Eye opening winch comparison. (1 Viewer)

A thread in "Outfitting" was asking about "T-Max" winches....and whether or not they are any good.

I don't have any experience with them so I can't comment on their reliability.

I did take the time to look up the "specs" on both a TM and a Warn, and on the surface the T-Max looks appealing. When you look at the performance specs. however.....it soon becomes evident which one is the true workhorse.

I have cautioned people in the past to look at the line pull figures for any winch they might be interested in....but first lets look at the basic features of both.

TM rated line pull (12,500)....the Warn (12,000).
TM motor 6.6 hp/12v.....vs. 4.6 for the Warn (advantage TM).
TM gear ratio 265:1.....the Warn 261:1 (very similar).
TM drum 2.52".....the Warn 3.5"
TM has 94' of 3/8" cable......the Warn 125' of 3/8" (advantage Warn).
TM weighs 93 lbs.....the Warn weighs 136 lbs.
Both come with a roller fairlead, remote control, clutch, brake, and require about 650 cca. to operate efficiently.

Now lets look at the line pulls:


TM first layer 12,500..............Warn first layer 12,000
TM 2nd layer 9,210.................Warn 2nd layer 11,120
TM 3rd layer 8,030..................Warn 3rd layer 10,340
TM 4th layer 6,894...................Warn 4th layer 9,770
TM no more layers...................Warn 5th layer 9,250


The Warn has more "grunt" on its 5th layer than the TM does on its 2nd.

The TM from its 1st layer to its 4th layer gives up a whopping 5,606 lbs. of pull.

The Warn by comparison gives up only 2,230 lbs. of pull, and still has another layer to go.

If TM has not put out some inaccurate specs. then IMOP they have managed to produce a woefully inefficient product.

Just thought you'd like to see this.

thanks, but this is moving out of 80 tech to outfitting

What do you mean by layers

Layers of cable on the drum.

M

Ok so what this means is that with 50 Feet of Cable (approx) extended, the T-Max has 8000lbs vs the Warn with 10,000 lbs.

One more reason to buy a Warn. One of the tech guys at Warn is a good friend of a friend of mine. We hung with him at Cruise Moab the last 2 years. Warn actually buys their competitors winches and make sure theirs stay ahead. T_Maxs and other Chinese winches do not sound worth the gas it takes to go buy them. One of the major brands uses a brake which is prone to failure due to poor heat treating. Another had major defects in the motor. Most of them sound like bad news waiting to happen. When you need a winch, you really need it. Not a place to skimp in my opinion. Obviously, someone from Warn has a bias, but he was a pretty straight shooter and really knew his stuff. He did not have bad things to say about Ramsey.

My biggest complaint with Warn wiches in an ARB bumper is that everytime you use the winch, it sounds like it's about to explode! They've never let me down but they can be quite loud as compaired to a X9 or a Husky.

Romer said:

Ok so what this means is that with 50 Feet of Cable (approx) extended, the T-Max has 8000lbs vs the Warn with 10,000 lbs.

Click to expand...

TM's specs. @ 8,000 lbs. show it to have 65' payed out....so at 50 feet the figure would be even less (in the 7,??? lb. range). I didn't look up the length of the drum for the Warn unit but the drum dia. is 3.5", 50' of cable payed out on the Warn will likely yield a pull figure higher than 10,000 lb.

But yeah, the Warn pretty much hands the T-Max its ass.

Ok

I have a question, out of curiousity.

If the Warn motor has a lower rating, same gearing, BUT and larger diameter drum, effectively increasing the gearing, why is it more powerful?

Maybe the test is done continuously and the T Max overheats?

different type of motor maybe? Good question!

Kofoed said:

Ok

I have a question, out of curiousity.

If the Warn motor has a lower rating, same gearing, BUT and larger diameter drum, effectively increasing the gearing, why is it more powerful?

Maybe the test is done continuously and the T Max overheats?

Click to expand...

IMO, it's not about 'horsepower', it's about torque. In a vehicle winch, power trumps speed.

M

What kind of Warn are we talking about here?

Kofoed said:

Ok

I have a question, out of curiousity.

If the Warn motor has a lower rating, same gearing, BUT and larger diameter drum, effectively increasing the gearing, why is it more powerful?

Maybe the test is done continuously and the T Max overheats?

Click to expand...

Its a good question and is the first thing I thought of too.

Alot could account for it, how large and efficient the planetary gears are, how big are the bearings, where are they mounted. Both armatures are series wound but what gauge wire, how good is the field...etc.

The horsepower rating for the TM may be exaggerated and is almost certainly an "on paper" figure. At "the drum" figures might be significantly different.

Then again... maybe the outfit in Australia that tested it didn't do a thorough job.
I just know what they printed.

Check out the difference between the 24V version and 12V. Initial speed is a little lower but remains more consistent over weight spread. Amps are cut by about 1/3 up to 1/2 when you get to a full 12000lb pull. A very worthy consideration especially with a lot of folks running dual batteries anyway.

http://www.warn.com/truck/winches/src/M1200.shtml

eshelbyk said:

Check out the difference between the 24V version and 12V. Initial speed is a little lower but remains more consistent over weight spread. Amps are cut by about 1/3 up to 1/2 when you get to a full 12000lb pull. A very worthy consideration especially with a lot of folks running dual batteries anyway.

http://www.warn.com/truck/winches/src/M1200.shtml

Click to expand...

The only fly in the ointment is that you would have to do some creative wiring.
Most people are running duals either isolated or parallel. You'd have to have the two batteries wired in series for 24. v. Could be done with a switch plate and some buss bars though.