TerraFirma A1200 opinions

[mntyjck]

I am considering a TerraFirma A12000 with a hidden winch mount for my LR4. This will be my first winch setup, and this winch seems like a good value with impressive specs for about $500. I haven't been able to find many reviews on this particular model, so was hoping this group could help provide some guidance. There are obviously well-known brands like Warn and others, but even as a first-timer, I don't want to throw away $500.

 

[Shigeta]

While I don't have experience with their winch, I do have quite negative things to say about their hidden winch mount on my LR3. I've detailed my findings here.

Here are my issues with the Terrafirma winch mount:

• The "M" logo cut out of the bottom of where the winch sits snags on synthetic line and the abrasion sleeve on the winch line. When spooling on my line, it snagged and tore the abrasion sleeve. There is no way around this. It's an unnecessary bit of branding that is invisible once installed, so there is no reason to have it there. Even without the relatively baggy abrasion sleeve, if the operator is the slightest bit distracted and isn't tensioning the rope just right when spooling back on, the point in the "M" will grab and snag/tear strands in the line.
• The brackets with nuts they provide to secure the winch mount to the flanges on the frame are all spot-welded on poorly. Instead of the nuts sitting flat on the plate that goes on the backside of the truck's frame flange were welded so poorly, they were off-axis from the bolt's axis by about 7°—aka, cross-thread central for the unsuspecting DIY'er. I had to grind the weld off, then had the nuts welded back on to the plate, but flat and in-line with the axis of the bolt so that it would thread on properly.
• The supports for the valve body and washer bottle are flimsy and failure-prone. The valve body side of mine had a crack in it all the way down. Statically, it held the weight of the valve body fine, but with the vibrations that an off-road vehicle would experience would have exacerbated the crack; failure was a matter of time. I had that re-welded with a gusset added.
• The instructions are basically useless. There is an extensive amount of cutting needed on the LR3 to get it to fit. I expected that going into it, but other instructions at least provide some kind of template or—at the very least—a reasonable explanation of what cutting is needed and expected.

There aren't many options out there nowadays, but if you want a mount that lasts, is functional, and won't damage your line, you either need to look elsewhere or prepare to modify/fix some pretty glaring issues. I'm surprised that so many people have installed these without complaint. Perhaps their quality has declined recently? For context, I installed this mount 1 month ago (Nov 2020).

From what I understand, the LR4 is even less "bolt on" than on the LR3. If I could do it again, I'd definitely spend the extra coin for the Devon4x4 mount or go custom. To be quite honest, I'm not inclined to ever buy TF products again.

 

[mntyjck]

Thanks Shigeta. As a first time winch buyer, this was more about the A12000 but I do appreciate your review of the TerraFirma mount. I think you make some excellent points. The Devon seems to have lots of great features, but it is definitely more expensive. I might look into Voyager because it's closer in price to the TerraFirma.