I found this 12,000lb winch at Harbor Fright manufactored by "Badland Winches" for $400: http://www.harborfreight.com/automot...ake-68142.html For mounting it on the rear I was just thinking about using THIS: http://www.harborfreight.com/automot...nch-66409.html

Any experience with this brand of winch? Also is 12,000 lbs over kill? I don't want ANY PROBLEMS when I get myself BURRIED in mud...

BUT... What if I wanted to mount it to the front?????

Also, how should this thing be correctly powered??

Thanks

 

No experience with the brand, but my latest 4 wheeler magazine reviewed them. Other than a slow line speed they had no complaints.

 

No one else eh?

Thanks 2011BlackRam.

 

I'm sure it would be fine - just make sure you get a nice straight pull. Pull sideways, and you are liable to bend the tube inserted into your hitch.

For hooking to the front, consider fabricating something to attach it to your tow hooks.

 

12,000lbs is not way overkill, but more than necessary. Your truck weighs about 7500lbs soaking wet... But I don't think you will ever be winching you truck off the face of a cliff, you have to remember that it does not take 7500lbs of force to pull 7500lbs if its on wheels. I have a 9000lbs warn winch on my 75" Blazer dedicated 4 wheel truck,. Truck weighs just as much as my ram, and have never been close to making it out. Also you will need to wire directly to the battery. Might come with the wiring(mine did) but they do sell winch wiring kits.

 

It does not take 7500 lbs of force to pull a 7500 lb truck if it is on wheels... it often takes way MORE... if you are in a situation that requires a winch you almost certainly need more tractive force than your vehicles GVWR. The bare minimum is 1.5X GVWR, if you ever go play in the mud, as opposed to getting stuck just because, it should be closer to 2-3 times GVWR.

That said a harbor freight winch will probably not lift its rated capacity, and will burn a ton of power doing it. Because of this getting such a high rated winch was a good idea. Now just add the second battery and alternator that a serious pull may well require. Of note, a higher capacity winch is often exactly the same as a lower capacity one, but with a thicker cable and slightly different gearing. This means that they can pull hard, but very slowly, sort of like being in 4 low.

 

The Harbor Freight winches aren't terrible, no worse than any of the other Chinese made winches. Because of the price, a few guys in my hunting club have them.

A recent review in a popular off-road magazine did a very extensive winch test of most of the 9000-10,000 lb. class winches and although the Warn and Superwinches beat it out pretty handily, the 10,000 lb. Harbor Freight did outlast a Ramsey and Mile Marker among a few other foreign made jobs. I think in all they tested like 9 winches and completely burnt out 6 of them. The Harbor Freight didn't burn up but I think stripped the gearing, but the test was called something like "Winches in Hell" so that'll give you an idea.

The complaints I hear most are high amp draw and rust/corrosion issues after only a season or two, and like stated they are on the slow side. But for an occasional use winch, I think you'd be fine for the money it costs.

Yes, rule of thumb is 1.5x total vehicle weight, but you can get creative with things like ****** blocks and pull a lot more than a winches rated capacity.

A portable cradle is nice to have, I've seen that one, I think it's rated to 9000#, most are, I think only the Warn and a couple of true clones of it are rated to 12,000#. I have a Warn front receiver and receiver mounted winch on the front of my Grand Cherokee.

Just remember if you are going to rear mount that thing, use no thinner than 2 gauge wire to run it or you'll generate a ton of heat and probably melt the wire which would probably be the best case scenario.

Even though my portable mount is for the Jeep, I did run wires to the back of my truck just in case I wanted to put the winch there for any reason.

 

my 2500 weights 7400 with another person in it, atleast thats what our counties dump scale said. So i would think a 1500 is a good chunk lighter

 

Thanks for all the advise guys! I really appreciate it.

How much will 2 gauge (or probably 1 gauge would be better right????) cost to run from the rear of the truck back to the front? I'm trying to figure out how much ALL of this will cost total because I don't want any surprises.

Also, someone mentioned a 2nd alternator and 2nd battery. I can say this: FORGET IT! If that is the requirement I just won't buy a winch at all because I don't wanna pay someone to install that stuff into my truck (I want to do all this myself because I'm cheap haha).

The usage on this winch would be as follows, and would most likely NEVER deviate from this:

1) If I'm out in some back country off road area (West Virginas Monongehala Nation forest for example) and I get stuck I could get stranded for DAYS because there is NO cell service + no one around for 20+ miles! I would like to be able to winch myself out, that's all. Thats not to say that I would try to get stuck! That would be REALLY bad regardless if I have a winch or not!!!

When I go mudding, 99% of the time there is someone else there that can pull me out if I get stuck and the other 1% of the time I just need to make a quick phone call and wait a half hour. So in this scenario I wouldn't need to use it.

As far as the corrosion issue is concerned with the weather, I would NOT leave this thing on my truck ALL THE TIME! The only times I'd have it on my truck is:

1) When I am by myself in an area that is questionable or unknown.
2) Lots of snow and I forsee having an issue when no one else is out on the road
3) When bringing in my boat lift so that I don't have to use long tow straps (Winch can just real in and not have to re-adjust). This is only about 300lbs of force anyways.

I know my truck VERY well and I know and understand all the stuff I need to know and understand. I also have LOTS of notes about what my angles are and whatnot so I pretty much know what I can and cannot do.

I've always liked the idea of a winch as a just in case scenario.

Just a few more questions I guess:

1) When I wire it to the battery directly, would I have to drill a hole in the firewall to get it to the battery terminal?
2) Obviously the truck would have to be running when using the winch as to not kill the battery right???
3) Could this winch ruin my alternator if used for an extended period of time?
4) Could this winch ruin my battery??? Should I buy a more heavy duty battery than this stock battery? (Which, BTW this stock battery is BADASS! One time I left my computer system on for 16 hours straight on accident and it still had enough juice to start my truck (barely, but it did it!))

Thanks again guys!

 

FWIW, I found the manual for this 12,000LB winch here: http://manuals.harborfreight.com/man...8999/68142.pdf

It appears to pull 320 Amps at 12,000lbs and 242 Amps at 8,000lbs.

Also appears that they use 3.5 Gauge at 6' in length... Being that I will probably need 15', should I get lower gauge? (like 1 gauge?)

It also appears that at max load you must let it cool down for about 15 minutes after only 45 seconds of winching (5% duty cycle). Is this about right/normal?

Does this help at all?

Thanks