Any long term reports on Smittybuilt winches???

[Stumpalump]

There are two factories in China that make all of the cheap winches and they are basically the same. They get marketed with different paint and sold with slightly different marketing features. The advantage of smitty is they have customer service. My buddys 6K quit twice on him. The first time they gave him a new solinoid pack and the second time the gave him a solinoid pack off of an 8000 winch. I can't take the chance of having a winch not working in the wilderness but if your after a Cheap POS China winch then Smitty sells one for more $$ but with customer service Check out the harbor freight for the same winch if you are on a tight budget because it's the same POS winch. Better yet pick up a real winch on Craigslist that won't fail in the first place. Junkyards also have them.

 

[hillbillyjake]

Better yet pick up a real winch on Craigslist that won't fail in the first place. Junkyards also have them.

if anybody ever runs across any of theses winches that WON'T fail, please buy me one and i will gladly repay you.

 

[barlowrs]

I have just picked up the XRC8 comp as well. It actaully seems pretty nice to me, on paper it is much better than the old style as well. I have mounted the solenoid in under the hood and ran in cab controls for it (details will be in my build thread in the next few weeks). But I am happy with what I got for the price I paid. Nomatter what brand, winches can fail, period, they are mechanical assemblies. I have actualy read MANY good reviews of the new smittybuilt winches, so we will see how it holds up.

 

[BorntoVenture]

I have been using my XRC10 for around 8 months now, so I guess I can comment on the medium-term range. The winch has been used somewhere around 40 times for recoveries and probably another 20 or so for utility uses (pulling large trees out into the open for cutting). The speed and power is great, I'm not sure how these get rated as a slow winch since it's just as fast as my old 10k lb. Warn.

The bad parts about it...... the cable. It's utter junk, plain and simple. Most of my recoveries were straight single line pulls which is the only reason the cable lasted as long as it did. The very first double line pull killed the cable, and this was using a 25,000 lb. ARB snatch block.

Overall I am very happy with it. I plan to move the XRC10 to the rear of the Suburban and install a new XRC12 on the front. I will also end up with an XRC8 or XRC10 on a half ton 4x4 truck too.

 

[FlatBlak]

I just ordered an XRC-8 today. I was planning on breaking the motor in before putting load on it by running it for a while unloaded and letting the brushes/comm get to know one another. Anyone done this?

I wonder how many people pull it out of the box and see what it will take to stall it? I see so many people on youtube abusing the crap out of their DC winches by running them to a stall/near stall and popping the solenoid like it's Xbox. No wonder they fail.

Another thing that will help DC motors and solenoids last is (when safely possible) to start winching unloaded and let it come into the load on it's own while being constant on the pull. This will help the motor and solenoid heat up as the load increases and not instantly. Only stop when unstuck or when you must. Everytime you start a loaded pull, the amount of amps through the solenoid is huge, causing the contacts in the solenoid to arc and wear prematurely. Stalling causes a direct short between the commutator and the brushes, which is how DC motors burn up.

The more expensive the winch, the more dummyproof it is. Simple as that. Yes they are actually better quality, but not as much as everyone thinks.

 

[Metcalf]

I am interested to hear more about the Comp series XRC10. For $550 with synthetic line and an aluminum hawse.....thats really affordable! I'm very tempted to install one on the Dodge.

 

[FlatBlak]

I picked up my XRC-8 today and found a few issues, small but very significant when looking to pull 400+ amps.

First was the ground lug. Not only was the motor ground port half powdercoated, but the lug itself was halfway covered by the heat shrink applied at the factory. Powdercoat/paint/heat shrink on a ground is not the best way to conduct electricity. Add them together and you have very very little actual surface area that you are pulling an absurd amount of current through. Install the lug upside down and you lower the surface contact area even that much more. I would say these issues would account for 50% or more of failures in the field.

Factory ground terminal.

After cleaning.

Ground lug installed properly, flat side down, hump up.

Look at this $h1t. You want to pull how much current? Through this? :Wow1:

Not much contact area here! Before trimming heat shrink away from lug.

All in all it's a great deal for the money IMO. If I burn up 3 of these vs. one 9.5Ti I will still be ahead a few hundred bucks. I bought 3 snatch blocks, 2 tree straps, a extension and a hi-lift with the extra $ left over. If I need to do a rear pull, the winch breaks or I get a flat....I'll still be ahead of the game. Just my logic. :victory: