Cheap winches any good?

[Lost Landy]

Iam putting it out there are the cheapish winches like T-max, Iron-Man,Oppisite-Lock, TJM, and so on any good?
Looks to me like they all came out of the same factory with stickers/paint being the only differance besides the rating lol
Is there 1 better then then another??
Cant afford $2,000+ for a Warn.
Any advice would be of great help thanks.

[McDisco]

Depends on what you want to use it for. If your a tourer and occasional weekend warrior then any of your $700 jobbies should be fine. My Dad has had an ironman for about 2-3 years and its fine the 3 or 4 times hes had to use it.

But if your a bare knuckles bush basher, then perhaps save up for the Warn or something of similar standard.

Angus

[Benny_IIA]

like the old saying


"You get what you pay for"


But if you only use it occassionally it should do the job fine.


ben....

[d@rk51d3]

Got a 12,000LB cheapie a few years ago on the rangie, and it's been good.

I don't go hardcore 4wd'ing, so it's there "just in case". But it has been used on several instances, recovering everything from sedans, to 4wd's, to forklifts.

[bblaze]

I got an ebay jobbie, $450 was the price. 10000lb and only be used in anger to scull drag a 750kg zero turn mower out of the bog for a couple hrs one afternoon, dragged him the lenth of the cable about 8 times. I travel solo a lot and have confidence that it will get me out of trouble with a lot less pain than a turfer
cheers
blaze

[alien]

Mate of mine has one of the Tmax's on lay-buy.
My tip to him was always do a double line pull.
Yes , twice the time but 1/2 the work on the winch and it's not a comp. so no rush(you always stop and access it any way,don't you?).

Cheers.

[scotyp]

Hi there,

You do get what you pay for, but, Im an avid reader of the 4x4 mags, one of which did a winch comparo and covered all aspects, one of the biggest let downs was the expensive warn, got its ars kicked, the premier winch got a good wrap and it was only and exta couple of bucks.

thats where I'd put my money,

Good luck!

[d@rk51d3]

Mate of mine has one of the Tmax's on lay-buy.
My tip to him was always do a double line pull.
Yes , twice the time but 1/2 the work on the winch and it's not a comp. so no rush(you always stop and access it any way,don't you?).

Cheers.

Also my reasoning for getting the 12,000LB. Should take the strain a little better than a 9000LB. (sounded good in theory, anyhow)

[FenianEel]

I had a cheap arsed 9500lb.
Never used it in anger, most use was pulling the series 3's in and back under the house.
On a trip to Rainbow just past Mudlo rocks, it started winding itself on the drum, couldn't turn it off.
Smashed itself to bits, had to disconnect the power from the battery to stop it. Ended up having to turn around and go back around/over the rocks, water and waves up to window level. :eek::eek:

So ditched it....ended up scoring a 'different' 12,500lb. Should be ok. :eek::D haven't fitted or tested it yet, so we'll see.

These things can and often are 'false economy' items.

[roverv8]

The Tigerz11 is a chinese made winch, there on ebay,
there's a bit of a review on them youtube, im thinking of grabbing 1.
Luke

YouTube- TIGERZ11 12000LB WINCH INSTALL 4WD T.V

[JLo]

Have you considered a Warn Magnum winch? Made in USA (well mine is)from same parts as Warn branded.Spare parts list is the same Power 0.2 hp down on the Warn but thats nothing to cry about. I bought mine new for $820.00 from ARB approx. 18 months ago.

Only thing is it rated a bit lower @9000 lbs than the chinese stuff.

quote by scotyp<<<You do get what you pay for, but, Im an avid reader of the 4x4 mags, one of which did a winch comparo and covered all aspects, one of the biggest let downs was the expensive warn, got its ars kicked, the premier winch got a good wrap and it was only and exta couple of bucks.>>>

.. and how they tested the winches in this test was pretty unrealistic in that they tested them on a continuous cycle. They are not rated for continuous operation, they should be on on/off duty cycle. Not pull till they stop/fail and then use this as an accurate way to test their worth.

Even if my choice of winch was not a great performer in that test, I would hold the same opinion (as I bought it after reading the test).

It really does depend on how you plan on using it.

Cheers
JLo