harbor freight winches

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You get what you pay for, mine is on the 8274-50 big W and give or take a bit ten years of not so mutch as a problem one (short of snaping two cables and one blue line) would not buy an other.

So you have used the HF winches then?
 
Anyone have the Slee shortbus bumper with a winch other than what is listed on their site mounted in it? I am looking at their bumper but am considering a harbor freight winch.
 
HF vs Warn interchange

Anyone have the Slee shortbus bumper with a winch other than what is listed on their site mounted in it? I am looking at their bumper but am considering a harbor freight winch.
It's been a while since I did a lot of research on winch and winch fitments, but at the end of the day, I installed the HF Badlands 12k winch into my TJM bumper - designed to take the Warn M8000. The way I knew it would fit was to ck the overall dimensions published online of the W-M8K vs the HF-B12K. IIRC, the overall dimension of the Badlands was slightly shorter (length), and the other dimensions (drum, mounting - 4inx10in) were 'standard' issue. I used the exact winch mounting for the M8000 and fit the B12k.

I did install the solenoid box remotely, as the TJM won't allow stacked solenoid anyhow, so not sure how that will work with the HF winch+Slee bumper, as the shape of the box is different than the Warn. I also bought and pinned out the Warn Wireless remote (76080) and wired it into the Badlands 12k. I routinely use the winch to bring dead cars onto a tandem axle trailer, and this setup works great, and the HF performs as well as my previous Warn on my old Gen 1 4R.

My installation includes a front mounted trailer hitch setup between the frame rails with a opening in the skid pan to insert a 16in extended Class III hitch ball. Hook the trailer to the front of the truck, run the winch to the car, use remote to drive car onto trailer. Lazy-boy chair-like in how well this setup works.

To the actual differences between the winches... The actual 'winch' design is very similar, in the breakdown of parts and operation. The big advantage to Warn IMO, it uses 4 separate HD solenoids in the 'box' for winch control, where the HF winches use a single integrated solenoid. But I suspect an in-use failure in either box would require the same expertise to bypass a faulty 'circuit'.

HTH

Scott J
94 FZJ80 Supercharged, TJM with HF- Badlands 12k - Warn Remote 76080 modded
 
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