor or draining the battery. There is a potential downside if you four-wheel by yourself and you get in a situation where you can't run your motor. If the vehicle's engine isn't running, neither will the hydraulic winch.

As you've probably guessed, I decided on the MileMarker. Why? Here's how my thinking went:

• The simplicity of the MileMarker system really appealed to me. I was able to leave my electrical system completely alone, and once the winch was installed, I was set. No other mods required, and I can rest easy knowing it will last me for years, no matter how hard or how often I use it. Reliability is very important to me, and with the MileMarker I've got it.
• The newer 2-speed winches from MileMarker have a high-speed setting take-up and spool-out, which is almost as fast as the XD9000i. In other words, plenty fast enough.
• I chose their smallest winch, which is rated at 9000 pounds. It's light, and it has a lower profile than the Warn XD9000i and HS9500i.
• I never 'wheel alone, so the risk of being in a predicament where I need the winch and can't use it is pretty slim.
• The MileMarker is sealed and can be run underwater. I generally avoid deep water fording, but hey, you never know!

Here's some specs to chew on:

	MileMarker 75-50085C	Warn XD9000i
Rated line pull	9000lb @ 1500psi	9000lb @ 460A
Loaded line speed	6.2 ft/min (low spd)	6.4 ft/min
Unloaded line speed	33.6 ft/min (hi spd)	38 ft/min
Height	8"	10"
Weight	88 lbs	85 lbs
Mounting bolt pattern	10" x 4.5"	10" x 4.5"

Naturally, there were a couple of small issues to resolve. First, my YJ's front end is home to an ARB winch mount bumper that was designed to fit a Warn XD9000i. Second, the Jeep is no longer powered by the stock 258 engine; that was replaced with a Mustang 5.0L-HO V8 last fall, so there were potential issues with connecting to the steering pump to be dealt with.

Nothing that couldn't be worked around, I figured! The winch mounting bolt patterns are the same (10" x 4.5"), which was really the most important thing. A phone call later, and a 75-80085C (9000 lb 2-speed) with the TJ/YJ valve and hose kit was on its way!

Installation

The first thing that struck me on unpacking the winch was the quality of the kit that MileMarker supplies. They include a good selection of hydraulic fittings, quality Goodyear hoses, and high-strength stainless fasteners. All of the exposed metal parts on the winch are stainless steel as well, so rust shouldn't be a problem on our salt-coated winter roads. MileMarker also includes a remote control and a very nice roller fairlead with the winch, plus a hat and some snazzy decals to boot!

The last item in the box was a mounting plate bolting the winch to a YJ or TJ. Very beefy, but I wouldn't be needing it with the ARB bumper.

Just out of interest, we mounted the winch to the Jeep using the mounting plate to see how easy it would be compared to using the ARB bumper.

The first step was to remove the ARB bumper. On a stock Jeep, this wouldn't be required.

Next, we bolted on the mounting plate.

After that came the winch. Now all that was left was to plumb and wire it.

Then the fun began. It quickly became obvious that the ARB bumper would have to be "adjusted" to fit the new winch; the mounting plate fit perfectly, but the cutout in the top of the bumper didn't clear the winch's valve body, motor, or hose fittings, and it came mighty close to the front tie bar. So off came the bumper, and out came the cut-off wheel and the torch. After a little "cosmetic alteration" of the upper cutout, the bumper fit perfectly! I don't think the material we removed has affected the bumper's strength at all, since most of cutting was done to the rib behind the winch.

"Cosmetic alteration" began in earnest. Here I am opening up the driver's side end of the winch opening.

The red lines show how much more I opened up the bumper.

I also had to grind down this bolt head to clear the winch housing.

At this point it was getting pretty dark, so we adjourned until the next weekend. I could hardly wait to get the hydraulics hooked up and see the winch finally move!

When we re-convened, it was time to hook up the hoses. There are two long high-pressure hoses supplied with the winch, which are used to connect it between the power steering pump and the steering box. When not in use, the fluid passes right through the winch, so it doesn't affect the steering at all. The instructions didn't include any mention of how to route the hoses, so I ran both of them down from the winch, under the front clip between the rad and swaybar, through the gap between the steering box and the grille, and then up along the front of the left fender inside the engine bay. From there, the hose to the steering box looped back down to the box, and the hose to the pump ran over to the pump's pressure port.

Access to the pressure (input) fitting on the steering box was pretty tight, so I removed the four bolts holding it in place. and let it drop a few inches. Now I could get a wrench on easily, or I would have been able to, if I'd had the 18mm open-ended wrench needed for the fitting! I've never even seen an 18mm wrench - most wrench sets skip over that size. I continue to be astounded at the love the Jeep designers seem to have for using oddball fasteners! Anyway, an adjustable wrench did the trick.

The custom adapter.

Connecting the other hose to the steering pump proved be a bigger problem. This was through no fault of Milemarker. Last year I swapped a Ford 5.0L engine into the Jeep along with the Ford steering pump. I had heard that the Mustang 5.0L and Jeep YJ's used the same type of power steering fitting, so I had ordered the Milemarker kit with Jeep YJ fittings without consulting Milemarker. Unfortunately, it turns out that they use different fittings, hence the problem of not having the correct fitting. Moral of the story? Ask Milemarker for the proper information regarding the parts you will require. Being impatient we decided to make our own hybrid adapter using the stock Ford fitting and an unused Milemarker fitting. A few strokes with a hacksaw removed the Ford fitting from my old hose (talk about being committed!) and the end fitting from one of the MileMarker adapters. We bored out the Ford fitting on a lathe to the same ID as the adapter's hard line OD, and then slipped them together and carefully TIG welded the Ford fitting onto the end of the adapter, using some silver solder.

That adapter completed the hydraulic hookup. Once it was installed, we filled the system with new power steering fluid and ran the engine for a while to purge the system. Now the only thing remaining was to hook up the electrical!

The only reason there's any electrical connections to the MileMarker winches at all is to power the two flow control solenoids. A single 18-gauge power wire from the battery (no 2-gauge battery cables here!) is all that's needed to supply the solenoids' puny 2A current requirement. There's a small circuit breaker included with the kit, plus all the crimps and wire needed. I screwed the breaker to the firewall beside the battery, and ran the power wire along the right fender and over to the winch. The other two wires go to the remote control port.

Rather than install the controller port on the bumper, where it would be exposed to damage and crud from the environment, I chose to put it through the firewall, to the left of the clutch pedal in the driver's-side footwell. A 7/8" hole saw and a hand file made the hole, and some RTV and the supplied sheet metal screws held it in place. Now I can plug the remote in from inside the Jeep, and stash it alongside the driver's seat on the trail when I'm not using it. The cable is long enough that I can run it out the window and use it while standing beside the Jeep as well. Not exactly conventional, but hey, I think it works pretty well!

Finally we were ready to test the winch! It was as simple as moving the control levers to the low-range position and pushing the button on the remote, and away it went! As it happened, we had reversed the connections to the solenoid, so the winch moved in the opposite direction from the switch position. It was a simple matter to reverse the solenoid wires where they connect to the controller port, to fix it.

The winch mounted and ready for action.

After the minor modifications, the bumper looks like it was built for the MileMarker.

Here you can plainly see how the ARB bumper is setup for a winch with the motor on the passenger-side.

First Impressions

It really is a great winch. Nice and responsive, and very easy to control. It's slow enough in low-speed that I can make tiny adjustments to the line tension, but fast enough that I'm not waiting all day for something to happen. The high speed line take-up is great; it reels the cable back in quickly, so I'm on my way again in no time.

The US Army Chooses MileMarker The choice for the U.S. Army is MileMarker's 2-Speed Hydraulic Winch System. After 2 1/2 years of rigorous testing, the choice to upgrade from the problematic electric winches was easy. Using the stock power steering pump as the hydraulic source, MileMarker winches have pulled a 8600 lb. Military HMMWV (Hummer) up a 60% grade in the dead of winter 70 feet NON-STOP with no driver assist! MileMarker winches maintain the strongest power to weight ratio in the market. Outfit your truck with a MileMarker Winch and mounting combination and you too can enjoy the benefits the U.S. Army has. Accept no other, when the job needs to get done, MileMarker's there to work!

The winch has four "modes", controlled by the two valves on the winch:

Mode: Side lever: Top lever: Free spool FREE FREE Low speed FREE LOW High speed HIGH FREE Lock (brake) HIGH LOW

The control valves.

Once you get that part sorted out, it's pretty easy to use.

It performed flawlessly on the "shakedown" run. The loaded line speed remained very constant no matter how difficult we made the pulls. Best of all, we didn't have to worry about burning out the winch motor. Despite repeated tests, we were unable to overheat the motor. This was a welcome change from the electric winches I've had experience with, which could be damaged by over-use in a short period of time.

We managed to dig my Jeep into the mud but the MileMarker had no problem pulling it out.

For an encore, we winched Project YJ up this dune. Just to make it interesting, we set its parking brake and left it in 4WD. The MileMarker didn't miss a beat as it easily pulled Project YJ up the slope. The winch motor stayed cool to the touch throughout all the winching sessions.

Questions? Email me! chrisw@bc4x4.com.