Hey guys. I have a Cherokee lined out that I am supposed to go and look at Tuesday evening. It is supposed to have a 6.5" lift and 33's. Has a steel front bumper, but isn't big enough for a winch. I was planning on buying a smittybuilt XRC front bumper, a rear bumper I found off Amazon for around 200 bucks, front locker and rear locker. It has the 8.25 rear end and stock gears, so I figured I should be good as long as I am light on the pedal.

Anyway, onto the winch part. I'm not going to buy a warn or ramsey. Yes they make good winch's but I am simply not going to spend 1k on a winch that I will use a few times a year. I trade vehicles too much to justify spending that kind of cash on a winch because knowing me, I will sell it next year.

I am looking at 3 different winch options. I had an XRC8 on my last ZJ and bought it with the lifetime warranty and I never had any issues out of it, other than I had some issues with the free spool not wanting to free spool, and they sent me a new brake.



http://www.harborfreight.com/9000-lb...ake-61346.html

I know I could get the lifetime warranty with the smittybuilt if bought through 4wheelparts again.

I think the superwinch comes with a 2 year warranty

I'm not sure how long of a warranty you can get at HF on their winches. But I would want to put synthetic rope on the winch if I bought that one. I have never had synthetic rope on a winch, always cable. This time I want to go with synthetic rope.

Thoughts opinions?

 

Hit up Craigslist. I bought my warn for 200.

 

I have the smittybilt 9500 winch. I've only had it for a little while but, its worked great for me. I also went with the smittybilt bumper as well.

 

I am currently running a Q11,000 from Quadratec on my XJ. I had it on my Power Wagon but switched it when my other winch went out on me. I have been told (and it looks a whole lot like) it is a rebadged MileMarker. When it was on my P/U, I used it heavily 4-5 times a week working in the woods.

 

Check on Engos as well. Great warranty, great price and mine has held up to alot.... It literally drug me about 5 miles and back again through about 4' of snow last year when I had to rescue an early neighbor. I use it all the time pulling other people out/back onto the road in the winter... quite a few every year. Ive been really happy with it.

I would avoid the HF winch... I have heard nothing but bad about them.

Here is a shootout worth reading... I have no idea how they possibly gave it to the Warn lol....

http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/12...inch-shootout/

 

I have the Smittybuilt XRC 9.5 Comp ( same as pictured on Amazon link ) I like it. I watched a video of the Q series from Quadratec and they seemed quit loud. The lower priced units all probably have about the same build quality being made in china and assuming all made by one manufacturer. Everyone is going to have an opionion on best winch. Yea id love to own a Warn but a China winch will pull our jeeps for 1/3 of the cost.

I purchased mine from Serious Offroad. Frank is a good guy. There are shipping costs but Id rather see money go to someone that is for the cause than a big warehouse seller. Called him before Thanksgiving to order and he said to wait a week... got front and back XRC bumpers and winch for a great price.

 

Thanks!!

 

I've owned various winch's over the years from many different companies including Warn where you pay a lot for the name only.

This last time I ended up buying a Superwinch after reading about them for several months and using one another Jeep owner had. The one I bought was the Talon 9.5 and "Waterproof" not water resistant like the one you linked to and it is as I have had it submerged more than once and for 40 min. one of them. It had a 2 yr warranty on it, a yr. more than the Warns had and a service center to boot not like the Chinese made ones where parts can be an issue.

I did make one big mistake when I ordered the winch I bought the one with Syn. Rope on it what a joke in my area, eat it up by its 3rd use and then ordered some wire rope to replace it.

Quadratec priced matched with Jegs who had them on sale along with free shipping. Nice part is they will always price match for me so I use them a lot for items they carry.

 

Since you have the same bumper I plan on buying, what size lightbar can you put on the front across the 2 holes?

I have had warn's (didn't buy them they came on the vehicle), and I also have my xrc8 on my ZJ that I had, and I felt like it needed to be a little more powerful. This time I am wanting to go with a 9k or 9500. Its hard to beat the lifetime warranty on them if bought from 4wdparts.

 

I didn't get the optional bull bar. Is that what you are talking about?

 

And I have read mostly the complete opposite.

I have been researching various winches for a week or so and have found positive and negatives for every single make / model of winch.

Here's a short list of reviews for the dreaded HF Badland 12k winch.

FYI there's a current coupon floating around that puts it at $300 bucks.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f201/...winch-1401149/

 

I have used a lot of winches (dad owns a towing company, use em every day,) and I would say you can't go wrong with the Smitty or even the HF. They're basically the same, just rebranded.

I've owned a Warn 8k, a Ramsey 8k, and now a Quadratec 11k. I've been impressed with all of them. That being said, the only one that had failed is the Warn. Granted, it's almost 20 years old and has had a hard life, but so has the Ramsey, and it's still being used on my jeep to this day.

 

I bought a HF 9000lb winch for $240 w/ 20% coupon. Seems like decent quality piece, and a helluva deal for $240. Installation was easy as I left the solenoid box on top of the winch. Had originally intended to mount under hood. Got lazy. The very next day I used it to hoist a 300 lb generator onto a work table so I could fix the carburetor. Was glad to have a winch....

 

Badland from harbor freight I have heard good and bad. Like buying Chinese tools. They are cheaper but sometimes they break and sometimes they don't.

 

Out of the 3 mentioned, which would you guys go with? I am debating on just getting cable for right now, and maybe adding rope later...idk