quality winches?

dfarm

Observer
I'm not wanting to put the solenoids back on top, I'd like to relocate the solenoids into the engine bay. Is that easily doable?
 

86tuning

Adventurer
What winches aren't foreign, and don't shoot the hell out of $1000?

Last time I looked a brand new warn m8000 is about $600, smart shopper price.

You still need to mount it up, and need accessories (snatch, tree saver, shackles etc)
 

dfarm

Observer
I'm starting to think that no matter which way I go winch wise, I'll still need to carry either a spare set of solenoids, or a high lift, or both, I may give a smittybilt winch a try. It seems that all winches can suffer from the same failures, so Im thinking that I'll go with the option that lets me get bumpers taken care of at the same time, instead of having a winch sit in my garage until the jeep fund recovers.
 

ExpoMike

Well-known member
Might want to also look at the Superwinch Talon series. Seems like a very nice unit for a reasonable price. I'll looking at the 12K version with synthetic line for my Dodge.
 

86tuning

Adventurer
I'm starting to think that no matter which way I go winch wise, I'll still need to carry either a spare set of solenoids, or a high lift, or both, I may give a smittybilt winch a try. It seems that all winches can suffer from the same failures, so Im thinking that I'll go with the option that lets me get bumpers taken care of at the same time, instead of having a winch sit in my garage until the jeep fund recovers.

I'd rather buy a warn m8000 and not bother with the spares. Just install with extra fat wires and military type battery terminals. The Warn is only about $200 more. And that is the best $200 you can spend, IMO. You definitely get what you pay for.

As for the high lift jack, they're very handy. I usually take that out first and stack rocks under the tires before I drag the truck anywhere. But I don't play in mud.

I've got many hours of pulling on my ancient m8000 and have never had any issues with it.

Ramsey, Milemarker and Superwinch all make good products too. But there's a reason why the m8000 is so popular.
 

86tuning

Adventurer
Quick google search shows it at $649 with $80 mail in rebate. So $569 with free shipping from winchdepot.com

No affiliation with that seller, YMMV, yada yada.
 

Bigjerm

SE Expedition Society
I'm starting to think that no matter which way I go winch wise, I'll still need to carry either a spare set of solenoids, or a high lift, or both, I may give a smittybilt winch a try. It seems that all winches can suffer from the same failures, so Im thinking that I'll go with the option that lets me get bumpers taken care of at the same time, instead of having a winch sit in my garage until the jeep fund recovers.

I think a winch failure is more subject to the user now. I have seen them all fail at some point from various things (controller, solenoids, line breaks, ect). I ride with people and we all have different brands but they all work, but those that stay cleaned and paid attention to work best. I went with a smittybuilt xrc8 comp. Price was decent and I like the rope over steel cable. It has served 3 hard years and after my trip to kentucky I believe a greasing will be in order.

sent from my dumb phone
 

robert

Expedition Leader
That looks like a Warn XD9000i- I'm not aware of any 8000lbs Warn with the integrated solenoid but that certainly doesn't mean they didn't make one. Not having any idea what caused that damage, what got bent or shorted in the process, etc I'd pass on it. The cable is improperly wound also which leads me to believe they didn't take care of it normally.
 

Warn Industries

Supporting Vendor
If you're worried about parts, give our Customer Service team a ring at 800-543-9276.

FYI, most of our winches now use Albright contactors, with the exception of the VR line, the XD9000i, the 16.5ti, and the M8274-50.

- Andy
 

txfactor76

Observer
4WheelParts has the Warn M8000 on sale quite regularly for around $450 with free shipping. Right now Warn has a $80 rebate on an M8000.
 

colodak

Adventurer
Local 4x4 shop, in addition to Superwinch, Warn, Milemarker also carries Engo. Looked at the 10,000 lbs for $599 with synthetic line recently. They've sold about 20 of them in the last year, only failure and it was related to user abuse. Thinking if I decide to replace my Milemarker, that will be what it's replaced with.
 

evilfij

Explorer
I hate to say this because they do have their place, but I have never been happy with electric winches. I had a husky that failed and I have bought and fixed several warns that had failed for various reasons. Frankly, the most popular winches are grease packed, planetary gear, electric motor powered, with marginal solenoids, with an in drum brake. Husky and Ramsey RE and 8274 are at least oil filled and work or spur gear driven, but still have the inherent weakness of the electric motor and solinoids and connections and the limit of a battery.

PTO driven winches are the best. They cost more. They don't work if the engine is not running, but they will run literally forever.
 

Outback

Explorer
Two best winches are Warn and the Ramsey (worm drive). Most problems I have seen with ANY winch is how they are wired up/installed. Next in line of problems Ive seen is the internals. Warn by a huge leap is ahead of the competition in this regard. But Ramsey with there Worm gear line is as good as any Warn. But this is just on Ramsey's Worm Gear Line of winches. I prefer Warn. That's just my personal choice. I hate cheap winches. You get what you pay for in the end. You can either pay for a quality winch (make sure its wired up correctly) or pay more than that for Bubba's Towing to pull you out with his Warn or Ramsey worm drive winch. That will cost you more than what you could have paid for a quality winch to begin with. But no matter how great of a winch you have its still a boat anchor if installed improperly or if its wired up improplerly. Then they are just dangerous.
.

To give a quick example of a incorrectly wired up winch. My old red work truck had a brand new Warn 16.5 winch installed by a supposed Professional company. These are know as "Upfitters". They installed the winch and wired her up. First off they added a 100 amp fuse next to the battery. Secondly they crossed up the wires. The Warn 16.5 uses 96 amps just realing in the cable. How many Amps do you think it uses under load? A hell of allot more than 100 amps! So after by passing that 100 amp fuse I start to winch out my co workers vehicle. (I found the fuse because the winch kept shutting off instantly when I started winching) Now I can start winching. I thumb off the control and the winch keeps going! "What the @!*#!!!! I scramble and disconnect the positive battery lead. The winch keeps going but at a slower rate. My co worker said my eyes got really big. Its generating its own power at this point do to how the idiots wired it up. The two vehicles connect and finally the winch dies. After separating the vehicles (no damage) I drive back into town and pull the winch out. Find how she was wired up and rewire her. She still works properly to this day on another crew. Your biggest problem will be someone doing something stupid when they have NO CLUE how to wire up a winch (especially when everything is pre tagged from Warn on how to wire it up and they still do it wrong!) And not understanding the power requierments of the winch. A 100 amp fuse may, may work for a small winch (and I mean small) but not one rated for 16,500 lbs. But at the end of the day I should have checked the winch out before I was facing knee deep mud. After bypassing that 100 amp fuse I should have stopped and checked how they had it wired up. If you want something done right you usually need to do it yourself.
 
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