• RME Gear & Apparel

Your opinion...Smittybilt Winches

Kiel

Kiel

Formerly WJ ZUK
They had a big thread on Pirate. The general consensus was that they worked good for the money, just not the fastest
 
UNSTUCK

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
I heard a guy say one time that he'd, "rather winch out a stuck 4x4 with a broken winch then one with no winch at all". Sounded about right to me. I say get the best winch you can afford, today.

And look, all this coming from a guy with no winch at all.

I try to always wheel with a guy that has a winch....that owes me a favor.
 
Bucking Bronco

Bucking Bronco

................
Location
Layton
consider the warn M8000 it is only 516.00 shipped to your door through winchdepot.com

I got mine from them for 505.00 a few months ago and it arrived in 4 days
 
RockMonkey

RockMonkey

Suddenly Enthusiastic
Lifelong Jeeper said:
How does yours compare? This one is $299.
http://www.4wheelparts.com/PPT6208.aspx
Click to expand...

The Warn M8000 and the Smittybilt XRC8 are pretty comparable on paper. The Warn has about 15% more horsepower, the Smittybilt is geared lower to compensate. I don't know the specs off hand, but I suspect the lower gear ratio of the Smittybilt will translate to lower line speed. The Warn has a series wound motor, versus the permanent magnet motor on the Smittybilt (big advantage to Warn). Lifetime warranty on the Warn versus 2 years on the Smittybilt. Full 100 feet of rope on the Warn versus 92 feet on the Smittybilt. 92 feet? :confused: The Warn costs almost twice as much.

How's that for a comparison?

Get the Warn. You'll be happily winching away long after you forgot the 279 extra dollars you paid. :)
 
grandmaster

grandmaster

Let the build Re-begin
Location
St. George, Utah
I just bought the smittybilt RXC8 about 1 month ago for my grand. I've only had to use it once and it seemed to work just fine, Yes a little slow, but when I go wheeling i'm not in a hurry to get anywhere. It looks good to ha ha. I would definetly recommened it, you cant beat it for the price. If you have any questions let me know. I got mine from Tyler (1995zj) just to help support his new company. crawler ready.
 
RuggedH2

RuggedH2

Just doing my thing.
Location
Bountiful
RockMonkey said:
Get the Warn. You'll be happily winching away long after you forgot the 279 extra dollars you paid. :)
Click to expand...

Yep!

I have two Warns. Buy quality......the extra $ spent are insurance against a breakdown. What would it be worth to you to avoid a winch breakdown, when you really needed it? ;)

You get what you pay for.
 
grandmaster

grandmaster

Let the build Re-begin
Location
St. George, Utah
I wil agree with everyone else that warn makes a qualiy winch. But when it comes down to price all your paying for is a little more horsepower, the warantee, and the "warn" name. I would say go with the warn if you are going to be using it A LOT. But if you are going to be just the occational user I would go with the smittybilt.
 
M

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
grandmaster said:
...But when it comes down to price all your paying for is a little more horsepower, the warantee, and the "warn" name...
Click to expand...

You are also paying for the fact that the lifetime warranty rarely gets used. I would 10x rather buy something that doesn't break has no warranty at all and cost more than something that is cheap with a triple lifetime warranty, a warranty that I have to use every month
 
W

winchpinch

New Member
Hey winch gurus,

I need a winch, and I'm trying to decide between a new 10k lb Smittybilt (somewhere around $400 depending on whether it's shipped or I pick it up) and a supposedly lightly used 8k Warn ($5-600 and 5 minutes away), which I'm going to look at tomorrow night.

I was talking with a towing guy recently, and he emphasized that "aircraft cable" is inferior and "steel cable" is superior. After hunting around, I dug up http://www.sanlo.com/wire.aspx , which lists grades of cable, including "aircraft cable" and "wire rope," which is probably what the guy was talking about. Apparently, aircraft cable is used for connecting an aircraft yoke to control surfaces...and it has to be reasonably strong, but wire rope is used for logging and hoisting, which has to be much stronger, I would think. Any winch guru here have an opinion on wire rope vs. aircraft cable?

The 10k Smittybilt has 23/32" (a hair bigger than 5/16") aircraft cable, and the 8k Warn has 5/16" wire rope. For the moment, I'm assuming I would prefer wire rope.

I'm going to try to get a 7 ton backhoe, with a broken torque converter, onto a ramped 38' semi-trailer, while pushing on the ground with the hoe...but I'd like to have a winch to help out. I don't plan for anyone to be in the way of the cable, but I really don't want a broken cable...so cable strength is a big deal for me.

Although the only cable I've seen on the wall at Harbor Freight says aircraft cable, HF online lists 4mm x 100' wire rope for $13.99. 5/16" is 8mm, so I'm guessing that 100' ft of it might be 50 bucks if I got lucky. So, I'm guessing that the wire rope (installed on a winch) is worth 50 to 100 bucks over the aircraft cable. Does that make sense?

According to the Warn website, the 8k model I'm considering has 5/16" wire rope, by the way.

The semi-trailer is 38', so the cable won't be more than halfway unwound...so neither winch will have the full mechanical advantage of the first layer winding. I don't know which winch would do better at 50 feet.

The Smitty is 5.5 hp, and the Warn is 4.8 hp., so I don't know how much that's going to matter. The winch won't won't be doing all the work on the backhoe, and most other vehicles I'll be winching in the future would be in the 3-5k range.

If I can get the Warn for $500, and if it has a practically new and undamaged wire rope, I'm inclined to go with it just based on the idea that wire rope is superior to aircraft cable.

Your thoughts are appreciated in advance.
 
Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
IMO if you're considering a Warn, get the Warn. I don't think there's a better winch out there.

As for pulling the backhoe, do yourself and the winch a favor and get a snatch block, then run the cable back & forth to the winch, thru the snatch block. That will double your pulling power, create less load on the winch and slow down the pull.
 
W

winchpinch

New Member
I bought the Warn. The existing cable had a few pokie points sticking up on it, and the guy had a new cable that was included, so we changed cables and rolled it up by pulling my van for tension. This guy drove Humvees in Bosnia and told me about burning out Mile Markers and chipping gears on Ramseys, but he swore by Warns. I'm not sure whether it was wire rope or aircraft cable or what, but the whole deal looked good to me (especially his instruction on changing cables), so I went with it. It also included a beefy winch mount that fits into a receiver hitch, which will probably be useful at some point.

He also had a Warn snatch block on him that I bought, so I'm good to go on the backhoe. I just have to figure a way to mount the winch on the semi. I'll take some pics for you guys to document my great success (or otherwise) pulling the backhoe onto the trailer.
 
M

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
You should be able to get it on the trailer just fine with the hoe and nothing else, you could also use some chain or a big cable to run form the front of the trailer to the hoe and pull it on instead of pushing. That is assuming this is an actual back hoe instead of one of those farmall addons to a farm tractor.
 
UNSTUCK

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
Nothing funner then pushing a backhoe onto a trailer with the hoe. Been there a few times. Keep the stabs down.
 
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