What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Do not buy chinese winches

GRINCH

GRINCH

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jan 30, 2001
Posts
1,951
Reaction score
7
Location
Helena, MT
Here is why you should spend the extra money and buy a good winch. I am very thankful that no one was hurt. (Except the Grinch). Do not buy Chinese crap!!!

Parts scattered like shrapnel. The one end piece came flying back down to earth and bounce on my hood 3 times before smacking the windshield.

One true tested thereory about snynthetic rope proved true. It just fell to the ground. However, the spool with the rest of it on it went flying forward about 100ft.

Kerts' DIY bumper stood up to the explosion quite well.
1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg
 
Looks like feet down.

Name of winch, where you bought it, etc.? So we can avoid it.
 
496truck said:
Looks like feet down.

Name of winch, where you bought it, etc.? So we can avoid it.
Click to expand...


Feet down and the front of the winch was actually resting on the front of the 1/4" plate where the fairlead is.

Not sure on the name. I've had it for about 4 years and can't remember. Of course there is no name on it.
 
In the process of figuring out what to get for a winch on our UAK2500 I poked around on the Warn site and saw their value line that looks pretty awesome for a budget winch. Still made offshore but with the Warn name on it you can be pretty sure it's not going to just fly apart since they're not going to want their name anywhere near the lawsuit that could happen with a problem like Grinch's. The other thing I did was poke around a bit looking at M8000's which are always an awesome budget choice and they're still floating around for $500 give or take a little. This incident makes it easy to pay just a little more for a good name.

Not to step on a sore spot and I mention this because I'm curious not judgmental, but...
If you use a winch enough to justify a rope, can you justify a cheap winch?
 
Pow!..

Not to defend offshore built winches---but ANY winch can grenade like that one --I have seen hydraulic Ramsey worm gear ones on ramp trucks blow apart ,strip the worm screw ,etc..they did have a lot of use and were overloaded more often than not,granted,but even the best winch can fail catastrophically,thats why they all say not to use one as a hoist,or to transport humans on them...its a disclaimer so if in the unlikely event that happens,the manufacturer cant be held liable for deaths or injuries..

I've had only dinky 1000lb winches like you use on an ATV,no really big tonnage ones--one was a Dayton,another was a Sears that was identical to a Superwinch one I had..the Dayton one I used on a small crane on my flatbed and I was amazed at what it would pick up using the snatch block..I never really trusted it to hold a load though,despite the fact it never slipped or broke...I always had fears of the load coming flying down uncontrolled when I'd go to lower it.....no big deal if your unloading scrap,but you certainly dont want an expensive engine to hit the ground from 5 feet up!..for what I put that winch thru it should look like the grenaded one pictured here,but it still works fine..
 
I worked for a towing company for two days, while out on the second day with the "trainer" we were called out to recover a van in a residential construction area, where the van was nosing downward on a steep hill, driveway wasn't paved yet, and he lost traction and at the bottom it got steeper and then the brick retaing wall.

Hooked up the truck, started to yank on it, dragging it back up the hill and the winch went BANG !!!, the cable went loose and the truck rolled down the hill and hit the wall completely smashing the front end, air bags, everything.

Reset the winch after calling it in, taking pictures and it pulled fine.

For some reason it just released into a neutral state, freewheeling basically. Not sure what happened, I decided towing wasn't for me anymore after he told me he would probably be responsible for this incident.

I ran into him a week later and asked him whatever happened to that deal, he said they checked out the winch and found nothing wrong with it, but then when it freewheeled on him again a few days later, they pulled it off the truck and replaced it. Nothing was damaged on the second time though.

Like anything mechanical, they are unpredictable, another reason I hate flying, it's a mechanical item, anything can fail at any time and bring that plane down.
 
Usually when a winch releases like that, its the dog clutch. The larger worm gear winches like my 12K Braden, have two pieces on the spool, that mate with two identical pieces on the drive flange.

The faces of the clutch, where they come together are slightly beveled so that as the stain increases, the clutch is forced together stronger and stronger.

The amount of bevel is tricky. Too much, and its next to impossible to disengage it under any strain such as the brake.
Not enough, and it can jump out.

Like everything, it will wear. Eventually the faces wear flat or beveled the other way slightly and it will start jumping out of gear.

The bevel is really subtle, and if you don't look specifically for it, the winch will look fine.
 
4xcrazy said:
another reason I hate flying, it's a mechanical item, anything can fail at any time and bring that plane down.
Click to expand...

I always look at it this way, when doing something dangerous. "Will it hurt?" If not, :dunno: whatever. :D

Fordum said:
The bevel is really subtle, and if you don't look specifically for it, the winch will look fine.
Click to expand...
Good info :waytogo:
 
I didn't go with warn but I went with smittybilt. They seem to be building their name quite well. There are a few guys on here running their xrc10 like me. Quality looks great, I haven't pulled with it yet but when I do I will let you all know. Plus 500 bones shipped to my door through amazon.com
 
i am running the smittybuilt xrc10 and i have used it several times but last weekend i put it in a really big bind and now its kinda noisy i hope it ain't getting ready to explode
 
Man thats scary. Seems like using the rope is a safer option and then the winch explodes. Glad no one was hurt. How well do those ropes work? Never been a big fan of pulling with cables.

Have had a heavy duty tow cable snap on me pulled out trees with a front end loader and it snapped off and smashed the air filter off the tractor. Glad I was sitting up high in the cab when that happened.

Whats anyone experience with mile marker winches in quality?
edited- was wondering because the company I work for is going to start selling mile markers...
just found this on their site
"Mile Marker operates from its headquarters in Pompano Beach, Florida, its primary distribution center in Kalama, Washington and from its plant in China."
 
Pookster said:
Am I the only one running a milemarker hydro?
Click to expand...

I ran a milemarker hyd for a few years but it was powered by a dedicated engine driven hydraulic pump with a spool valve to "switch" it. The problem I had then was the spool was too small for the 3/8" cable and it was always a snarled up mess. This was just before synthetic rope made it's way to the fourwheeling world, in fact the HS9500 that I replaced the hyd winch with had rope on it since the beginning.

The hyd system kicked butt but I ended up with shock hoops in the way of the pump and went electric and haven't really looked back. I've found that elec. handles our needs pretty well but if I wheeled in terrain that required a lot of winching I'd put the hyd. system on in a minute, it was so much faster with a load it's not even funny. Like 35+ fpm at full load with full speed control. Awesome to use.

My winch body and motor were fine but it was so long ago ('96) that it's not relevant any more.

Rope is awesome for just about everything we do offroad. The abrasion resistance is obviously poor but everything else is great and given how bad the OP's incident was, it would have been way worse with cable since it stores so much more energy. You don't exactly want to straddle a syn. rope under load but it's way better than steel.

For occasional use wire rope is fine but I really prefer syn. for hard use on the trail just because it is safer, lighter, easier to repair, etc. These days you can pay half or more as much for a rope as you do for a winch. Overall though, I'd recommend stepping up the winch quality a little and using cable for a while.
 
eclipse85k10 said:
Man thats scary. Seems like using the rope is a safer option and then the winch explodes. Glad no one was hurt. How well do those ropes work? Never been a big fan of pulling with cables.

Have had a heavy duty tow cable snap on me pulled out trees with a front end loader and it snapped off and smashed the air filter off the tractor. Glad I was sitting up high in the cab when that happened.

Whats anyone experience with mile marker winches in quality?
edited- was wondering because the company I work for is going to start selling mile markers...
just found this on their site
"Mile Marker operates from its headquarters in Pompano Beach, Florida, its primary distribution center in Kalama, Washington and from its plant in China."
Click to expand...


i have a 12si milemarker in the garage. it made 4 good pulls and has been nothing but problems ever since. it seems to work 1 or 2 times after i fix it, then stops again and requires more parts. my buddy has the old milemarker 8k that was reboxed at harbor frieght, and that thing has been threw hell and back and still works.

the hydro ones are great, especially with a dedicated pump.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom