Morning everyone. I am looking for a 8-10000 lb winch for between $3-500. It will only be used for occasional use. I saw some Smittybuilt one' s that looked pretty good. Warn is just too expensive. Does it need to be water proof? Please any ideas would be awesome. I also saw one at Harbor Freight that was 12000 lb for a fair price. Thanks in advance.

 

I have heard both good and bad about the Harbor Freight one, I thought about trying one but I'm hesitant.
A friend of mine had a 6,000lbs one on his car trailer, he used it to haul junk cars to the scrap yard, that thing would pull a full sized pickup with no wheels onto the trailer.
But he's not in the middle of the woods buried axle deep while in Deliverance country.
Smittybuilt is good.
Have you been checking Craig's List for used Warn or Superwinch?

 

I'd strongly suggest finding a quality used one and spend $100 or so rebuilding it.
I've bought used:
Ramsey RE1000 - $200 - working, just needed solenoids
Warn 8274 - $250 - worked but needed rebuild
Warn 8274 - $200 - needed rebuild

 

What needed rebuilding Tom?
The motors? Gears?
Where did you buy the parts and how much was it to rebuild them?

 

If you have Amazon prime this winch is $299.99 with free 2 day shipping...

I have it and no issues yet. Haven't used it extensively but it outlasted the T-Max that came on my truck.

 

Mostly just cleaned up and seals/gaskets, all available from Warn for under $50. I am putting new motors on them however, which are as low as $90, depending on what I go with.

 

I have heard that a starter motor out of a 4 cylinder engine is the exact same motor as that in Warn winches and those starters can be had for like $30.
But knowing which one to buy is the kicker.

 

Sorry about thread jacking but has anyone installed one of the mailorder4x4.com hidden winch mounts or tried to use the universal winch mount that harbor freight sells? I too am in the winch market and want to keep the stock and discrete look to my disco.

 

I have a quadratec 11500lb winch on mine. They have gotten good reviews by the Jeep guys on various forums.

 

If you decide to go the harbor freight universal winch tray route i have one i will sell you if we can do a face to face with it ,,Shipping would be horrable on it....It is wider than the frame rails just FYI ..It measures 36 inches long ..