Quick winch question

[cal]

At the end of the day, a cheap winch will leave you stranded. you get what you pay for.


If you're looking for a winch you can use when you are out wheeling alone so you can worry less, you need to buy a quality name brand winch. Warn, Mike Marker, Ramsey.

If you wheel with your friends all the time, the gamble on that cheap winch may be worth it. When it fails and you're walking home though, that $200 you saved will feel mighty expensive.

 

[zachandandy]

I carry a hi-lift, several straps, chain, 2 snatch blocks, a shovel, an axe, an exhaust jack and multiple clevises. IF my smittybuilt fails (winched a wagoneer on 1tons and 37's up caddilac hill this past weekend no problem), and I happen to be alone, I can still get my vehicle unstuck. People act like the winch is the only viable recovery option. A winch won't do anything for you if you blow up your engine, tranny, or tcase. When you take your jeep out alone, go preppared. Spare parts and food/water are a must. No vehicle is 100% failsafe, and you can't have every possible spare part. Be preppared to walk out if need be. Warn winches can fail too. Less likely to fail? Probably. Don't bet your life on ANY winch.

 

[Darky]

My Smittybilt has been used fairly heavily and has worked fine. The money I saved allowed me to get synthetic rope and a recovery kit. You don't need to spend a grand on a winch.

In fact in the 4Wheeler article where they tested a bunch of winches, Warn was beaten by Engo, a $300 Chinese winch. The Warn broke, the Engo didn't. Superwinch broke, Engo didn't. T-Max was the winner performance wise with Engo followed by Superwinch. The Warn was declared the winner because of better stickers, packaging, instructions, and remote.
The tests involved a submersion test. Neither Engo, Warn, or Superwinch had issues here. Next was speed and efficiency: how far would it pull on just battery power. Of the surviving winches, Warn was last, Superwinch was first, Engo was 3rd.
The stall test came next. Warn and TMax tied for highest weight pulled with Superwinch 100 pounds behind. However, the Warn broke and wouldn't work afterwards, Superwinch wouldn't spool out afterwards, but I assume was still usable. TMax still worked fine. The Engo stalled 4000 pounds shy of the Warn (16000 vs 12000) but still worked fine afterwards. Both pulled well above their rated capacities of 9500 for the Warn and 9000 for the Engo. Which would you rather have: the one that pulled heavier but then died so you couldn't use it on the rest of the trip or the one that didn't pull quite as heavy but was still usable?

As Zach said, any winch can fail. Trying to act like you must buy Warn or else it will fail doesn't work.

 

[cal]

As Zach said, any winch can fail. Trying to act like you must buy Warn or else it will fail doesn't work.

And yet, no one here has said or implied that. What was said is that you get what you pay for, which stands to be the cold hard truth.

Tell me how many truly hardcore rigs, rock buggies, KOH rigs or WE Rock competitors you find running Smittybuilt winches?

its all Warn, Mile Marker and for a while T-max (they kind of fell off of the face of the earth) that you see on the rigs of people who winch most often.

Those products work. 99.999% of the time. Others work, but work less reliably and with less longevity. A $399 winch now and again in 4 years or a $550 winch that will last 10?

 

[_LongArmXJ_]

Ive got a 12k harbor freight winch thats on sale now for 339. Ive used it countless times with zero issues.

 

[Darky]

At the end of the day, a cheap winch will leave you stranded. you get what you pay for.

And yet, no one here has said or implied that. What was said is that you get what you pay for, which stands to be the cold hard truth.

Looks like you said it pretty clearly.

Tell me how many truly hardcore rigs, rock buggies, KOH rigs or WE Rock competitors you find running Smittybuilt winches?

its all Warn, Mile Marker and for a while T-max (they kind of fell off of the face of the earth) that you see on the rigs of people who winch most often.

Those products work. 99.999% of the time. Others work, but work less reliably and with less longevity. A $399 winch now and again in 4 years or a $550 winch that will last 10?

ANother test involving a Warn winch having issues...
http://www.expeditionportal.com/res...0-tug-of-war-the-ultimate-12v-winch-test.html
The Warn Endurance 12.0 cracked the case before even reaching its rated capacity because the official Warn plate wasn't used. Then the overnighted replacement dented the drum because synthetic line was used. The 8274 they tested however was a beast.

My point is that everyone claims Warn is the best and anything less is pointless, yet now in 2 different tests, a Warn came up short.

As for hardcore rigs, race teams, etc, how many of them are sponsored by Warn or another company? I know at the very least they all have more money to spend than I do. The Warn put out pretty good performance in the second test I posted, but it also broke. Do you have info on how frequently these people end up having to get their winches repaired or replaced? Plus, they're not likely as hard on their winches in the course of a race as the tests were or as someone out wheeling alone might have to be to get unstuck. In the scenario that you posed where the cheap winch will leave you stranded, it seems based on repeatable testing that the Warns are more likely to leave you stranded. Unless you have an 8274, which I bet a lot of the race rigs you were talking about have as well.

 

[cal]

I've never seen an 8274 on a modern competition rig, they are too heavy..

Personally I have seen 4 or 5 smittybuilt winches fail (two of them on the same run). Two t-max's (one of which was mine) and a superwinch. I've seen 1 warn solenoid fail.

People who set up tests love to make the big dogs fail. Goodyear tires always end up sucking, warn winches, the samurai somehow outperforms the wrangler..

get off of the reviews and into the real world.

 

[XJLI]

The new warn vr whatever is like 500 new. Can't really beat that. My experience with smittybilt is they're stupid slow...

 

[Darky]

I've never seen an 8274 on a modern competition rig, they are too heavy..

Personally I have seen 4 or 5 smittybuilt winches fail (two of them on the same run). Two t-max's (one of which was mine) and a superwinch. I've seen 1 warn solenoid fail.

People who set up tests love to make the big dogs fail. Goodyear tires always end up sucking, warn winches, the samurai somehow outperforms the wrangler..

get off of the reviews and into the real world.

Four Wheeler went out of their way to make sure Warn won. Expedition Portal specifically chose the Warn 8274 as their Editor's Choice. You can't force a winch to crack its case in half just because you want the underdog to win. Expedition Portal didn't even really have an underdog. They ran 2 Warns, a Superwinch, Mile Marker, and a Ramsey. All were $1100+.

My experience with smittybilt is they're stupid slow...

This is indeed true. Especially the XRC10 I have. It's been reliable but definitely slow.

 

[zachandandy]

Xrc winches are slow, think that might be why they aren't used on comp rigs?

 

[XJFrankenstein]

You really need a wench and a shovel. When you get stuck, tell her to get out and dig...:jester:

 

[Vanimal]

there's a difference between handling higher load for a test and handling a nominal load for an extended time. A winch can have a few beefy parts so it doesnt break, but it could have a crappily wind motor that overheats, shitty bearings, poor dimenional tolerances that turn into excessive wear over time, inferior sealing, etc.... the list goes on. just because something worked strong right out of the box in extreme circumstances doesn't mean that it's going to last longer in regular circumstances.

with that said, i'm not saying one is better than the other, but having been an engineer and in manufacturing my entire life, i know how this shit goes.

 

[98stocker]

Those stupid tests, reviews, whatever the mags want to call them are simply not statistically significant. If they wanted a true statistical analysis, they would need to get 15-20 of each winch, and put them through the same tests. Would be interesting to see the outcome, but I think we would find that the market decided correctly on the best winches.

 

[Darky]

Yeah, it would be nice to see a big huge test like that, but it's pretty much impossible. However, statistically, 3 out of 4 Warn winches had issues. Two outright broke. If you use your winch hard (just like any other part) and there's a risk it could break. If I had the money, I would've considered Warn, but Smittybilt was my price range. I chose to "settle" after reading reviews from people who owned them. The ratio of good to bad seemed about on par with everyone else.

 

[Voteban]

I like my harbor freight 10k, I think it was like $200 on sale, plus I have a lifetime warranty from HF, so I'm not worried about it. I've only used it once, but it drug my ass up a waterfall without even flinching, my 8.25 was dragging the whole time too.

:dunno: