I've always been keeping an eye out for a winch and through a buddy found a guy parting out an old towtruck. The winch is an electric warn winch, seems fairly big but couldn't find a rating. AT first i figured was probably pretty weak as all it needed to do was lift the front of a small car off the ground, then I figured it's probably also used to pull vehicles out of ditches and such.

Any ideas on what a tow truck winch is rated at? It's the kind where the winch is mounted behind the cab and the cable runs over the boom.
Just a small pickup based rig kinda like this but don't think it was a dodge http://www.vehicle-liquidation.com/showroom/images/DODGE%20TOW%20TRUCK%201.jpg

Brand? model #? with those you can probably google it...

If it was originally installed on a wrecker of that "vintage",it's probably substantial even if it needs rebuilding. That's around a '78 dodge.If it's like the older equipment I see around here, it will pick our rigs up to airborne as long as the battery holds up.

Snap a pic if possible.

I'll try to go take another looks, didn't really look all that closley at the winch or the truck. It was an electric Warn winch, looks pretty substantial but i've never owned a winch so IDK.
I'm pretty sure it was a early/mid 80's chevy. that was just a pic i found online to show it's one of the pickup based "mom/pop towing" sorta deals.

Just wondering if tow truck winches are usually around 2k or 10k pounds.

I've got a couple of buddies in the towing business(NO... they haven't repo-ed anything of mine!)I'll ask them as soon as I can.

OT

I think being a tow truck driver would be so awesome. Before I die I hope to own a rollback or a full on tow truck.

The little bit of tow truck driving I have done was OK. Some times it got a little interesting. It was very fun picking up the 3 university cheerleaders. Fortunatly I never had to do highway recovery or accident recovery. A Rollback is the reason I purchased my Raider. The Raider was the only vehicle at the time that was able to drive up it without the winch.

real common tow truck winch is the ramsey 8000 or 12000 worm drive they look like this

You can tell a worm winch right away because they don't sit flat they bolt on the front and back usually into a cradle because of the worm gear on the bottom side. Worm drive winches are far more powerfull than regular planetary types, as in a 8000 worm is going to have more grunt than a 12000 planetary and can be used all day everyday. Worm winches are the king of winches for sure.

It is not awesome.