theres no such thing as stupid questions - only stupid answers <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
yes we use hydraulics again this year, the winch has a really good combination of power, reliability and speed its difficult to find another way thats better for us.
we have no problems with broken parts - Petals winch was used a lot for long hard pulls, many many times and it just kept going and never slowed down, we never stopped it or had to use a snail for a double pull
if you make sure you have good pipes of the right size, a nice big hydraulic tank and use HVI46 oil (it stays stable even at high temperatures) then its very very very reliable. One of our friends winched almost all of a 17km stage at Ladoga in 2006 using the same winch.
if the engine stops then we are in trouble and we have to use the hi-lift to winch us out <img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle> we dont have have the time to make an emergency electric pump at the moment (maybe we do this later). You can use the pump from a 12 volt small truck as a backup , it would be more sensible to put an electric winch on the back of the car so if the engine dies you can get out of trouble but I like the power to much to give it up <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>
If the car is waterproof then you have nothing to worry about; test the car in deep water before competition - drive in, turn off the engine, leave the car underwater for 30 minutes and then go back and start the engine - if it passes this test then its not going to be a problem, so far so good but who knows - this type of engine is new to us<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
nothing exceeds like excess....