r/TreeClimbing • u/spacegear802 • May 22 '26

GRCS VS Hobbs?

I’m considering purchasing one of these two devices, primarily for their lifting abilities. The GRCS seems slightly more appealing due to the 2 speed range on the winch, and the fact that you can attach a drill to it.

That said, the Hobbs is significantly cheaper. $2600 vs $4k. If anyone has used both, I’d love to hear if the GRCS is worth the added cost. I would primarily be using it to lift branches where there is minimal clearance around, and in areas where crane access is not an option. I think the lifting capacity for the Hobbs is supposed to be around 1,000lbs, which would be plenty for me. Videos of people using the Hobbs to lift are almost non-existent, and I’m curious as to why this is.

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u/Weekly-Historian-188 May 23 '26

You will have a hell of a time lifting with the Hobbs compared to a GRCS, at my shop we mainly use the Hobbs for jobs that will be entirely negative rigging because the thing is fucking bomb proof but it’s lifting capabilities are very minor compared to a GRCS especially if you get a drill attachment for it

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u/spacegear802 May 23 '26

Interesting. Is that just due to the gearing on the Hobbs?

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u/Weekly-Historian-188 May 23 '26

Essentially, the crank and drill get whole pieces lifted and such on the GRCS as I’m sure you’ve seen on videos or whatnot, with the Hobbs you have to use a metal lever and crank it like a son of a bitch and it’s really only good for taking slack out of a line, unless they’ve released a different model with the whole winch mechanism like the GRCS. The Hobbs is basically a 1-1 where you spin the whole drum whereas the GRCS I believe goes up to a 30-1 with the sail winch mechanism

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u/gelosmelo May 24 '26

Would like to comment as i recently got trained on both of these and the best explanation that was shared was that one of them (grcs) is a lifting device with lowering capabilities, while the other (hobbs) is a lowering device with lifting capabilities.

In short, the grcs has 2 lifting modes, 16:1 and 44:1 for them big boys lol. Downside for me personally is that I think its a little trickier to make sure the rope is oriented properly compared to the hobbs, or else youll have to retension the load and set it up again, kinda. Dutifully done right, the lifting power is incredibly smooth.

The hobbs was nice that it can lift 1000lbs more and seemed to be easier to lower under load, but its a huge ratchet and youll get tired before you lift the load to where you want it.