Pros and cons on Harbor Freight's 12,000 lbs Bad Land winch (1 Viewer)
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What is your “maintenance” routine?
I have a harbor freight on mine when I bought it. It’s about 10 years old and looks like it got bolted in and never removed.
I myself have had warn on majority of my rigs and the feel of them pulling, imop feels a little more stout and not like a bag of rocks.
With that said, I’ve owned this LC for almost 2 years and its dawned on me a couple of times to replace it with a warn, but I’ve used the HF so many times that it’s really never let me down. So for now I think that I’m going to stick with it till the day it fails, if ever.
Btw we tried to pull this full size, had another LC anchored to the rear, for about 5 mins and it didn’t even over heat or stop.
The full size ended up lowering his pressure to 10 and got about halfway on the opposite side and then need a pull out of the bowl.
I myself have had warn on majority of my rigs and the feel of them pulling, imop feels a little more stout and not like a bag of rocks.
With that said, I’ve owned this LC for almost 2 years and its dawned on me a couple of times to replace it with a warn, but I’ve used the HF so many times that it’s really never let me down. So for now I think that I’m going to stick with it till the day it fails, if ever.
Btw we tried to pull this full size, had another LC anchored to the rear, for about 5 mins and it didn’t even over heat or stop.
The full size ended up lowering his pressure to 10 and got about halfway on the opposite side and then need a pull out of the bowl.
I’ve added synthetic line to it, and wired it to dash switches using my antenna up and down switch. I also apply dialectic grease to all the electrical connections, and about every 2-3 months I’ll pull all the line off the drum to wipe the drum off and lubricate it using molly based grease.
$2300 freaking dollars? I guess if I was out in life threatening conditions with a bunch of dip sh_ts who had huge loaded rigs and nobody thought to bring a winch I would either buy the winch you mention or more likely find a better prepaired group to wheel with
Prepared yes with 1000 lit of spare diesel you would of been able to see our signal fire from your house.$2300 freaking dollars? I guess if I was out in life threatening conditions with a bunch of dip sh_ts who had huge loaded rigs and nobody thought to bring a winch I would either buy the winch you mention or more likely find a better prepaired group to wheel with
Picture our fuel
/chase truck will be taking the winch shortly
I would go again tomorrow
Wow, that looks like a close call.
Any vehicle recovery can become life threatening in an instant. s*** happens.$2300 freaking dollars? I guess if I was out in life threatening conditions with a bunch of dip sh_ts who had huge loaded rigs and nobody thought to bring a winch I would either buy the winch you mention or more likely find a better prepaired group to wheel with
A couple other rigs were no so lucky
Box Rocket
SILVER Star
I have the same mindset as @LandCruiserPhil when it comes to winches. IMO it's just not worth cheaping out on a winch. I'm not really a "sky is falling" type and think that life threatening situations are that frequent, but the problem is you just can't predict when those situations are going to happen. In the same way it's difficult to predict when that cheap winch is going to fail, and when it does is it going to turn a benign situation into one of those more serious ones.
Reliability and complete confidence in the tool is the most important factor in my mind when choosing a winch. Price should be secondary. Warn has options that I would say fit that bill, but not everything from Warn does IMO. ComeUp has also proven to be one of those options. I've had winch from both Warn and ComeUp. I've also had a Ramsey which I wasn't very confident with.
Water intrusion and electrical issues are the most common point of winch failure. So if you choose to buy an off-brand or cheaper option, just do your self a favor and take steps to waterproof the motor and contactors.
FWIW, in my experience I haven't seen a Badlands winch fail. I've heard of it happening but I don't hear it too frequently. They are kinda slow but tend to work pretty well. Of the cheaper winches the Badlands would be the one I would consider before most of the others.
Reliability and complete confidence in the tool is the most important factor in my mind when choosing a winch. Price should be secondary. Warn has options that I would say fit that bill, but not everything from Warn does IMO. ComeUp has also proven to be one of those options. I've had winch from both Warn and ComeUp. I've also had a Ramsey which I wasn't very confident with.
Water intrusion and electrical issues are the most common point of winch failure. So if you choose to buy an off-brand or cheaper option, just do your self a favor and take steps to waterproof the motor and contactors.
FWIW, in my experience I haven't seen a Badlands winch fail. I've heard of it happening but I don't hear it too frequently. They are kinda slow but tend to work pretty well. Of the cheaper winches the Badlands would be the one I would consider before most of the others.
+1 on the Comeup, just got one myself.
Totally agree with that statement, and it seems it happens more often to those who don't pay their due diligence.
One of the main reason I'm making the switch to 100% synthetic recovery gear and no more winch hook.
I agree with this 110%. Any item that has the potential to save my families life, or mine, is worth ensuring that when the time comes the thought of “I hope it works” doesn’t even cross my mind! I don’t do daring enough expeditions where I feel I’m putting anybody’s life in danger, so I can’t justfy a Warn or ComeUp, but if the trips start getting any wilder I won’t hesitate to put me a new ComeUp on!
As far as the “Also rans”..... I’m terrified of MileMarker...... the last (and only) one I had didn’t even survive the 1st f’ing pull!!! The Harbor Freight Badlands I have on now is nearly 10 years old, and I’ve never had any issues with it! I added synthetic line when I bought it, re-greased everything, and I unspool to clean the drum and lube/inspect it about once a month.
For 'occasional' use and with the understanding that it has a 5% duty cycle (I.E. 45 seconds use....15 minutes cool down), only 60' of cable and a whopping 90 day warranty, it might be O.K. for some folks.
Reviews and real-world use vary widely.
I have one on my 40, and have used it about 10 times over the last few years. No problems here!
I have a 2010 Tundra, I just dropped my ARB Bull Bar winch bumper at my mechanic and he suggested the HF 12000. I was not planning on a winch because I rarely go offroad but just read this thread, what say you guys? Is it ok for an almost no need situation?
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Fill the hole & in the event I ever do I have some means of a possibility of getting out of trouble.
Pro: it's from Harbor Freight, so it's cheap...
Con: it's from Harbor Freight, so it's cheap...
Con: it's from Harbor Freight, so it's cheap...
