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so... i learned so far that a winch with say for example 253:1 gear ratio vs a 279:1 gear ratio. the 253:1 will pull faster but not with as much torque. also learned that the planetary gears tend to get hotter faster during long pulls vs the worm gear's so it will depend on what your looking for your winch to do. look at the specs of the tuff stuff and the others. and go from there. with that being said. i think im going to end up buying myself a smittybilt xrc8. i dont tend to use it for alot of trail pulls, it will get used more at home to pick stuff up using snatch blocks. or pulling up tree's etc.
I've got 3 Smittybilt XRC8s. One on my XJ, one on my Samurai, and one on my CJ. Never had a single problem with any of them other than the cable wearing out. Lookin to order a new rope next week or so.
Obviously Warn is probably going to be your best bet, but they are going to cost you a lot. if you are on a budget, I know a couple people with Smittybilt XRC winches and have not had any problems. Im pretty sure you can pick up and XRC8 for 300 and a 9k winch is 350 or 450 buks
Personally I would go with a warn, or a Mile Marker if your short on funds. Im pretty sure that tuff stuff winch is a rebadged Smittybuilt (which is a rebadged T max made in china winch haha)
I have a MileMarker paper weight sitting in the shop. It just quit on me. The wife was with me at the time and told me to go get a good winch. So I bought a Warn
I love my Warn 9.5ti, course my pocket book would say otherwise. In my opinion I would be fine with buying a cheaper brand if I was a weekend warrior and my rig was mostly a daily driver which I am. I just happened to sell my other wheeling rig and kept my winch so I could put it on the XJ my new wheeling rig!
I run the xrc8 and it's been great. It's fast and reliable.
I used to run a milemarker 9k. It NEVER failed me when i needed it but it failed when i didn't. One strange winch. I went through two motors during the three years I had it but I sunk it in mud quite a few times.
a few years ago i bought a smittybuilt8000 & striped the gears out in a few weeks. called them up & they sent me a new winch(free). first time out the housing cracked and once again stripped out the gears. called them up & they sent me another one(free), so i put it on the car hauler. figured it could be used to pull a rolling load. now i use a bulldog8000 and have broken the cable twice, but the winch continues to pull great.
a few years ago i bought a smittybuilt8000 & striped the gears out in a few weeks. called them up & they sent me a new winch(free). first time out the housing cracked and once again stripped out the gears. called them up & they sent me another one(free), so i put it on the car hauler. figured it could be used to pull a rolling load. now i use a bulldog8000 and have broken the cable twice, but the winch continues to pull great.
My buddy's did the same thing with 3 different winches before he demanded money back (and got it). No, he wasn't asking them to do anything different from our Warns.
My buddy's did the same thing with 3 different winches before he demanded money back (and got it). No, he wasn't asking them to do anything different from our Warns.
Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear enough about that. Every one of them broke the bases/housings. In one case the entire winch came off the bumper mount and was only held on by the cable going through the fairlead. He replaced it with a USED 9000i and used the hell out of it with no problems.
Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear enough about that. Every one of them broke the bases/housings. In one case the entire winch came off the bumper mount and was only held on by the cable going through the fairlead. He replaced it with a USED 9000i and used the hell out of it with no problems.
Wow that's pretty bad carnage. I hope mine doesn't end up like that. I have an extreme warranty that I paid extra for from 4wd hardware that should cover it if it does happen (knocking on wood).
I beat the living crap out of my old milemarker and nothing broke except the motors wearing out. The housing DID crack once but that was due to the extractor's error. I was running the mud pit at 4wd's jamboree and the guy was winching for me but wasn't paying attention to the cable spooling up on one side and it got too thick and pushed the cross bars up, cracking them off the housing.
Wow that's pretty bad carnage. I hope mine doesn't end up like that. I have an extreme warranty that I paid extra for from 4wd hardware that should cover it if it does happen (knocking on wood).
Warranties are great but they don't get you off the trail and home. Paying extra for a warranty is pretty bogus, IMHO.
I beat the living crap out of my old milemarker and nothing broke except the motors wearing out. The housing DID crack once but that was due to the extractor's error. I was running the mud pit at 4wd's jamboree and the guy was winching for me but wasn't paying attention to the cable spooling up on one side and it got too thick and pushed the cross bars up, cracking them off the housing.
True, but I always wheel with much bigger rigs that all have Warns or Superwinches. Shouldn't be a problem if someone's winch fails.
Plus, I paid $60 for a lifetime warranty on my M8000. That means anything could break for as long as I own the winch and 4WD.com will either send me the parts or replace the winch, cable included. I can drown the thing in water for hours and if the solenoid stops working, I get a new one. It's the only winch I'll ever have to buy.
although im not a fan of smittybuilt, i have to say their customer service is above excellent. i thought i would have to use a few choice words with them but they were really easy to work with. they sent me a new winch along with a prepaid shipping tag to return the broken winch, all free of charge.....twice.
atriot:
