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Superwinch EPi9.0=Fail

A

afbond03

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Cheyenne Wyoming
Well after purchasing this winch a year ago and using it four times this is how it looks after yesterday:
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DSC_0346.jpg

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DSC_0349.jpg


The winch physically broke, smashed my grill, ac condenser and cracked my header panel. I wasn't being rough on the winch or using it in anyway that it wasn't designed for. I was using another vehicle as an anchor point trying to pull my self out of a snow drifted area.

I have contacted the company I bought it from as well as Superwinch, hopefully one of them is willing to rectify the problem, thought I don't have my hopes up on that happening.

So to you Superwinch owners, be careful using your Superwinch. Luckily enough nobody was close by when this happened because pieces of metal and plastic flew about 10 yards each way.
 
Wow. That is a fail. Looks like it bled out.
 
Well, I did not check them right before this incident but they were checked not even a week ago, and they were tight at that time. They were just as tight the day I checked them as the day they were when I put it on a year ago.
So I guess to everyone that uses a winch, check your bolts every single time you go to use it, even if you used it 10 minutes before and it worked, check em again.
 
Yea, wasn't meaning to make it sound like you were. I posted up to get ideas and suggestions of why this would happen so I am glad people are throwing things like that out.

After getting it off the Jeep this morning it looks as though the rear mounting hole wallowed out and then caused the winch to twist and break apart like it did. So we need to find better ways to mount these darn things than with simple bolts and nuts. Makes me mad though that it was checked so soon and was nice and tight.
Nope the winch point was dead in front of me at the time this happened actually.
 
okay, couple ?'s, first, we don't even have any snow left up here in the Great White North, then again we don't have mountains where I live either, where you getting snow like that still?
Second, I've never tightened the winch bolts, now I've spot welded them on because I leave the heep at work a lot and didn't want it easily stolen, but I'll be checking them now. That's a bad scene. Sorry.
 
afbond03 said:
Yea, wasn't meaning to make it sound like you were. I posted up to get ideas and suggestions of why this would happen so I am glad people are throwing things like that out.

After getting it off the Jeep this morning it looks as though the rear mounting hole wallowed out and then caused the winch to twist and break apart like it did. So we need to find better ways to mount these darn things than with simple bolts and nuts. Makes me mad though that it was checked so soon and was nice and tight.
Nope the winch point was dead in front of me at the time this happened actually.
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Those "simple" nuts and bolts should be grade 8 and if that bolt was tight like you said how did the hole get wallowed out. I have seen stranger things happen but a grade 8 bolt can put up with that kind of stress.
 
I don't think this had any part of this particular problem but I've seen winches come apart if the mounting plate isn't perfectly square and perfectly flat.

Like I said, doubt that was the problem here but it's something people oughtta keep an eye out for.

Also...did the winch breaking cause the grill to get smashed? I'm curious how that happened.
 
The bolts were grade 8. Here is a picture of the mounting feet because I explained wrong earlier:
DSC_0352.jpg

Yep, here in Cheyenne WY we are getting 50 degree weather one day and snow the next. These are places where the snow just doesn't melt off until late May though.
Someone else posted on another forum that had his winch break like this as well.

Yep, when the winch broke it slammed into the grill, smashed it and the ac condenser. Not sure how the heck that happened, you would think it would go the other way.
 
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afbond03 said:
The bolts were grade 8. Here is a picture of the mounting feet because I explained wrong earlier:
DSC_0352.jpg

Yep, here in Cheyenne WY we are getting 50 degree weather one day and snow the next. These are places where the snow just doesn't melt off until late May though.
Someone else posted on another forum that had his winch break like this as well.

Yep, when the winch broke it slammed into the grill, smashed it and the ac condenser. Not sure how the heck that happened, you would think it would go the other way.
Click to expand...


Oh yikes, that looks nasty. Sorry that it happened to you.
 
looks like the casting broke on one foot and whent down hill from there. im guessing bad casting was the problem here
 
Yikes. Was it FarmerMatt that had a Warn do this?
 
wolfpackjeeper said:
I would have guessed Cheyenne, Wyoming. But thats just me.
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:laugh: :rof:

On the mounting hardware. Don't grade 8 bolts have lower shear strength than grade 5? It would seem in my non-nuclear mind that on a winch mount shear strength of the bolt would be more important than tensile strength.

If you need a grille contact Rightseatsis. Two months ago I pulled a white grille off her 2001 and installed a bling one. The OEM grill is probably collecting dust on a shelf at her place.
 
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I believe grade 8s are stronger than grade 5s in every way.

My bet on why it broke the grille - the bumper was likely flexed a bit forward from the tension on the line, when the line suddenly went slack because of the winch nuking itself, the bumper snapped back and threw the winch remains into the grille. That plastic gets pretty brittle in the cold so it wouldn't take much to break it, chunks of winch thrown from close range would do it easily.
 
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