No matter what you do, a winch could be beneficial. And here to give us some pointers on buying a winch is Scott Peterson, who’s the senior design engineer with SuperWinch. Scott, welcome to Goss’ Garage.

SCOTT PETERSON: Thanks for having me here, it’s great.

PAT GOSS: Alright, all kinds of winches out there. Tell us about this one.

SCOTT PETERSON: This is our new Talon series, this is what you’d find on the front of a Jeep, or a pickup truck. This is our latest winch. What we like about it is it’s got the best warranty that you can buy in a winch today. Three years on the motor and the electrical system, limited lifetime on the rest of the winch. And that is the best warranty you can buy today in a vehicle front product.

PAT GOSS: Very good. Alright, now the rope that you have here; it’s synthetic, as opposed to steel. What’s the advantage?

SCOTT PETERSON: This is our synthetic rope, and really, the benefit you’ll find here is that it’s lighter than a steel rope, so with the weight of the front of your truck, it’s stronger at an equivalent size against steel. And because it’s lighter, if it does break, goes through the air, it’s not going to hurt you or someone around you like a steel cable going through the air would.

PAT GOSS: Ok, a thimble. I’m a boater, I know what it’s about. But maybe our viewers don’t.

SCOTT PETERSON: The purpose of a thimble, and every winch that SuperWinch makes, has a thimble on it, is to keep the diameter of the termination larger. If you were to take that, and put it on the end of this clevis hook right here, and go around that clevis pin, you’d be going around a smaller diameter. That reduces the strength of the termination of that rope. Keeping it on a larger diameter, on a thimble, is a safer situation. And that’s what we design our winches for.

PAT GOSS: Ok, what’s this winch about?

SCOTT PETERSON: This is our car trailer product. This is typically what’d you’d see in an enclosed trailer for a racecar, uh, or a collector car, something like that. We design this winch specifically for trailers, in that it has a 30 foot handheld controller on it. If the winch is in the front of the trailer, you want to be at the back of the car, watching it go in the trailer; a 30 foot remote is what you need. You typically get 12 or 15 feet with a vehicle front remote. We designed this specifically for trailers, so that you can watch your car safely get in the trailer.

PAT GOSS: Ok, and here we have a bag, with a winch in it.

SCOTT PETERSON: That’s our winch in a bag product. It’s a portable, general purpose product. You get a couple of straps, a handheld controller, you can connect it with some battery clips to your battery; you can do all sorts of portable things around the home. Put it in the truck of your car; it’s there for safety if you need it.

PAT GOSS: Alright, very clever. So shop wisely, and you get a product that lasts a long time, and does the job. Scott, thank you. And if you have a question or comment, drop me a line. Right here, at MotorWeek.