I have several buddies that have bought the 9000lb badlands winch, no complaints what so ever with them and they use the hell out of them. I bought one for use on a trailer. I think it ended up being $200 with a coupon for a 9k winch, figure if it works a couple times it will have paid for itself. Plus leaves me time to rebuild the 8k and 12k Warn's that crapped out on me this fall.
Seems a good amount of people are waiting to rebuild or need to rebuild their Warn winches. They certainly seem to break alot.
I am a frequent HF customer, and have purchased lots of tools there. However, I went with a new WARN 9.5XP winch. I know it cost 3 to 4 times as much as some of the cheaper winches, but I feel better knowing it is a quality product.
I see more Warn winches fail on the trail than any other. Certainly have not seen any better quality from them. Spending alot does make people think they are getting some though. I will never own one due to the failures I have witnessed.
3 month warranty sucks anyway - is that a normal length of time in the US?
My winch came with a 3 year warranty and the minor issue I had was resolved for free with no questions asked other than a picture. Nothing out of pocket.
yea i considered the HF winch a while ago and decided against it after reading through fourwheelers winch shootout. I ended up going with an Engo 12k winch and it has been amazing. We have used it a bunch, just abused it a couple times when we had no choice and it hasnt skipped a beat, yanked my 3/4 ton suburban all over the place. Id highly recommend them after the experience weve had with it.
My buddy bought an Engo after the shootout and it failed out of the box. They did make good on it, but I had to laugh that it did exactly what the HF winch did for the test that made him buy it. Every company has an little issue from time to time.
I researched a bunch and ended up with a 12.5 tuff stuff winch. Seems to be a rebadged superwinch actually. It works great, it was under 350 with extras(gloves, snatchblock, cover). 3 year warranty. Great motor. Fast linespeed. I did put a 7/16 synthetic Viking line on it to save weight. Even with the hawse fairlead and rope, I am under the price of most big-name winches and do not feel like I have any less quality or reliability.
