Winch solenoid failure…

I know that the winch topic has been beaten to death, several times. However’ I was not able to turn up any information beyond the brand/size debates.

I’m currently shopping around for an electric winch. Reliability and dollar value being primary concerns. While on a recent run, a participants winch quit as a result of what was then suspected failure of the solenoid.

My questions to those of you with years of experience using winches and/or electrical theory are these:

Has the solenoid been an identifiable contributor to winch failure. If so can you establish any relationship to the level in which you were relying on the winch, i.e. long or high load pulls?

Is MOSFET technology (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor), yeah right, as touted by Warn with their controller and 9.5si a sound application?

Though buying the controller separate seems way to pricey, a couple hundred bucks more when purchasing a winch is not unreasonable if the potential for really saving my bacon is there.



Any information, opinions or ensuing flame wars would be greatly appreciated.



TIA

If you're concerned with failure/overheating go with the 9.5ti....however, the MOSFET would REALLY be the way to go for the obvious reason that it eliminates the solenoids. Most of the failures *I* have seen are from solenoid failure. Grab a couple of spares and you should be fine. At any rate, forget the MOSFET as nobody is sure when Warn is going to release it...if ever. I have customer paperwork on file for two guys waiting for si models, put on order 2 years ago. Warn keeps telling us, "hopefully soon." :wierd: