Budget winch, yea or nay?

Oscar da Grouch

That F-N-G
Location
North Utah
Ive got a bit of experience here and its going to be a bit different than some others here.

I really like ENGO winches. They arent super fast and they run noisey but for 300 bucks they are a solid winch and we've given away tons of them at different events and they all have good results. The couple failures I've seen were user induced. The one a guy mounted his control box different than normal and didnt seal the factory holes so the south Georgia humidity corroded it in short order.

I've actually had more problems with Warn than any other brand. I've got a 9.5xp on my jeep now and it was the worst mistake I've ever made on the jeep. With less than a year on the vehicle the motor had rotted out. I sent the whole thing to the Warn service center to be rebuilt. Well turns out they only knocked some corosion off an sent it back. 3 weeks after it came back I was running an endurance race that required a winch to compete. Well long story short Warn cost me the podium because I spent a couple hours on the side of the trail rebuilding it in order to stay in the race. Went from first to last that day. Managed to fight back to a 6th place finish but it would have been the podium if not for the crap that warn is making these days. After blowing up their service center on social media from the race Warn corporate contacted me and sent a new motor eventually but the damage was done and they still use that crap service center for warranty work. I cant recommend warn at all and if someone will buy this one off me I'd replace it with a superwinch. $1400 dollar winch gave me more trouble in a year than the engo gave me in 6 years on 3 different rigs.

2017-03-12 15.50.41 by Oscar Indy, on Flickr

This is what I found after getting sunk in a pit that required a winch. This is apparently what warn considers rebuilt.
36 HRS (14) by Oscar Indy, on Flickr

36 HRS (13) by Oscar Indy, on Flickr

So warn is not what they used to be. They have fallen victim to the cost war like everyone else quality and service has cheapened. I didnt blast them till I was told to pound sand. It wasnt until after the social media backlash did they do anything. I'd run a smittybilt before I wasted money on another warn.
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
That's really good info. I've always had good luck with Warn, but I've never relied on it for competition... and granted, all my warn winches are a lot older than the newer generations. Could it be a case of "they don't make'm like they used to"? Probably. I've had the same bout of issues with batteries from Optima. I literally have a 12 year old yellow top still in service in the buggy. It's been through 3 rigs. New ones only last a couple years IF I'm lucky.
 
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Oscar da Grouch

That F-N-G
Location
North Utah
That's really good info. I've always had good luck with Warn, but I've never relied on it for competition... and granted, all my warn winches are a lot older than the newer generations. Could it be a case of "they don't make'm like they used to"? Probably. I've had the same bout of issues with batteries from Optima. I literally have a 12 year old yellow top still in service in the buggy. It's been through 3 rigs. New ones only last a couple years IF I'm lucky.
Oh man the optima BS is another thread in itself. I gave up on them and run the AGM from advanced now same life span but cheaper and easy to get replaced under warranty anywhere.

I really think warn is a victim of the dont make it like they used to. If I was doing it again I'd probably search out an older 8274 and rebuild it with one of the newer 6 horse motors and all the upgrades from gigglepin. It would be expensive but its an ultimate winch. If you have the battery to run it you can do a dual motor upgrade and its ridiculous.
I havent found a US distributor of the giggle pin winches or I'd just buy it new from them. Not cheap
gigglepin-gp100-twin-motor-competition-winch-[3]-1367-p.jpg
 

The_Lobbster

Well-Known Member
I'm running a tractor supply co 8k synthetic "traveller" brand winch on my samurai. I scored it on clearance for $130 last year. So far it's worked awesome, it's fairly fast and surprisingly quiet. But all I've really used it for is just pulling myself onto a trailer.

45030226561_cd0915ec24_c.jpg
 

Mouse

Trying to wheel
Supporting Member
Location
West Haven, UT
Giggle pin was all the talk of the town after they showed up to KOH a few years ago, but I've really not heard of anyone running their winch. They are spendy, but I thought that I'd see some more popping up now and then. They look to be the Cadillac of winches.
 

Oscar da Grouch

That F-N-G
Location
North Utah
I'm running a tractor supply co 8k synthetic "traveller" brand winch on my samurai. I scored it on clearance for $130 last year. So far it's worked awesome, it's fairly fast and surprisingly quiet. But all I've really used it for is just pulling myself onto a trailer.

One of the big things about winch life is not overheating it and running it at a little temp to get any humidity built up to burn off. Not as much of an issue here in the Rockies. In the south I had a reminder set on my phone to run the winch in and out every month under load so it wouldnt rust shut. This was a lesson learned the hard way.
 
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