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harbor freight winch


erik litchy
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is it any good? i know most harbor freight stuff is shady, but i saw one on sale and thought you know this has a warranty... if its really bad i can pass on it

Did you read the book, or see the movie of Stephen King's "Pet Sematary"? Well, imagine you took a dead Warn and buried it in the old Indian burial ground. Next day, you'd have a HF winch. It would look about the same, but *something* would just not be "right".

 

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=40764&CategoryName=&SubCategoryName=

 

edit upon further research i discovered this

Everything tells me it's identical. Ignore the description on HF's website, it's about 95% incorrect info.

 

This winch, shares the following with the MM electric

 

-No-Load motor amperage draw and rating,

-every dimension

-weight

-rated line speed (the box has all the correct info on it)

-identical control components

-cable size (100' of 3/8" aircraft cable)

-gear ratio (210:1)

-freespool switch

 

a few suggestions I have if you get this winch and install it (it even comes with a universal channel mount that's got holes predrilled for the wrangler frame bolt holes):

 

1 - you gotta install the fairlead first, with the bolt head on the inside of the channel.. looks stupid, but you need to for clearance issues

 

2 - bolting the winch to the plate is a mofo, get a pair of really long curved needle-nose pliers, will make it much easier to put the washer and nut in the fitted slots on the winche's feet.

 

3 - make sure to get 2 more bolts for the frame, mine only has 2 right now which i'm going to rectify before the big bear trip.

 

4 - the solenoid control box mounting holes are in the wrong spot, they interfere with the frame. You will need to move them about 3/4" further outboard to alleviate the interference with the frame and make it possible to bolt all 3 down.

 

5 - stretch the cable a few times as suggested a few times already in this post to prevent bird-nesting of the cable

 

6 - i wouldnt spool out more than 60' with a single line if you're in a super-stuck, if the specs are really identical to the MileMarker. I'd much rather do a double line pull at 50', takes longer, but hey, still quicker than digging yourself out or waiting for a tow truck (yeah right) if you're alone. 100' pull would be ok if you're just high centered and only need to be pulled a few feet to get off of it to gain traction, which I suspect is 95% of all winch use (aside from super-stucks in mudholes)

 

Update:

I did a little research on everyone's favorite A-Hole board with a black background... and the consensus was that the winch is iffy, and that both the MM and the HF are just refurbed Ramsey REP-8000's with bushings instead of bearings in a few locations(would definitely explain the REW-8000 sticker on it.. wink.gif ). 2 people claim to have melted the motors, 1 seemed really happy with it but I pm'ed him for a current status report on it's performance and haven't gotten a reply back yet. I am going to look into the bearing upgrade potential ASAP, seems a decent thing to do for a few extra bucks. Still not hurting the pocketbook, and if it could improve the winch's working life, prolly a must do. Not the first time I've reworked a HF power tool, I've still got a $9. angle grinder that still kicks major butt but i did have to disassemble and fool around with the guts after the lockswitch grenaded..

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Ummmm where is the price? Anyway, I know that some models are the same manufacturer as a Mile Marker, not sure on this particular model, but my 2000lb one works just fine and is identical to the mile marker ... using mine with my 4000lb block&tackle, I was able to pull out my brat buried to the unibody in hard-packed snow/ice and I have at least an extra 300lbs of tool boxes, parts and tools so my car weighs around 2500+ :burnout:

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Well for $250, I don't see how you can go wrong ... I just can't see adding annother 100lbs to my front-end tho, each to their own :)
im wondering why the bigger one is lighter? is the mounting plate really that heavy

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=91905

damn is that one extremly slow though. too slow even.

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