Good winches, bad winches?

i ran a warn 9.5xp for about 4 years on a full size bronco and then on a jeep rubicon. fantastic winch and if you can buy this used one for a decent price (i sold mine a few months ago for $500, without my synthetic winch rope).

let me tell you how great warn service is, and this is really why you want a warn if you can afford one. i'm not knocking the cheapos, they have their place too. well, i made a mistake when i installed my 9.5xp and forgot to open up two of the drain holes (there are 4, depending on how you install it 2 of them need to be opened up so water can drain if it gets wet). well, water got inside and rusted out my motor. unfortunately this was beyond the warranty period.

i crated up the winch and sent it back to warn (in Washington state, I believe), with a long sob story letter. one of their techs called me and asked what happened. i was honest and told him about the drain holes. well, he said he felt bad for me and wound up replacing the motor at no charge. he cleaned up the whole winch and sent it back to me no charge. it looked brand new when i got it back. he also sent me some cool warn stickers, a DVD, and some other stuff.

after that, well, if i were in the market, i really would try to stick to warn, even a used one. that is just my experience, however, and i realize everyone is on a budget and needs to make their own decision. good luck.

 

I am in the market and money is always an issue and I can get a good deal on a Superwinch LP8500. I was wonder if anyone has any experience with this model or just Superwinch in general?

 

Drifter

In my last job in a specialty steel mill we used the piss out of warn winches pulling ingots in and out of the welders. We started off with the 5000lbs warns but destroyed them (too small the gears would strip and a couple of brokenhousing) but when we stepped up to the 8000lbs we would only replace them every couple of years and that’s using them on hourly bases. If you can swing it get the synthetic rope. Really cuts the weight and no kinks or back lashing when it breaks. Personally I have the 9000lbs warn and it’s been great. It’s on its third truck and is about fifteen years old. I've run it till it stalled out a couple of times but it’s never let me down. I would really recommend that you use a multimount system. That’s what I run and it allows you to store the winch in the garage where no one can steal it and protects it from the weather. Even though my winch is old, it looks brand new. Sorry I'm long winded, hope this helps.

 

Superwinch is awesome. Especially since you are in New England. They are located just over the CT border. I had a problem with my winch working reverse of what was indicated on the controller and without even hesitating Superwinch sent me a new control to try out.

 

Which Model Superwinch do you own?

 

I have the Talon 9.5