Better to have an not need… MILITARY VEHICLE WINCHES

Many people have heard an old saying that often refers to lawyers, guns and money: “It’s better to have one and not need it, than to need one and not have it.”

This philosophy also applies to having a winch on an historic military vehicle (HMV), though such winches usually come in two basic categories.

The first and largest group are decorations: these winches are probably fully-functional but are rarely actually used. The second category applies to folks who drive their vehicles in the off-road environments for which they were designed as well as HMV owners who use their vehicle’s winches for work and/or recovery situations. The operation and maintenance of winches is often poorly understood and seldom done properly, no matter to which category they belong.

For many HMV owners, a winch is an accessory that adds visual interest to a vehicle — and there’s nothing wrong with that. That said, it’s also “correct” only in the sense that a vehicle might have been equipped with a winch during its military career — but probably wasn’t.

There are few specific guidelines, but as a general rule for standard military cargo trucks, about one in ten were factoryequipped with winches. And while a few winches, both capstan and drum types, were installed on WWII Jeeps, wartime production was already severely stretched. Equipping jeeps with winches wasn’t considered essential.

On the other hand, several vehicles during WWII, winches were a universal item — on the DUKW, for example. And, of course specialized vehicles, such as wreckers, bomb-service trucks and recovery vehicles always had winches… sometimes two or three of them.

Back to the other hand, winches were rarely installed on 1/2-ton WWII Dodges, and almost never on vehicles such as carryalls, panels, or ambulances. There were a few exceptions for special duties, but if you find an ambulance with a winch, it was, most likely, added by a former civilian owner.

You can take perfect pride in owning any HMV without a winch. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with adding a winch to your vehicle, whether for show or actual use, but don’t feel obligated to just because “everybody else” seems to have one. In fact, a young person going to an HMV show today might get the impression that most cargo trucks originally came with winches.

Still, as already mentioned, it’s often better to have a winch and not need it than to need one and not have it. And, if you have one, you may need or want to use it. Therefore, it should be kept well-maintained and ready.

You should also understand the limitations or a winch,though. It is not a miracle device to always get you out of trouble, nor