I will not be driving through 2′ of mud or climbing over rocks like some off road enthusiasts take on just because the have a winch to pull them out.
I concur with Mike. If we remove the winching other things out of the equation (tress etc), and you are looking solely at stuck vehicle recovery, then you don’t actually need to be doing anything too sketchy to get right up there in terms of how much winch power you need.
Most are surprised with winch requirements in relation to how stuck you are.
Mired up to the tires can require a winch pull of total vehicle weight. Mired to the wheels can be 2 x vehicle weight, mired to the body 3 x vehicle weight.
Then you have to add in any grade. A 15% grade would add an extra 25% weight for example.
A 12,000lb camper mired tire deep is going to need a maxed out 12,000 winch (using a full line – each spool loses around 10% winch capacity I think) to pull it out. Any worse than that will require a solid anchor point with a snatch block back to the vehicle.
If you can convince yourself that situation is the worst you will come across, and you have a 12,000lb camper, then a 12,000 winch, winch extension and a snatch block might suffice. A snatch block giving you half the line but a 2x mechanical advantage.
I think a 10,000lb and up full-size truck and camper warrants the biggest light truck / off road winch, something like the Warn 16.5
2007 Dodge 3500
[5.9 Cummins, Stick Shift] + [XPCamper V1E]
