TJM OX hydraulic winch

[petcar1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close petcar1]

I am looking at installing a winch. Was all set for an electric, but had look at a Hydraulic winch over the weekend. Has anyone had some experience with these. Aside from the lower weight and power usage, I am a little concerned with the warranty aspects of having somebody play with the steering.

[Rogerthatv2 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Rogerthatv2]

Re: Winch

Hi Peter

The warranty side of it would be better answered by your Toyota service department but from my understanding it will void any warranty that you have on the steering system unless you can prove to Toyota it was not a fault of the winch, good luck with that.

As to the weight, from my dealings with the Ox Hydraulic Winch by TJM (no longer made) it was slightly heavier then the electric however you could winch all day every day as long as the car was running. If you do go the hydraulic make sure you have a dump valve installed so that you can steer and winch at the same time. If you do not install a dump valve it will make steering and winching hard as each time you change course the winch will stop as the power steering will override the winch, fitting the dump valve will give you manual steering so that you can correct your winch course if required. I would also fit the optional oil cooler to the power steering as well.

Somebody like Enzed or a hydraulic specialist can correctly install these (that is make up the hoses for the 150 as TJM no longer make a kit for it) and they are not that hard to do, just make sure the lines are routed correctly, they bolt up just like any other winch (warn bolt pattern).

I have personally gone for a electric winch on my new 150, cost, warranty and working when the engine is running or not played the major deciding factors in my decision however the hydraulic winches are also a fantastic bit of gear, my Dad would prefer this over my electric any day and he now swaps his Ox 10000lbs from vehicle to vehicle.

Hope this helps, Daniel.

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

Re: Winch

hi peter, the only person know on here that has a ox hydraulic is Quicky, it is on a 120, send him a pm and he might be able to answer any questions you have about the set up. cheers samo

[QUICKY Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close QUICKY]

Re: TJM OX hydraulic winch

Hi petcar1
I've got one and it has needed to be used a number of times.It works well but I have had 2 problems with it but both related but top service from TJM to fix it.They are slower than an electic winch useing low gear for recoverys but TJM tell me you can do a recovery in high gear (which I haven't tried yet) and if it is to much strain on the winch the relief valves kick in and will bypass the pump then just put it in low gear and away you go.High gear is great for respooling your cable.The power steering over rides the winch but small steering adjustments are still possible while winching. The problem that I had with the winch was bolts coming loose due to vibration and rough tracks on my Cape trip.When we where in Seisia I noticed an oil leak (power steering fluid) and turns out the bolts holding the valve block had worked loose.Local mechanic found some bolts and problem solved.When we got over to Captain Billys I noticed the same problem but this time it was the bolts that hold the hydraulic pump on the end of the winch.Fixed this one myself by removing the hydraulic lines from the pump to bypass it and reconect to the origonal system.Got a bolt when we got back to Carins to hold it together till we got home and TJM bolted a new pump and valve block on the winch for me under warranty this time making sure every bolt was loctited and no problems since and that was two years ago

[petcar1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close petcar1]

Re: TJM OX hydraulic winch

Thanks guys for all the help...... I will take a second look next week when i have a couple of hours to kill in town. I have been caught out with an electric before, but I gess thats a possibility with either system. The warranty aspect is an issue, I have been lucky so far and dont really want to upset the apple cart. I will have to see what toyota think about the whole issue.