Was this the unit that all the instructors were recommending ?
Winch Decisions ??
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Was this the unit that all the instructors were recommending ?
The answer was " Superwinch gives the less trouble in the field".
Warn 16.5ti.
Perfect match for a loaded cruiser.
A 10k rated winch is not.
(In my experience).
16.5ti
M12000 below
Perfect match for a loaded cruiser.
A 10k rated winch is not.
(In my experience).
16.5ti
M12000 below
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All the jeeps but one here have a warn, so they must be good as they need them!
After having m10 & m12 I've gone with the 16.5. Bit slow but I believe it gives me the best chance of a successful recovery, compared to all other 12v winches. I travel solo in very remote places from time to time...
SmokingRocks
hopelessly addicted to Cruisers
Exactly my thoughts. If you are going to go solo to places where no one else is, you ought to have the best "get out alive" gear available. Not some harbor freight junk.
And not an Engo either apparently ! Though I don't believe those are sold at HF.
I disagree, Engo is an excellent product and should be considered, it is a high quality product built from the best materials and fortified with unobtanium. I, in the spirit of Mud Brotherhood, am willing to sacrifice for ya'll and sell my Engo 10000S cheaply to any member interested.
Actually, I am thinking the rope is worth more than the winch. May keep that for off camber trapezing around.
Actually, I am thinking the rope is worth more than the winch. May keep that for off camber trapezing around.
I'm not sure what the venom is about, but I prefer to stick to the facts. That said, I don't even own a HF, so not taking sides here, just taking note that the oversimplification of this question to "You should buy the biggest most expensive winch possible" doesn't serve most of us, even if you feel it's a personal necessity.
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jvazquez53
El Tractor
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Be honest with what you will use it for and the conditions that it will be used. When I'm with others my snatch strap is always first choice and works amazingly. By yourself make sure you have a winch in good shape and rated for what you might need to pull. Wiring and battery quality and condition are very important as well. This is a pic of a 5 hr ordeal where I was solo. Snatch block and m12000 pushed to the test in some serious suction. It was a struggle even on the first wrap of the drum and with snatch block. I am glad I had nothing less. The water level behind me came up as it rained the 5 hours I was there. I had to pull about 300yds in total. The beer tasted amazing at the end of the day.
...via IH8MUD app
...via IH8MUD app
SmokingRocks
hopelessly addicted to Cruisers
It wasn't my intention to come across as brash in that comment though now I can see how it may have been taken that way, sorry for that. I have not been saying that 'warn is the only way to go' or that 'you should buy the biggest most expensive winch possible' but rather I've been expressing my point of view that if you plan on using it a lot then a quality winch will better suit that form of use. I mean seriously how can you argue against that? Will a cheap winch pull the same weight? maybe. Will a cheap winch take longer to do it because you have to let it 'cool' for more time? definitely. If you spend a day winching would you want to worry about making sure your cheap winch maintains its temp? Probably not, you would get tired of it.
As pointed out earlier you can surf craigslist and find deals on quality winches, so why buy cheap if you can find something good. Additionally most of the people who wheel more modified rigs seem to agree with my stance since you usually see warns, smittybuilts, superwinches ect in their bumpers, not a badlands. Yes I would agree that the less expensive winches have their place as you duly noted earlier. That place just happens to not be on my rig, different stroke for different folks.
And yea the 8" front diff certainly isn't ideal, however I've never had issues with it as of yet. Also if something breaks I do some work and drive home in 2wd just fine. Appreciate the jab though
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I am an old guy, so I would say you work hard for your money, buy what makes you happy (after giving 1/3 to the GOV and half to your wife!). Some guys here buy expensive wheels, or radios, bumpers, lights, beer, guns, beer, guns, etc. Your money, your happiness, go for it, only you know how hard it was to get that paycheck. And of course there are many in the community who feel compelled to correct their fellow mudders. We thank you for caring so much as we learn from others. I like to spend my money on instruction, classes, schools. Makes me happy.
Back to our original programming OP, here's the inside of the Engo solenoid box after only a few months, never used. Tested motor, it ran, so probably needs just the solenoid. Regardless, I am chucking it and selling the 85' 3/8" synthetic line that has no pulls with. And that's my money and it makes me happy to chuck it, buying a Superwinch 115000 SR. I can't stand something that leaves me stranded like this Engo. This box is not close to NEMA 4, it's crap, might as well be made out of paper.
By the way, I know the LC can get stuck. But yesterday we had jeeps with giant tires, winches, skull and bones stickers, Warn winches, fangs, claws, etc. Without a winch, and on 33", my 3X locked LC never got stuck. Only needed lockers twice, these are amazing rigs.
Back to our original programming OP, here's the inside of the Engo solenoid box after only a few months, never used. Tested motor, it ran, so probably needs just the solenoid. Regardless, I am chucking it and selling the 85' 3/8" synthetic line that has no pulls with. And that's my money and it makes me happy to chuck it, buying a Superwinch 115000 SR. I can't stand something that leaves me stranded like this Engo. This box is not close to NEMA 4, it's crap, might as well be made out of paper.
By the way, I know the LC can get stuck. But yesterday we had jeeps with giant tires, winches, skull and bones stickers, Warn winches, fangs, claws, etc. Without a winch, and on 33", my 3X locked LC never got stuck. Only needed lockers twice, these are amazing rigs.
@Izzyandsue water intrusion into the control box is a common issue with Badlands/Engo clones, and that ^ definitely came from the same factory as the Badlands winches. I did a write up in winch tech on how to waterproof the box and the winch as it is the one complaint I've seen most often with this brand. Its also the number one thing that seems to stop them working. BTW, if you want to PM me with a price on that synthetic line, I might be interested in putting it on its twin here in Kansas 
Looks a lot like the cruddy inside of the boxes on my old Warns, so probably REALLY common. I'm pretty sure Warn's improved on that since the 70s and 80s, but it's also something which, as you noted can be mitigated with some relatively simple steps, can be mostly prevented. It's not really a winch failure so much as a wiring failure, although the result is the same -- winch no go.
An easy piece of low-hanging fruit to grab is to put that dang black box under the hood.
That at least keeps the rain and snow from getting to it if the vehicle isn't blessed with a garage to shelter it. Obviously, there are better or worse places under the hood and it's hot there, but it won't stay drenched for days like it would out on the bumper. It also cleans up the look of the install.
What about hooking up the control? You can open the hood and plug in, put the plug out on the bumper or in the grille, or go wireless with kits offered by several makers.
@greentruck the way you have your solenoid box mounted is the way I think I'm going to end up doing it. I already removed the Albright solenoid from the box and just need to get the battery tray and figure up a mounting system to put the solenoid and the remote on there.
Note there's no battery in the tray and it was still a PITA to get everything mounted.
That's where I clustered my Blue Sea switch to control feed to the winch from each battery (mounted to top of AL bracket my tapemeasure is propping up), my Hellroaring isolator (on the back of the empty battery box) and a circuit breaker for that half of the charge circuit, plus a big fuse for the feed to the winch. Relocated the washer tank with the Slee kit.You can see the gray sheathing protecting the cabling down to the winch and across to the DS. Note that the line to the A/C compressor is right in there too, at least on my 97, so careful but I've had not a bit of trouble with it all tied down.
Make 'em phat as you can is my advice and waterproof as much as possible. The control box ix mounted about as high as possible without going further back toward the firewall, longer cables, bummer, but possible I suppose.
Also note that the control box is right in the middle of fan spray, depending on the state of your shroud. So it can get wet. It just won't live that way for months on end. It's little stuff like that that winches mainly fail over. I can understand that winches break, but this is all about maintenance in my book. The user could prevent this, not to say you done bad. People just don't know there winch as well as they should.
You can buy an old Warn and say it don't work and fails, too, but only the new ones tend to have the improvements in waterproofing. Been a long time since I looked at a Warn, but they did improve them at some point, at least the high end models. Why? because the Chinese proved you could build a fairly reliable winch and bring it to market that's basically the same thing as Warn was selling. I learned about this with my old 8274, taught me a lesson, good thing I was testing before the trip, a good thing to do at least once a year no matter whose name is on your winch. Because that pic looks about like what happened with that 8274 and people put up with that for decades, so cheap winches are improving the breed, so to speak. Yeah, you get what you pay for, but with a little knowledge, even a cheap winch can deal with the vague uncertainties of life pretty well.
Lemme see if I have pics...
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SmokingRocks
hopelessly addicted to Cruisers
Thats your second unhelpful and inflammatory post. * post was deleted
You cheap winch guys are just like the "my 4.6 is every bit of your 5.7" guys that were on the tundra forums. Geez come off it already.
Will the 4.6 drive down the road, yes. Will it do everything the 5.7 can do.. No
=
Will a cheap winch pull load, yes. Will it do it the same way an 'expensive' winch would? No
If you are going to be hauling all the time get a 5.7
If you are going to be pulling line all day get as quality of a winch as you can afford.
You wouldn't buy a ford ranger to haul a double axle fifth wheel just because it could do it point is get the right gear for the job you intend to use it for. Not many shop at HF for intricate tools they intend to use long or for important tasks like recovery. It's really pretty freakin simple.
Massive Multi-Winch Shootout - Four Wheeler Magazine
great article here
Tug of War: The Ultimate 12v Winch Test
You cheap winch guys are just like the "my 4.6 is every bit of your 5.7" guys that were on the tundra forums. Geez come off it already.
Will the 4.6 drive down the road, yes. Will it do everything the 5.7 can do.. No
=
Will a cheap winch pull load, yes. Will it do it the same way an 'expensive' winch would? No
If you are going to be hauling all the time get a 5.7
If you are going to be pulling line all day get as quality of a winch as you can afford.
You wouldn't buy a ford ranger to haul a double axle fifth wheel just because it could do it point is get the right gear for the job you intend to use it for. Not many shop at HF for intricate tools they intend to use long or for important tasks like recovery. It's really pretty freakin simple.
Massive Multi-Winch Shootout - Four Wheeler Magazine
great article here
Tug of War: The Ultimate 12v Winch Test
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Once again someone links the winch shootout from 5 years ago 
@greentruck those pictures are quite helpful. Since my solenoid will be out of the protective box I may make a splash shield for it. I'm not super concerned about water coming off the fan thought. The Albright solenoid is supposed to be mostly water proof !
@greentruck those pictures are quite helpful. Since my solenoid will be out of the protective box I may make a splash shield for it. I'm not super concerned about water coming off the fan thought. The Albright solenoid is supposed to be mostly water proof !
Dirty Koala
SILVER Star
I am surprised there has been very little discussion around the hydraulic winches. The mile marker HI12000 is on my to do list, 100% duty cycle and more reliable than any 12 winch. The 12V winches also put a beating on your batteries...no alternater can keep up with the current draw of a 12V winch.
