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chicago electric winches? any good?

buffblazer

buffblazer

1/2 ton status
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was looking at harbor freight and ebay, found a 10k one for about 400 are they any good? if kept in good order are they good for the ocasional weeler? also anyone know anything about XCESS ELECTRONICS winches? selling for decent prices new on ebay but i dont know about the quality?
 
I've heard that the CE winches are just rebadged Mile Marker ones. But they have different remote switches that I have also heard are a POS. OK for the occasional wheeler and for mounting on a trailer. I've debated getting one of the 10k myself and putting my 8K Warn on a receiver mount for the back.
 
There are certain things I'll buy at Harbor Freight: the ten dollar angle grinder, smaller screwdrivers and other hand tools that won't see tremendous abuse, that kind of thing.

I gave up on buying air fittings there 'cuz while they're cheap, they fit like sh!t and leak. All of them, all the time.

Their steel is cheap, Chinese crap. Given that, I don't trust the ten dollar grinder ... which is why I have four of them. When one burns up (and that's "when", not "if") I take it back under the exchange program I paid extra for (one warranty for four grinders, while not necessarily fair to them, is great for me! :D )

But a winch? Uhh ... never mind the likelihood of burning out at inopportune times, the chance of that cheap Chinese steel BREAKING and sending bits flying through my head is enough to make me look at a Warn or a Ramsey.

I've never believed in the whole MileMaker hydraulic thing, and I've always found SuperWinch's hubs to be second-class compared to Warn's ... donno about their winches, oddly, but I've just never been hip to them.

Your mileage may vary ... but I see 8274's on Craigslist for 300-600, depending on age and condition, and even if they need a little love, they can be rebuilt fairly easily and/or pumped up with the newer motor ... sexy winches, those.

-- A
 
The only thing I have to say is

WARN 8274!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Nothing can hold water compaired to it.

For the rigs we run, anything bigger is a waste of money.
 
hunterguy86 said:
The only thing I have to say is

WARN 8274!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Nothing can hold water compaired to it.

For the rigs we run, anything bigger is a waste of money.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say that it is a waste to get an M12000, but an 8274 is an excellent winch. My dad ran one for years on his Furd, and had it not been stolen from the shop, it would already be mounted to my K5. I'm looking and I will find another, or some other Ramsey or Warn winch to mount to the front. But I must say, I have never gotten myself into a situation where I have needed the winch to get out, I have always used them to get others out.
 
CE makes cheesy tools, I'd assume the winches are no better...
 
Here's a link to a winch test article that a buddy sent me last week. They test all the big boys and the Harbor Freight winch:

Winches In Hell

The HF winch outperformed some of the name brands. :shocked:
 
From http://www.ld-winch.cn/4wd_winch.htm

scary Chinglish said:
China Ningbo Lianda Winch Co., Ltd. is one of the production bases that manufacturing electromotional capstans in China. Our company is located in the Gu Lin industry city, the Yin Zhou street. With the standard of technology exploitation makes creative technique. We win the clients' trust and deeply love depending on the dependable quality, consummate arts and crafts, high-quality function. Our products, 4WD winch, 4WD winches are sold far to Europe and America etc. The products, 4WD winch, 4WD winches reach tens of nations and regions. We wish to cooperate sincerely with friends at home or abroad to create a more beautful tomorrow togather
Click to expand...

-- A
 
HarryH3 said:
Here's a link to a winch test article that a buddy sent me last week. They test all the big boys and the Harbor Freight winch:

Winches In Hell

The HF winch outperformed some of the name brands. :shocked:
Click to expand...

Must have missed my post then :doah:

Anyway, I didn't much care for the way they tested the winches:

On the T-maxx, the synthetic rope pulled out of the crimp fastener that attaches it to the drum. How many wraps did they leave on the drum when they made the pull? That one is probably the testers fault, there should be no tension on that connection.

They pulled different vehicles at different times during the day (heat) and seemed to have a bunch of weird problems (solenoids, etc) that kept winches from competing.
 
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i posted that link to "winches in hell" not long ago. some decent info. the chicago electric did pretty well. for my moderate wheeling, i could get away with it. my friend used the warn on his old jeep a lot more than i'd use one. it was always trying to follow me up an obstacle. trail-rated:rolleyes:.

i agree that they should have tested the winches a little differently, especially since most of those problems could have been solved by a handy guy in a short amount of time.
 
Real world

WOW, all that Nay saying and nobody owns one, unbelievable.

Luckly i didn't believe the hype.
Im down to save a buck, however i do not like crap that does not work.

Anyway i went out and got ahold of a CE 9000lb from harbor freight, out here in Orlando.

I had all the same concerns that everybody seemed to be crying about.
will the winch pull hard enough
will it over heat
will it still work after being splashed around
will it work in the heat
will it work in water
ect
ect
ect

My main concern...mile marker, warn are known names, under the worst conditions.....they should work. I assumed they would be more apt to work in or around watery conditions.

I was worried about trying out a new name.

So any way, after fanagling the thing in...and finally getting the plate welded we took it out to the woods for the old sideways tree pull. Except for my lame ass wearing crocs and stepping a 4 set of nails...it worked great. My iroks were a little too tufff to slide sideways on the terrain we were in but the winch seemed to yank hard enough. It started tipping the beast over, and cinchin down the front end. The plate and load bearing joints looked in tact everything was gravy.
Check 1.

First the cherokee got stuck in some ruts while he was crawling around a hole, 2wd, weak tires, ect ect. Anyway, I got all excited, use of the winch for the first real time! Yanked him right out.
Check 2.

What happened next no one saw comming, we have been rolling around in this pond for sometime...and finally had to show off for some girlys that showed up, and ride out the island on the north side of this hole. No sweat, right? Little did i know the south side of this island, had a hard slope down to what I can only describe as neck deep. So any way i was dug in two feet on the driver side half on the island, and easily dug in another two feet into the bottom of about 5 feet of water.

My buddy sneaking over in a k5 on 38s to help got stuck 5 feet behind me.

So any way right off the bat latched on to amassive stump hanging over the water in front of us, Ended up "unspooling" the winch right off the bat. I had not let it all out but i guess it was enough to allow the mother to come unspooled. Respooled and promptly pulled that 12 foot petrified stump right off how ever it was dug in and into the water. Behind that we found a 4 foot concrete drainage pipe, half burried and half exposed.....we were wheeling in a old dump in pinehills from about 20 years ago. That turned to be a solid anchor, and began to pulled no sooner had i forgot to idle up the engine than i let that little 305 give up the ghost. Any way after we gave up and slept a little, ate a little ....in the other k5 that was still running and pumping heat. We got our second wind and daisy chained two jumper cables together and fired up my k5 , let it beef up for a few and began winchin again......the winch was underwater, and still pulled us through. That was my main concern was the CE9k going to operate in watery conditions....most of the goop in central florida, is just dirty water, not really mud.
Check 3.

I am thoroughly impressed, with the performance of the CE winch, its savings, and its price point.

So:
CE 9k winch
underwater for 4-6 hours
K5 9 inch lift, 39.5 iroks, top centered, yanked us out....nice and slow.
I would recommend the winch...i dunno, that is just the first weekend out though!

So anyway there's a real world answer with a tangable owner, not just some lip flappin from nay sayers.

Oh, yes, my buddy stuck behind me, so once I was out, i got behind my buddy and tried to winch him a few times, but just winched myself towards him. So ended up strapping to a tree, then pulling him right out nice and slow.

Then we had to figure out how serious, that strawberry milk shake spewing out of my vent tube was.

I mounted the winch with the included plate, hanging upside down off the frame. Sits behind the bumper very nicely, but hangs below about 1.5 inch(es). I also took the time to relocated the selenoid to the engine bay near the battery, instead of sitting right by the winch and suceptable to watery intrusion.


th_livefastdiefun22.jpg
 
My friend loves his but its a 12,000 or something like that on a samurai.

BUT if your gonna invest in a winch I am gonna tell you what ever one told me, Spend a little exta money and do it right the first time with a quility winch.
 
Somebody said they were re-badged Ramseys. And Copasetic said rebadged milemarker.

Quality is definately King, I can definately prescribe to that.
So far Chicago electric works like a charm.
 
I got a really good deal on the CE 9k one, got it for the 8k price, brand new. I havent really had any major stuckage with it, but have messed with it, etc. It seems to work. I dont wheel that often and I make sure to keep the cable lubed with silicone spray. ABout once a year I respool it and make sure its all good and tight. If i couldve afforded the warn I most certainly would have, but the deal I got was pretty good. If this ends up being a POS, than so be it, lesson learned, but I think itll last.
 
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