SuperCheap winches-any feedback??

"Why not give it a try?"
Because when it comes to recovery equipment, any failure can have serious consequences. We had a winch let go on a steep hill where the car went over the side slamming into a tree & shortening it by half a metre. (Lucky no one was in it at the time) Winches are one item that are best not chosen by price.
Cheers Craig.............

I agree Craig

I can't see Super Cheap sticking their neck out selling 4x4 recovery winches if they are inferior.

If the winch was used re: the manufacturers rating ect, and it failed they would be legally responsible for selling crap.

I used recovery gear for years when doing pipe line inspections in easements ect.

We had to get them tested every three months re: wh&s even when we replaced the cables they still insisted on testing them before we got compliance.

Got a $800 10,000lb winch. Pulled my overloaded troopy and 14 ft tinnie on a trailer thruogh 50 meters of pure mud bog. Had 100 meters of slings and ropes out. Took a long time and didnt use a snatch block. Absolutely wrapped in its performance. Have had 2 warn wicnches. First one lasted 3 years with bugger all use and rusted itself to death because they were not made waterproof and also I failed to strip it down each year and clean it. Stuff that! The 2nd one suffered a similar fate after 6 years. Big heavy 12,000 model. Once again no waterproofing. Blokes up our way (nearly everyone has a winch) are running Terrain Tamers etc. Why pay $25000 PLUS WHEN YOU CAN BUY 3 FOR THE SAME PRICE. PLEASE DONT TELL ME A WARN WILL LAST 3 TIMES LONGER.
Dont forget a winch is normally rated on its maximum pull. This is normally the last few wraps on the drum. All winches can fail. I have seen the cheapies and the expensive ones fail
Many people poo poo the cheaper chinese winches. Many swear by them.
Bit like buying a 4wd. Your $140,000 toyota looks lovely in the bush but I,ll bet the old beat up landy following behind will get into more places!
Best answer..GOOGLE . Many reviews and tests done. Toyota or Nissan clubs also have forums. Dont believe everything you read on here (including me). The more info you get the better off you are.
All the answers on here are opinions and peoples experiences. Get as many as you can and make an informed decision. Its your money.
Cheers and merry Xmas

My considerable experience with winches both at work & at play has shown that quality winches generally fail from poor installation, bad opperators & lack of maintenance. My limited recent experience with Chinese winches has found the quality is hit & miss with several that I have seen opperating 1st hand fail with less than an hours use, in fact the last one was making loud grinding noises when powering out under load after just 5 minutres from new! (Tigerz) The worst one I've heard of was when the SA 4x4 Mag crew did a winch test a few years back with the cogs in an Aldi unit totally collapsing moments after taking up the weight for the first time. (poor quality steel)
Thankfully they are not all like that but when hanging by a cable on the side of a hill, winch quality is something I don't gamble with.
Cheers Craig..........

Big fish
My warn12000lb has been on several trucks & only 1 rebuild $350 in 17years, did change the solenoid pack several times (& that's a lot of $) until I fitted a solid state type & yes it has worked a lot & I believe this is the reason it has lasted, but it has easily out lasted several of the cheapys I have bought & sounds 100% better when loaded, I have cracked 2 housings on the cheapys (ebay specials) but they have been reasonable value for the money & I must say they worked hard & no matter what brand you buy fit a good solid state solenoid system as this is where most fail

Infltaduck..No worries . As I stated there are so many personal opinions of winches that it is very hard to guess what is best. Must admit I was wrong in my ioriginal post. Mine is a 12,000lb winch. Tigerz 11. Only this evening I was speaking to a young bloke who had one fitted last week and got bogged 2 days ago chasing pigs on the floodplains. . 100 meters of cable and 3 hours later he got himself out. With a mates help. He had the same winch. He was stoked. I also have had several solenoid packs on the Warne. For $2,500 I would have expected a lot better quality. I didnt get it. My Tigerz 11 has a solid state soleoid PLUS wireless remote. A huge difference when justifying the price of a winch. My winches were also on vehicles that were often driven thru water and mud that covered the winches.
I totally agree with the solid state solenoid. Why cant Warne fit them when you are already getting ripped off for $2,500? I buy heaps of gear from the yanks and yes, we are getting ripped off !!
Another point that is relevant to ALL winches...every month pull 10 meters of cable off in free spool and then engage the winch and put it back on. This loads up the electrics, the ropes, the gears, the motor and the housing. Stops (hopefully) rusting and terminal verdigris.
Another point that is very relevant is that my winch came complete with plasma rope. Once again Warne do not supply this as a standard issue. It is a huge advantage for safety and a huge weight advantage over steel rope.
cheers and only 2 more sleeps till chrissy!

Big fish
I have had problems with the plasma/dyn?? rope on the cheapy winch as it has been twice heat effected (heat of winch on the drum) this can also happen more on older warns (like mine) according to warn

the early aldi winches are a ironman,all the warranty is thru ironman, put one on my sons navara has been good but had to change the solenoid pack to a solid state in the first six months

If you speak to some people who sell and service winches, the most common failures have been switch gear.....in particular the solenoid pack.

This is why the modern mounded single piece solenoids are such an inovation.


cheers