This past trip had an unpleasant accident for me, during one of the uphill battles my winch line failed. Now this is a Warn 8000 winch that I purchased a year ago from National (before they closed down). This recovery was on a 20 degree up slope, in snow with a muddy bottom. I had 70 feet of the 100 foot wire rope spooled out and everything was going fine, at about 60 feet out the cable let go and the truck fell back until it luckily jammed and kinked under the pressure. The part that failed was the small crimped on loop at the end of the cable (the one that attaches to the drum), now this is ridiculous because I had 40 feet on the drum so there was no reason for it to fail. The loop broke open and the only think that kept the truck from falling back was luck.
So I wrote a letter to Warn, thinking it might get a reply but that's it, it outlined exactly what happened and that I was disappointed in the quality of the product. I sent it yesterday, today I got a phone call from them and we went over the details of the accident again. To my surprise the rep apologized for the incident, said that he had not encountered an issue like that before and even though it's not their practise to do it normally he would send me a new cable by mail. Granted I sent pictures of the winching process and the terrain to prove my case but I was still shocked.
So for those that look at some no name Chinese knock off product and wonder if it's worth paying the extra for the name brand - think about this, how good is the customer service for that product, I used to have a Champion winch, but I knew I would get no support from them, and as soon as I could I upgraded to a Warn. Now granted the Champion did last for 4 years and over 20 recoveries, where the Warn was on it's 8th, so the argument falls short there. I do hope this was an isolated incident and the new cable will work flawlessly but I do have admit that the level of service I received was beyond expected.
So I wrote a letter to Warn, thinking it might get a reply but that's it, it outlined exactly what happened and that I was disappointed in the quality of the product. I sent it yesterday, today I got a phone call from them and we went over the details of the accident again. To my surprise the rep apologized for the incident, said that he had not encountered an issue like that before and even though it's not their practise to do it normally he would send me a new cable by mail. Granted I sent pictures of the winching process and the terrain to prove my case but I was still shocked.
So for those that look at some no name Chinese knock off product and wonder if it's worth paying the extra for the name brand - think about this, how good is the customer service for that product, I used to have a Champion winch, but I knew I would get no support from them, and as soon as I could I upgraded to a Warn. Now granted the Champion did last for 4 years and over 20 recoveries, where the Warn was on it's 8th, so the argument falls short there. I do hope this was an isolated incident and the new cable will work flawlessly but I do have admit that the level of service I received was beyond expected.