Colorado B.S. Thread

I don't have a clue. I was worried they may retain mud and debris but turns out they don't. The slotted I wanted so they would kick out the small rocks more easily and they actually work.
The original blanks would squeal for days after a water crossing. These squeak for a few feet and the debris is gone.

 

Tredpro group buy just went up today!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tredpro-group-buy.505363/#post-15801744

 

*Sledpro
*Slippro

 

I'm looking on recommendations for a winch. It probably wont get nearly as much use as some of you use yours, but I would like it to be reliable for when I need it. I'm looking for something with a 9-10k capacity and will probably opt for the synthetic line. It will be mounted in a pelfreybilt steel bumper on a 2nd gen. I dont want something super cheap and I dont need a top of the line winch either. Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

 

I 2nd this. I'm looking for a winch with the exact same specs except my bumper is the hybrid & not plate.
Thanks!

 

You know you want two sets

 

Warn.

 

Yeah that's why I went slotted only with StopTech. I know cross drilled typically will fill with dirt and mudd. Although I avoid mudd whenever I can.

Now I am going to have to do some research to see why the dimples. My only guess would be that they help the slots by letting gas escape or debris escape. Who knows.

 

On the subject of which winch is best...there are some important factors to take into consideration. Not all the Warn lineup of winches are worth buying. Their current flagship, I would avoid. Here is why.

There is much more to a winch than a motor, gears, drum and line.
There is also the controls. These above all else should be carefully considered when purchasing a winch.

First let's talk the drive gear.
There are 3 types.
Worm, spur and planetary.
Worm drive winches have the strongest pull with the least amount of brake needed. Meaning, worm drives need to be driven by the worm. A gear cannot drive a worm.
So that means they actually have the best inherit brake system, meaning they really need a minimal brake.
There is currently only one winch on the market that uses a worm drive and that is one of the older Warn versions.

Spur drive. The absolute cheapest way to drive a winch. You'll find this kind of drive on only the cheapest of winches. They require that the winch be equipped with the strongest possible brake system and that can in turn be prone to failure, and over heating.

Planetary drive.
The most common and rests right between the spur and worm drives.
Most of today's winches are planetary. My old Warn, over 20 years now, uses this type of drive. It has never failed me.

Ok, now the controls.
I used to have a Smittybilt 8000lb on the Tacoma. It worked ok, was kind of slow, and didn't really hold up well to the elements as far as cosmetics. But the worst part of it was the hand controls.
One day I was testing snow depth, really just screwing off. Got the truck stuck.
pulled the line, plugged in the hand controls, and the damn thing fell apart in my hand.
As you know, I wheel alone often. That was a fucking scary ass moment in the waning hours of the day as I'm trying to put that carp back together and get the hell out of there. Eventually I got the contacts and button back in place, after digging in the snow for a few of the pieces, and got out.
That was the moment when I decided that the Warn on the Scout was going on the Tacoma. Sold the Smittybilt and will never buy one again.

The controller on my old Warn is original from when I bought it. It's heavily constructed uses a quality steel toggle switch and has no plastic internals. It's also waterproof in case you drop it in the water.

There is a disturbing trend among manufactures lately to use "wireless" controls.
That's fuckin great until the battery goes dead. Then the winch no worky.
You could keep extra batteries, and maybe after a year in the console going through freeze/heat cycles, they might actually still work when you need them.

If the winch you choose has a wireless system, make sure that it also has the ability to use a hardwired controller as well when the electronics fail.

The construction of the control plug is important too, it must be robust in appearance and construction or you will eventually bend or break off one of the contact pins. This sucks and the winch no worky.

As far as claims of being waterproof, they all are. if your winch comes with a cover and the manufacturer recommends that you keep it covered, send it back. Again, that venerable Warn has lived it's entire life outside in every kind of weather element imaginable. I opened it up before I installed it on the Tacoma. Still looked new on the inside.
Warn winch refresh
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bretts-average-build-thread.305098/page-18#post-10489864


I know, tl, dr.

 

ComeUp Winch.

Edit: Brett's advice in the above post in on spot except the waterproof part. I have opened up cheap Smittybilt winches that are full of rust and slimy grease from water penetration. I have seen this in 1 warn winch too.

I am not gonna tout Come Up over Warn or Superwinch or any other but I will say QUALITY is the key to longevity.

 

I think we can both agree that Smittybilt should drop the M and go with the H.

 

I've run Warn on all of my rigs, one old Smittybilt. I had one out of 6 Warn winches let me down and the one Smittybilt do the same.

The failures:

The Warn is not water proof but does have a drain hole, that hole plugged up and water was allowed to sit in the motor and rust up the contacts. I could have possibly done a ghetto trail repair to get it running again. It was a 9.5xp, motor replacement (from Warn) and re-grease and it worked like new.

The Smittybilt blew up the engagement hub, possibly because the engagement lever never felt like it had a solid lock in. They didn't offer repair parts and I was out of warranty for that failure (by what they said). There would have been no trail side repair on this failure as it cracked the outer case also.

I like Warn because of product support. I was able to re-new a winch built in 1987 that was on my old 83 pickup with new-off the shelf parts 4 years ago. They sent me the paper manuals needed for repair and help me decode what year it was built.

I'm currently running a 9.5ti with Synthetic Rope. It is showing age and could use a re-paint. Works great.

 

Yes, yes we do agree on that.

Others to be wary of:

ENGO
Harbor Freight - I know that a few on here have had awesome success with an HF winch. But they are disposable. No parts available and when you are screwed, you are screwed big.

 

My understanding is that some recent model lines of Warn winches are really nice and others are not so great. Can anyone enlighten me on which lines are the good ones or have I been misinformed?

 

I haven't see this information myself but as Brett stated it is probably due to the amount of electronics now in winches and the reliance of a wireless remote that a lot of today's end users use. Wireless winching is great and has advantages over a wired remote in some cases, but I would make sure that whatever you purchase has a wired backup remote. I know the ComeUp Gen2 does but I am not sure which Warn models do.

 

My 9.5ti is an old design and is very robust. My old M8000 were always great but I consider them undersized for vehicles over 4klbs. I come from the old school winch needs to be very close to 2x the weight of the vehicle. This helps for pulls when you are not on the last line of the spool (where maximum pulling force happens).

Know that the VR line is the entry level line from Warn. It almost looks like a knockoff of their M lineup. Have heard you don't have access to parts as readily as the traditional lineup.

I'd keep it simple, the less frills, likely the better it will be in the long run.

 

The PowerPlant model incorporates an air compressor, I would avoid that, too much crap to fail. Get a good ARB or , lol, a smittybilt compressor
And there are a few models in the Zeon line, which is quite popular, some use a handheld wireless remote and has no external controls. Avoid that for the reasons I listed.

https://www.warn.com/truck/winches/line.jsp

 

Wireless with Smittybilt can be funny when multiple winches are running, they start talking over each other. The Colorado 4x4 recovery guys found that out. They have a bypass though, the new Smittybilts have a controller that is both wireless and wired so if it messes up they can be plugged in.

Honestly, I was looking at the newest smittybilts because of some of the reviews. If I knew I could get parts, I might look that way harder.

A winch should be a "vehicle" lifetime purchase. With little maintenance and repair much like owning a vehicle it could last forever. Would you by a car that the day you took it off the lot they stopped making parts for it? This is why I look to Warn. Kinda why I stay away from the newer companies, they are just unknown.

 

And they weigh 5bazillion pounds. You'll need 800lb springs to haul that heavy bitch around

 

This is the model I'm leaning towards for the Tundra when it comes time.
https://www.warn.com/truck/winches/ZEON_10-S.jsp