Harbor Freight Winches

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I agree that was a bold statement.

I assumed he had meant that the steel cable supplied on all the Harbor Freight winches sucked. Mine certainly did. I would suspect the winch manufacturer cuts corners where possible to save money and boost profit, maybe buying the cheapest cable they can get. I doubt all the Chinese cable manufacturers produce the same quality cable since the replacement cable I bought is from China and much more supple than what I removed.


My neighbor has a 9k HF winch with 5/16" cable that has no stiffness or quality issues like my 3/8" cable had.


My greatest concern with the HF winch I have is that the drum is wider than the fairlead so I can't get the cable to spool tight at the edges. The cable likes to fall into that valley and lie over itself and get stuck. I have seen the same issue on other winch brands I looked at. Synthetic line would have the same issue.

I've briefly wondered if I could fab fillers for the drum ends to stop that problem.

Does anyone else have this issue?


Living in the Past said:
Curious how long you been running your synthetic line? That is kind of a bold statement. I bought my first winch in 1982, a used OEM PTO winch with it's original steel cable (1972) which I still use today. Living in a dry desert climit No way would I trust a synthetic line had half that age here in the desert.
Click to expand...
 
The cable on my 12K HF winch is nowhere near as nice as the one on my 12K Warn. How could it be at 1/4 the price?

It would cost damn near what the wich did to put a "decent" cable on it.
 
I don't agree with the price. I bought a nice quality replacement cable from a commercial marine cable store with a thimble swedged on for under $80.


cruiserdan said:
The cable on my 12K HF winch is nowhere near as nice as the one on my 12K Warn. How could it be at 1/4 the price?

It would cost damn near what the wich did to put a "decent" cable on it.
Click to expand...
 
srgould41 said:
I don't agree with the price. I bought a nice quality replacement cable from a commercial marine cable store with a thimble swedged on for under $80.
Click to expand...

That would be a viable option I had not considered. I was thinking of sourcing them from Warn for example.

Still that cost is almost 40% of the HF winch.

My HF winch is basicly a decoration filling the hole in my vintage Warn bumper on the front of my old Dodge truck. :lol:
 
It was quite a bold statement, but maybe I should rephrase. I've experienced line from the HF winch, a Warn M8K and a Superwinch EP 9.0 and they all looked to be the same quality. I've not experienced any cable from a Warn 12k so I cannot comment on the quality of the steel line of that particular line of winches

Regardless, I'll be running synthetic line on all of my winches. They're just so much easier to work with.
 
cruiserdan said:
That would be a viable option I had not considered. I was thinking of sourcing them from Warn for example.

Still that cost is almost 40% of the HF winch.

My HF winch is basicly a decoration filling the hole in my vintage Warn bumper on the front of my old Dodge truck. :lol:
Click to expand...

Yep, wire is 40% of the cost. Typical synth is almost the same cost as the winch ;)

I don't really know if Warn's winch cable is of a much higher quality than other locally available cable. It better be for what they charge for it. The place I got mine from said they could get USA made cable, but it was very expensive and I would have to buy the whole spool :doh:. Maybe that is what Warn is supplying.
 
srgould41 said:
My greatest concern with the HF winch I have is that the drum is wider than the fairlead so I can't get the cable to spool tight at the edges. The cable likes to fall into that valley and lie over itself and get stuck. I have seen the same issue on other winch brands I looked at. Synthetic line would have the same issue.

I've briefly wondered if I could fab fillers for the drum ends to stop that problem.

Does anyone else have this issue?
Click to expand...

Not really a issue for me. I'm using the HF fairhead on my ARB bullbar. I replaced the pins for the side rollers and grade eight bolts that tied into the bumper.




cruiserdan said:
My HF winch is basicly a decoration filling the hole in my vintage Warn bumper on the front of my old Dodge truck. :lol:
Click to expand...

Pretty much the same here. If the ARB I found locally wasn't a winch bumper I would not have bought one. But it filled the hole without spending a ton of money. If it was a PTO winch I would run the cable in and out to see of it would become more flexable. Not sure I want to put that many uses in a short time on any electric winch much less one I bought for cheap. Other than checking to make sure it works even now and then I will wait until a real need before unspooling the cable.
 
I use it. Works fine. On the badlands winches you can just unplug it and store it in glovebox or similar out of the elements.

I have the 9000lb variety. I also bought an eBay winch cover. Mine is mounted on my trailer to pull cars up.
 
srgould41 said:
Has anyone used one of these? I almost bought one, but was afraid it might not last long.
Click to expand...

I have it and use it all the time.
 
Just want to report that I used my 12k Badlands for the first time for a true recovery today, in snow.

Long story short, it worked great, but the cable was a big pain due to the stiffness everyone else has noticed.

Luckily, the local hardware store up here in Bellingham has a fantastic rigging shop that has good prices, so I'm probably going to replace it with something better before my next wheeling trip.

Also gonna build a spare tire mounting plate for my roof rack (32" super swamper plus stock FJ60 mounting position = bad times in deep snow).
 
HF 12K

I'm new to your forum, I'm not a Toyota driver but I am a dedicated 4 wheeler. I have owned a Badland 12K winch for two years now. The only 2 let downs I've had were I over extended the cable and pulled the rope out of the lug that fixes it to the spool and the cable that came with the winch got so hopelessly kinked I had to cut it off with a torch. Sense then I bought 93' 1/2" synthetic rope and never looked back. A short summation of the torture I've put this winch through... I'm not gentle on anything. Murphy wrote his book watching me four wheel. I've spent days pulling 60' maple trees up and out of the woods in sweltering heat, I have pulled my 90 Bronco II straight up waterfalls then through yards of 3' deep mud with this winch . I have hauled my buds Jeep out of skidder ruts that would swallow a tank, I've pulled 2 wheel drive trackers out of axle deep mud. I have attached two come-alongs to my rear bumper then to a large trees so I could pull my friends Ranger up a 45 degree mud hill in 90 degree heat, and still not a whimper from this winch. I laugh at the arrogance of the Warn guys who pay three to four times what I paid and get no better performance than I get from my HF POS. Yes I would recommend the Badlands winch to anyone looking to save a few dollars and still come away with a product that will do the job. Seeing as most of the winches available today are made in China anyhow, how do you know your "far superior" Warn, Smitty built or Ramsey winch wasn't build on the same assembly line as my Badland? just sayin.......:D
 
i just bought a hf 12k on saturday. Wish my store would let me use the 20% off on the 299 sale price but they are really good at saying no to that real fast.
I didn't buy the extended warranty. Should i go back and do so, has anyone really used it yet or?
 
I would recommend the warranty just because it came from HF. It's not too much more and you carry it back for any reason for two years. I got the remote (20% off), a warranty, and the winch for right at $400 out the door.
 
IB14A69 said:
........................I didn't buy the extended warranty. Should i go back and do so, has anyone really used it yet or?
Click to expand...
For the $ that you're saving with a Badland winch, it makes good sense to invest another $50 for a 2 year warranty.
 
I agree, get the extended warranty.

73, James - KF4AQO Sent from my iPad using IH8MUD
 
Would you still buy the warranty eventhough you know you will probably never use it in the two years?
 
lilevo said:
The warranty is no questions asked, so at the end of two years, bring it in and just get a brand new one.
Click to expand...

I bought the 2 year warranty also but I am not confident it's as easy as bringing it in and them handing you another one off the shelf. I asked about it and was reassured that it would be this easy, but was told by a buddy of mine that you have to call it in to their repair center first.

We'll see after the first person tries to warranty their winch. Post up the results if you do!
 
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