Best winch for the buck? Will be under pelfry built plate bumper

This is all good info!!! Thanks everyone!!! I really have a decision to make and I think I might go middle of the road and repack the unit. I'd love to see some of your instal pics on your plate bumpers

 

Superwinch, they have worked great for Bill Burke so good enough for me

 

Not an install picture but heres the inside of a smittybilt 9.5k when i repacked it. the clean pictures are after wiping the old grease out, there was not much.

 

Awesome pics!!! That's what I'm talking about!!!! What I'm finding is even the people with harbor freight winches have had failure issues. I'm sure there's those instances but I would say from what I've read it comes down to old equipment, poor matinence or operator error. Keep the pics coming I would love to see instal of both the remote silonoid and winch itself

 

You keep mentioning $600. For that amount plus or minus for shipping it may be worth your time to check out Engo winches. I know there 9000# with synthetic line is right around $600. I've seen a lot of good reveiws and personally wheel with a guy who has one and he has no complaints.

 

I've got a Smitybilt X02 10k winch that was pretty inexpensive through Amazon. Yet to put it to the test yet though!

Seen it on several other off-road rigs though.

 

Couple follow up questions too. What are the pros and cons of cable vs synthetic lines and does anyone run a winch on a hitch receiver to be able to winch from the front or back? This sounds interesting just to have the option

 

Pros of synthetic: lighter, safer if the line fails (breaks)

 

Badlands 9k

 

Did you read the article? The warn depleted the battery and even though it was fast, the Superwinch did the most work out of them all.

 

It also floats, and no need to wear gloves when handling. But it does break down, and needs to be replaced every so often.

 

I have the Warn M8000, it fits perfectly on the Pelfreybilt hidden winch mount. Warn often has rebate programs that can get you from 75 to hundreds of dollars back, depending on which model you bought. Check the Warn website for current offers and pit that against your shopping. I happened to get my M8000 on Amazon while it was on sale for less than what the Warn rebate offered. Good luck. Warn and Pelfreybilt go well together.

 

I'm going to give pelfry but s call on mon and see if they have an opinion. They may know which one to stray from for fit issues or not.

 

That's actually a great idea, I'm sure you can fit a variety of different winches under the pelfreybilt, but some may be alot easier than others, less hassle and so on. For what it's worth I vote Warn , m8000 series. I had one on my 07 and it came through in a pinch more than a few times, once being raining/ getting dark out/ no cell service, etc haha

 

I run steel line. The obvious con is weight. I also run my winch (old 8000# Warn) on a hitch receiver and keep the winch in the bed of my truck, so weight isn't that big of a deal. The real pro to steel line is longevity. That line has been in use on that winch for 15 years. Both the line and the winch have been worked hard (and they look like it), but both are still killing it on every pull.

Having the option to pull from the front or rear is a great way to go. I work in forestry and use the winch for work fairly regularly. It usually gets used on the front for work. When offroading, I use it on the rear of the truck to pull myself out at least as often as on the front.

 

I work forestry too lol. It really like the option on going front and back but storage might be a pain cuz when I'm wheeling its to get somewhere not for fun and I always have a bed full of gear

 

Lots of room for gear. My daily use stuff (saw, saw box, fuel, etc...) sits between the tailgate and divider, under the rear fold down wing of the platform.



Winch, extra cable, straps, shackles and pulleys hide under the platform (saw case is for weekends)



Back panels flip open to give access to all the goodies



Small stuff like shackles and pulleys go in the milk crate



Ropes, climbing gear or any other light stuff just gets tossed on top of the platform. I have a comfy bed that fits perfectly up there too.

 

If I was looking for an inexpensive, but quality winch, this is the direction I would go.

 

Some would not describe it as inexpensive.