[rich450es]

this is what you get when you cheap out and buy a cheap (company and money) . this is from a member on hondaforeman.com that bought a badlands winch from harbor freight for his foreman and only got to use it once before it blew up and (thank god) no one was hurt . guys be safe out there ....please ......rich
Harbor Freight winch failure - Honda Foreman Forums : Rubicon, Rincon, Rancher and Recon Forum

 

[Moose]

That pot metal almost looks like plastic. Cheap is good sometimes, others its just not the best idea. Same goes for log chains and straps for rigging or towing.

 

[realtreegrizzly]

Has anyone had experience with promark winches they have a lifetime warranty. There are several around here and I haven't heard of any problems

 

[rich450es]

promark winches were gorilla winches a few years ago .......i have read some bad revewes on the forums about them over the years...... look at cabelas for the winches (warn and superwinch) online , not bad prices and a good warentee

 

[toodeep]

I've dealt with the promark back when it was Gorilla and they was not very good. Customer support also sucked. When they changed to promark I came across a few rants online trying to get some service out of them (which worked because they was on the forums) and they seemed to fix the problem after that. I haven't heard anything in the last few years about them but from the past, I look elsewhere.

 

[skorp1702]

Iv never had but 1 winch and its been on 3 vehicles . Its a gorilla 8k and has claimed many vehicles and just recent year put a wireless remote on it. The only problem iv had with it is when I first got it it wouldnt power out but about 5months down the rd it started working. I think the brushes might have not been just right. But it has not let me down since iv had it.not sure if the smaller ones are worse or better I can only say what mine has done

 

[OLT]

That pot metal almost looks like plastic. Cheap is good sometimes, others its just not the best idea. Same goes for log chains and straps for rigging or towing.

Well said.
There are times when cheaping out is fine, but when it comes to something like a winch that has to take on serious tension, i would go with some well built product, worth the investment

 

[toodeep]

On the winch above the cable spool jumped causing the problems. In the past I have seen it on many brands of winches but now days most of the manufactures fixed that problem.

On my 4000# winch the contactor stuck once (while riding WOT through the creek for a long distance) and pulled the winch right off the mounting plate. I slowed down to check on the others and the 4 wheeler died, the battery was stone dead.. lol

 

[Dick]

toodeep have you ever seen any that seem to draw a little power just sitting? I have a tractor that the battery would go dead in about a month just sitting, unhook the power to the winch and it was fine.

On my pioneer I am putting a master kill switch on the lower part in front of the seat just in case. Easy enough to turn on if I need it.

 

[rich450es]

i have herd of the remote key fob being the culprit for draining the battery .....thats why it should be wired up so when the key is off there is no juice to the winch (plus doing it this way is a saftey feature so no kids hit the switch causing damage or bodely harm )

 

[Dick]

That one did not have the wireless Rich, that is why it seemed strange. I would not wire the wireless to any circuit that wasn't switched.

 

[rich450es]

That one did not have the wireless Rich, that is why it seemed strange. I would not wire the wireless to any circuit that wasn't switched.

i meant to make sure that the trigger switch (in or out button) only has power when the key is in the on position . i don't know how the wireless thingy gets wired up ....lol (but i would think it should be the same for both )

 

[toodeep]

It's not common but possible for the contactor to leak a little voltage causing that problem. Like mine when it shorted it wouldn't have mattered if the trigger (mini rocker on that one) was keyed or not because it was inside the contactor that messed up. I have had starter solenoids (about the same principle but doubled in a contactor) do the same thing. I ride a lot of water so that is most likely the reason mine failed.

 

[skorp1702]

usually when its draining its a solenoid that's leaking over. its no big deal just put the kill switch in like yall been talking about. rich the wireless is easy its all color coded and real easy to wire up all ya need is a couple wrenchs to back off solenoid nuts and tighten back up

 

[Dick]

Yes I guess strange things can happen with equipment, that's why mechanics need to be so smart.
A friend of mine got a call in the middle of the night from his neighbor saying his truck was up against his house. It was a standard and the solenoid screwed up and kicked the starter in and across the street it went. It didn't really hurt much though couldn't have been a very fast trip. LOL