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Winch 101...What size sufficient? Warn 8274

Zeus33rd

Zeus33rd

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My truck in it's current state weighs in at 4900lbs. It'll prolly be 5500lbs+ when finished. It seems that the general consensus is to get a winch thats rated for atleast 1.5x the weight of the truck. So using 5500lbs as the weight, I need an 8250lb winch. I know that a 9500lb winch would be great, a 12k would be better. But I've always read so much about the Warn 8274 8k winch. I think I remember someone saying something like "get a 9.5k winch....Unless you get an 8274." What makes the 8274 so special? I see them quite a bit on Ebay for great prices. Some need rebuilding, that makes them even cheaper. I'm not scared of rebuilding one, and BillaVista did a tech article on rebuiding the 8274 on Pirate. I could prolly get an old "fixer upper" 8274, rebuild it, and have enough money left to get some synthetic winch rope. But I don't want to do this if the 8274 won't be sufficient for my truck. So again, what makes the 8274 so special vs say....a 9.5ti Thermometric? And why the hell does a new 8274 cost the same as a new M12000? I know the line speed is faster....but 8k lbs for the same price as 12k? :confused:
 
The 8274 is a worm drive, does not use the drum as a break, so you can run synthetic line without the fear of it being destroyed from the heat of the drum. The 8274 pulls like a mother fudger, Tork on this site uses one on his K10 1ton setup running 42's, a bed full of stuff and it pulls his truck up hills with no problem and he uses sythetic line...never broken yet either. I have the 9.5ti on my bench waiting to get installed, I bought it because I could not beat the price.

If you plan to run a lot of mud and get stuck, I would say go with the biggest winch you can get (from Warn), you will end up killing a smaller winch since your tires will be like suction cups in the mud.
 
I have the 8274 winch on the front of my 7500+lbs burb and it has never left me stuck. Like said above, the 8274 is a worm drive and has better braking and faster line speed than any other winch on the market.
 
I have both the 8274 & 12000lb Warn winches. The 8274 is mounted on my burb. I like them both but the 8274 has more line capacity 150' versus 125'. The 8274 is a lot faster. The 12000 has more pull but I have a snatch block to double line either winch. I plan on getting a rear winch bumper built to hold the 12000. I haven't had the burb weighed yet but with all of the mods done it aint light :D
 
I had an 8274 on my old rig and loved it. The line speed was awesome and it always pulled around my heavy pig when I broke axle shafts. I never had any trouble out of it, even though my rig weighed 5200 lbs. without any gear. The only problem I had with it was size and weight. It blocked nearly all of the air flow to my radiator and it weighs over twice what my M8000 does.
 
I gotta chime in on my 8274. It is a mean mother humper man. I pulled out myself, pulled out buddies that you would just be sure the winch would stall but never did. I also carry a snatch block and plan on using it someday ;)

The only drawback of an 8274 (if it actually is a drawback) would be that it doesnt tuck away in a winch bumper as say the M12000 would. But I love my 8274.
 
I have delt with many a 8274 and NONE of them were worm drive ( just like HARRYH3 said up above ). They are of a spur gear design and it is obvious by the way they are built with the motor being above the drum and the gear case on the side with an idler.

I have a 8274 and think they are FANTASTIC ! This style of winch will take some abuse and still be reliable. The line speed is just awesome too.
There is no doubt thet the larger Warn 10,000-12,000-15,000 pounders are stronger but the 8274 gets the job done just fine in most full size applications.
Tom
 
I had the warn m15000 for about six months on my truck. COuldnt stand how slow it was, now i got the 8274-50. My truck scales in at about 5700lbs. Pulls like a champ.
 
I have a 20 year old 8274 that I swear by! It was on the front of my old K10 with 44's (truck weighed just under 6100lbs), it never complained or failed. I intend to use this same winch on my current K5 project.
 
If I were going to be paying for a winch I would only consider picking one of a few winches.

Warn 8274 (underrated capacity and fast
Warn 9500 (fast and pulls very hard)
Warn 12000 (slow but pull like a demon)
Ramsey Patroit 9500 (pulls fast and hard)

I run a 12000 personally and it is a great winch. If you can't get yourself pulled out with it you are in real deep sh*t. It is slow as hell though.

I wheel with guys that run Warn and Ramsey 9500's and they do awesome. They both pull really hard and they have no problems pulling often. They are both pretty damn fast with the line speed too.

The 8274 I have never personally delt with but I have heard from alot of reputable people that it is a workhorse and is way under rated. I like the fact that it has so much cable also.

When I get the money I am going to switch to synthetic line. It is awesome stuff that is WAY safer then cable. I have seen synthetic line snap and it is a non-event when it does.

Harley
 
Hmmm....The only time I've ever seen an 8274 was a couple weeks ago on a fellow club members truck. It was only used to unstuck a guy that was lightly hung up on his 14b. I wish I had paid more attention to it. I guess I could get one and see if it'll work for me. If it dosen't I'll just get somethin else. Food for thought... :)
 
I rode up Surprise Cyn in a Land Cruiser with a 416SBC/TH400/D60/14bff combo in it, plus gear for 4 people. Coudn't have been light, but I don't know what it weighed.

That 8274 did not appear to notice that it was bolted to an LC, line speed was the same whether spooling cable on or winching up one of the falls.
Based on that I'll second the 8k rating being extremely conservative.
 
now if i can just find some plans for a winch bumper like this one but made for an 8274....

frbumperslant.jpg
 
The 8274 is one hell of a winch. Line speed is a huge plus, so is the extra capacity of it, and the durability, and the design, you get the picture. I would not hesitate to run one on a fullsize, not even a full body'd sub.

IMHO, it is the ultimate winch.
 
I have an M10000 which is basically the same as a M120000, but damn I had my truck hung up hard on the diffs and frame this weekend and it pulled it off the rocks pretty easily. I guess its slow, you kinda have to ask yourself how fast do you really want your winch to be, I know my friend's 10000 ramsey thats off a tow truck is really SLOW, but my M10000 does just fine, I would almost be scared if it pulled much faster because of the fact that you sometimes need to go uberslow while winching.
 
with a snatch block on the 8274 you get a 16,000 pound winch thats the same speed as most planetary winches

yunit is right, my 8274 pulled my loaded truck up quite a hill a bit faster than my old man's hs9500 pulled his wrangler up the same hill
 
muscle said:
now if i can just find some plans for a winch bumper like this one but made for an 8274....
Click to expand...

I built mine. Had the sheet bent by a shop. Wasn't too big of a job, but it took three tries for the metal shop to get the 'wing' sections (outer pieces) right.
What I did was start with the pocket that the winch sits in. Downloaded the dimensions from the mfg'r and worked out what the size had to be. Then I designed the rest of the bumper around that and how I wanted it to fit the truck.

myBumper1.jpg

mybumper2.jpg
 
If Cameron (The Chain Link Truggy) told me an 8274 would work fine for my Suburban, it will be fine. He knows that stuff really well.

Get one.
 
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