# Harbor Freight Winch



## justallan (Feb 21, 2016)

Does anyone have the 12,000 lb winch from HF and what do you think of it?
I have to get a sizable winch to get logs out of a spot that I won't be able to drive into, but don't have the room to drag them with the truck.
Any input is welcome.


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## woodtickgreg (Feb 21, 2016)

That winch gets great reviews From the four wheeler mags, best bang for the buck. I'm sure others are better quality but cost 3 or 4 times as much. For occasional use I'll buy the hf one. I am going to buy one soon as I will need it to move a piece of machinery into the basement when the weather breaks. After that I will mount it to a trailer to roll logs up. I am going to make a hitch mount for it as well.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## justallan (Feb 21, 2016)

I really have to quit going to Billings! I became some kind of member at HF for $30, so got an additional $100 knocked off the price, but spent that and a little on the dust collection unit and the kit for it. My plan is to mount it on a skid that will either slip onto my tow hitch, gooseneck hitch or onto the tongue of the trailer. I sure don't see it flying off anywhere, that thing is heavy.


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## rocky1 (Feb 21, 2016)

You might also want to check 4 Wheel Parts on Winches Allan. We put one on a 5500 Dodge at work last year; looking at 2 - 10 Wheelers we may at times have to recover, we wanted BIG and NASTY. 4 Wheel Parts offers a 17,500 lb. model in the Smitty-Built line that caught my eye. In reviewing specs on the Smitty Built and Warn winches, Smitty-Built not only offered a bigger winch, but also offered a considerably better warranty, for about a third the money. While they do offer a 12,000 lb. winch for the same money as Harbor Freight, the 17,500 lb. is only a couple hundred dollars more than what you're looking at there, with a limited lifetime warranty.

Opted for the Warn Transformer Mounting System on ours to save all the hassle and the expense of changing bumpers and dealing with air bags; stuck with strictly the mount itself, without any of the other brush guard add-ons, or bells and whistles. The Smitty-Built winch will fit that mount, but you will have to drill 2 holes to mount it, if used. The folks at 4 Wheel Parts weren't sure; suggested we could turn it and mount it on the front plate which is an option with the Warn, and clock the motor and gear housings. That option simply doesn't work with the Smitty-Built, it creates a number of problems with cables, mounting the plug for your switch and other issues. It was easier to drill the holes.

If you go that route, read the instructions through thoroughly, before you start. That Warn mount has to be assembled before you install it on the Dodge. It doesn't go together piece by piece the easy way, you have to turn it into a BIG chunk of iron to wrestle before it goes on the truck.

The Smitty-Built winch is awesome! Had my New Holland LX 565 buried, mud 3/4 of the way up the tires, sitting on the skidplate, no one on the machine to assist. It literally drug it out sideways, on a dead pull. My 9000 lb. Warn will lift the back tires of my pickup off the ground, stall the engine, and won't move that machine, in any direction, without someone on it to assist, when stuck in that manner. 

If you have the option, get one with the wireless remote. I spent the $100 on wireless for my Warn, for exactly the reason mentioned above. The Warn wireless receiver plugs into the port where your cable does, has a keychain size remote on a carabiner. I snap it into the cage on the skid steer, and it affords me enough leeway to operate controls and remote. It has been worth the $100 and more, every time I've used it.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Great Post 1 | Informative 1


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## justallan (Feb 21, 2016)

Thanks Rocky, but I went ahead and got the HF winch. I sure hope it does the job.

Reactions: Like 1


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## rocky1 (Feb 22, 2016)

Yeah, I saw you had posted that while I was typing my post up; figured I'd leave the info there for the benefit of anyone else that happens across the thread. Given your intended application, and mounting so you can move it, you probably don't want the 17.5, it's a handful!!

You may want to check on a wireless remote if your winch didn't come with one Allan. It's worth every penny you'll spend on it. I bought one off E-Bay to put on the mule, cost $20 or so. Ordered it before installing the winch, and after putting the winch on that, the only place it would benefit me in tha application is rolling the cable up. Never installed it, and honestly couldn't tell you how it works. That one you do have to wire into your winch; it's not plug and play like the Warn unit. Want to say it was 3-4 wires to connect. Wireless control on a winch is one of those things you question the necessity of, until you use it, then wonder how you ever got along without it.


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## justallan (Feb 22, 2016)

@rocky1 it comes with a remote with a 12' lead, but I agree 100% wireless would be worth gold.
I have a little 2500 lb winch on my trailer right now and the sounds that little thing makes trying to work is just plain scary and you want to be elsewhere.
I've never used a wireless unit, but it would basically let me work alone rather than paying someone else to tag along just to push a button.
Thanks for the advice.


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## rocky1 (Feb 22, 2016)

I believe this is the one I ordered off E-Bay - $15 - Amazon has several generic Wireless Winch Remote Kits available, Google found lots of them in search for "Wireless Winch Remote Kit". Most of your generic kits have to be wired in internally, or at the plug if that's mounted externally, for anyone following this thinking it might be handy on your ATV winch, your boat trailer winch, your deer skinnin winch, shop door winch, whatever. If you can get another male plug, there's no reason you couldn't build one like the Badlands Wireless unit listed below.

Harbor Freight came up in Google search - $40 - Badlands Winch offers one you just plug in, and mount it to your winch somewhere since you'll be moving that around Allan.

And, yes absolutely, it turns a lot of 2 man jobs into one man jobs. I've been at the end of my cable (_100+ ft. on the Warn 9000i; it suggests a range of 50 ft. just like the Badlands model_), and had no problems with operation. That is way more convenient than at the end of 16 ft. of power cord tied to your front bumper, believe me!

Battery life may be a question for some as well... The Warn remote, as I'm sure all others do as well, shuts itself down after so many seconds idle. On the Warn, you simply hold the In and Out switches down for 5 - 6 seconds, a green LED Flashes, and you're ready to go. Worst case scenario, if the battery in the wireless remote should fail, you simply call someone to help, reach in the glove box and grab the corded control, you used to use.

Have a 2500 lb. on the Mule, and I know exactly what you're talking about on the sounds it makes!


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## justallan (Feb 22, 2016)

Thanks for the link Rocky. I wish I would asked about that yesterday.


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## rocky1 (Feb 22, 2016)

Not a problem Allan! Wish I'd found your thread sooner and filled you in on all of it before you made the trip to town.

If that one works half as good as my Warn, you will never regret purchasing the Wireless unit, I promise!!


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## F.W.von (Apr 19, 2016)

I'm good with my hf winch, just the 3500. I have it mounted in the end of my truck bed on some 3' thick wall steel channel.
I welded up a ramp that catches at the edge of my truck bed (no tailgate).

I've drawn up a 30" x 12' log into the f150 short bed( pushing it with the truck in reverse... Putting roller log pieces under to help it up ramp)

Pretty impressed with the HF winches.
Also able to pull cars up onto the trailer with the long cable.

One thing to watch out for is how the cable is winding onto the spool. If it wads up on one side too much, it will bind and crack apart the side of the spool and then it will be get stcky or sieze easily.
Maybe a better winch has a real steel spool and not that cast aluminum HF stuff, but just keep an eye on the winding up being even.
Also if you run it hard for 15 minutes you should let it cool off for an hour. My 2500 winch got too hot and fried.

Real nice to drag almost anything up and haul away. My back doesn't hurt and I don't have to bribe biddies.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## justallan (Apr 20, 2016)

Thanks @F.W.von . I put mine on a receiver hitch and got the remote for it. I can put it on the back of the truck and will fix a receiver to be able to put it on the tongue of my trailer for pulling logs onto it. When I first put it on the truck I backed the truck up to a couple logs to use for a stop and pulled my buddy's ranger pickup across the driveway while he stood on the brakes in it. It did just fine.
My main plan for it is for the spots that I don't have room to just drag logs with my truck. I figure I'll hang a snatch-block in a tree over the road and drag my logs up to it.

Reactions: Like 1


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## F.W.von (Apr 20, 2016)

Yeah cool, I dragged an old Packard sideways with mine. They're tough.

There was a logging video, like a PBS documentary I found on YouTube about how the old guys used cables and cleared the redwoods.

One cool trick was they would wrap the cable around a jammed log a number of times that when they pulled it , then it would roll itself out of a jamb.

Have fun logging in a forest.
I just hit up tree trimmers in the city


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## justallan (Apr 20, 2016)

@F.W.von look up the word "parbuckling". It makes small winches work magic loading logs onto a trailer without killing the winch.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mr. Peet (Apr 23, 2016)

We used the old winch the other day to pull a large log. My WARN 8000 is getting tired. It came as part of the package on my Dad's 1981 Jeep, CJ 5 I think (and the only new vehicle he ever bought). He sold the winch to a landscape company in the early 90's that used it for tree jobs. I worked for them part time and when they killed the winch, I asked to buy it. I think they gave it to me since the bronze bushings were shot. A machinist in the next town made new ones, $250 cheaper than from Warn, but far slower. He had it at least a year. When I got it back, I decided to make it more mobile and mounted a hitch to the base plate. As said, it is tired, but it was dad's and since he is now gone, it is a way of holding on.

It went from being used on my 1986 Ford to the 2005 Ford. As you can see, I made the hitch mount also a receiver. This works great, I hook the trailer to the front and drive it into place. I run the chain anchors down to the plow frame, mounted separately from the bumper. I have snapped the cable twice, so of the original 150' feet, I am down to about 100' plus. I have a quick connect power plug that doubles for a quick connect jumper pack and similar devices. I mount the different hooks on the base plate and have the snatch block accessories in the truck bed tool box.

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 1


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## F.W.von (Apr 24, 2016)

You might find an electric motor repair shop and see about having some fresh brushes put in that sucker.
Also wenches and winches work harder on shorter leashes!


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