Almost decided on a winch - WARN or Superwinch?

They both make great winches. I really like the new Talon series from Superwinch. If I had the money that is what I would buy. As far as the line speed.... I don't get why everyone wants such fast winches. I personnally like the line speed to be slow. Much more control when recovering flopped vehicles, or when trying to get a rig out of a sketchy situation.

 

Those new Superwinch Soleniods seem to be superior to the superwinch one?!

And as few others I'm in the spot right now!

 

To the warn solenoid^^^^ (Can't edit on mobile)

 

You will be happy with either.

 

Superwinch, the external brake is suppose to be better for rope. I had an epi on my jeep and it worked flawlessly. Will buy another for the Tacoma.

 

From the article, I got four things. The Super has a way to re-attach the cable if the end fails; Warn does not. For the money ($500 less); Superwinch is a better deal. Superwinch has a better braking mechanism and for the win; Warn is the better winch.

My interpretation is this. If you use the winch a lot, buy a Warn. If you are just a casual user, get the Superwinch.

Here's why. 1) You should never let so much line out that you're in danger of pulling the end off--so that's a nice to have feature (not necessary). 2) The comparison boils down to expense and reliability. The Warn is a better winch because it has longer a duty cycle and because of it's reliability. The Superwinch gets the job done and is a better value but might not be as reliable or have a great duty cycle.

Something they don't really discuss is maintenance. If you were away from home and something happened, would it be easy to fix? By easy, I mean could you find parts if needed and could you make trailside repairs or would you have to take it somewhere?

In the off-road touring motorcycle world, you see a lot of guys touring on KLR's when the KTM or BMW is a far superior bike in so many ways--but, a KLR can be fixed almost anywhere by any m/c mechanic. BMW's and KTM's, not so much. So if you're out in the boonies, a Warn could be a better choice.

FWIW, I have a 9.5XP.

 

Well, it's been an interesting 24 hours and I've flip flopped as I always do.

I got in direct contact with Bill Burke and he had some interesting points to make.
There's been some good comments here.
I scoured some great Jeep threads.

My final thoughts (at least this is my hopefully final thoughts):

WARN is unquestioned for reputation. Superwinch performs amazingly well, just doesn't have the reputation to fall on (haven't heard any negative press).
Superwinch has better solenoid... but if WARN was so bad, I'm sure I'd see a lot more people howling about it (RelentlessTaco and all.on.black probably go through as much dust and water as I ever will, and those two don't complain with similar mounting to me)
Superwinch was specifically made with synth. line in mind, yet WARN hasn't had issues in their modern winches from what I can see
WARN has a WARN service center 13 miles from my house, and another roughly 360 miles away. Superwinch is 626 miles.
Superwinch has more economical pricing in general.
Superwinch has 3 year/lifetime, WARN has 1 year/lifetime


The breaking point was this, though:

Talon 9.5 SR is $1095
WARN 9.5XP is $1062, plus about $265 to go synthetic = $1127
EP9.0 is $560, go synthetic and it gets $825

Between the Talon and the WARN, there's no difference.
$300 is sort of a big deal, but stats on the WARN are higher

for the price, I think it comes all back to availability of service and parts... I think I'm becoming a WARN customer.

 

mike, you could also just get this rope too, way cheap and seems decent yet I havent used mine with it yet....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...705016&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2132wt_854

 

Hmm, that's 5/16, but doesn't say how long. The price I quoted was amsteel blue off Amazon at 3/8x100.


With as dangerous as winching inherently is and the amount of stress put on things, I don't mind spending a bit more on some good rope.

 

92 ft, rated at 13,600lbs i believe

 

I have to ask... why would you consider Amsteel Blue with Technora line available?

 

Whats wrong with the Amsteel? Its Dyneema fiber rope with very similar performance spec to Technora fiber rope. Only negative thing I see is the critical temperature is lower, but I dont torment my winches for pull after pull after pull.

 

I don't think you'll be able to spool 100 feet of 3/8 rope. You'll have to do 75 feet. I don't have any more available room and I have 100 feet of 5/16. This is in regards to the 9.5xp.

 

I feel like maybe 25 more feet would fit but that's about it.

 

I don't think it will. I think in the manual it even states to use 75 feet with 3/8 wire.

 

Another review...kinda shows Warns promptness on warranty handling. However states something about Warn saying you must use their rope winch line, but goes on to state you need a high temp coating on the line and nomex sheath to shield the heat. Probably only for this endurance 12.0 though.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/res...0-tug-of-war-the-ultimate-12v-winch-test.html

Also found this...doesn't have the Warn 9.5XP so I linked it below:



http://www.warn.com/truck/winches/95xp_winch.shtml

 

Amsteel weakens at just 150 degrees. Technora weakens at 450 degrees. 150 degrees is not hard to reach. 450 degrees is VERY hard to reach.

You can ruin dyneema or twaron bulletproof vests by simply spilling hot coffee on them. You can't do that to Kevlar or technora due to very high thermal resistance. I don't see why people are accepting the thermal limitations when something so obviously superior is out the for a negligible price difference.

 

Amsteel
--------

Quoted from MasterPull:

Bill Burke on Amsteel Blue


Technora
---------
argument for Technora

Comparison
-----------
Compared

 

Well I did the deed.

WARN 9.5XP $1092 from gowarn.com

Also got a deal going with metaltech, $230 for 5/16x100 Viking line in a limited edition(?) yellow with a Excel hook.

 

Congrats!