The first question to answer is, do I need a winch
? I'd venture to guess that over 50% of the winches sold on Hummer H1's have never been used. I'll bet the majority of owners don't even know if they work. One of the first rules of 4 wheeling is don't go out alone. If you're going out to play you should have at least one other H1 with you and carry extraction equipment including a heavy duty pull strap. If you're really stuck like sunk in the mud it can easily take 2 or 3 H1's to pull you out. Ask me how I know. A electric winch most likely won't help. Most of the time when you 're pulling someone out it's far better to use a tow strap instead of a electric winch. There's no substiture for the raw pulling power of a Hummer.
In order to use a electric winch you need a good anchor to hook the cable to that's strong enough to take the weight of a Hummer and within reach of the cable. Most of the time you just don't have a good anchor. If you get caught in the middle of a sand dune or on a beach you can forget it. I've been up at 12,000 feet in Colorado with nothing to hook to except an old rotted tree stump. Above timber line you're only hope is a rock. Further reducing your odds is once you find a good anchor half the time it's behind you.. With the typical front mounted electric winch this becomes a problem.
OK, so why do I have a electric winch? I do go out wheeling alone sometimes and the electric winch has gotten me out of a few jams over the years. I was out in Colorado last summer trail riding and exploring old mine sites. It started to lightly rain so I decided to take a shortcut back to where I was going to camp. After driving down the trail for 20 minutes I came to a rock fall that hadn't been on the trail two years ago. I decided rather then turn back to drive over the rocks. I ended up getting high centered. Luckily, I was able to hook my electric winch to a big boulder about 50 feet in front and pull myself out.
I had a factory Warn electric winch on my 1995 wagon. When I traded to my 96 I moved the electric winch over. When I bought my 98 it was supposed to have the factory Warn electric winch but the truck I wanted came in without it. For the first time in years I had a decision to make. Either get the factory Warn again or get a MileMarker hydraulic which the military uses.
The biggest consideration for me was the factory Warn electric winch sticking out so far in front of the truck. Whenever I was out wheeling the electric winch was always getting in the way. Out in Moab I was always scraping the front of the electric winch on steep approach angle climbs.
The Warn winches for the Hummer are specially made for the Hummer. They are not the stock Warn parts. The drum is about 1.5 inches narrower on the Hummer unit so it will fit in between the frame rails. Warn makes a 16,500 electric winch but unfortunately it is too wide to fit in between the frame rails on the Hummer and it has a different mounting bolt pattern.