Harbor freight 12k winch? Opinions?

[Waggoner72]

The harbor freight 12k winch recently went on sale for $299. Has anyone had any experience with it?
I'm looking to be able to pull a dead truck or car onto a trailer with it.
I searched the forum looking for previous opinions but didn't come across anything.

 

[kythri]

http://www.pirate4x4.com will have a ton of threads on it, if you search for "Harbor Freight Winch" or "Badlands Winch"

I haven't looked recently, but my understanding was that these things were generally looked at as pretty good stuff, especially for the money.

 

[Askme42]

12k will be more than enough to pull a car onto a trailer. Pulled many trucks out of the mud with that winch.

 

[VocaTexas]

As a side-business I sell sea containers. I've got a 22 foot tilt-bed trailer to move the 20 foot containers with and a 12 ton HF winch on the front. It has worked flawlessly for a year and a half. There are a couple of weak points, though. Both are easily resolved. One is that the fairlead bushings are plastic. You can get wheel barrow axle bearings at Tractor Supply to replace them. The shafts will need sanded/turned down a couple thousands of an inch for them to fit. (TSC SKU# 11-96236)

Also, do not mount the controller box on top of the winch. If you do the cable will tear it up when you spool it in. Several of the reviews mention this. I mounted mine on one end of the winch and it works great. These containers generally weigh 5,000 lbs. and the winch doesn't break a sweat pulling them up.

 

[Waggoner72]

As a side-business I sell sea containers. I've got a 22 foot tilt-bed trailer to move the 20 foot containers with and a 12 ton HF winch on the front. It has worked flawlessly for a year and a half. There are a couple of weak points, though. Both are easily resolved. One is that the fairlead bushings are plastic. You can get wheel barrow axle bearings at Tractor Supply to replace them. The shafts will need sanded/turned down a couple thousands of an inch for them to fit. (TSC SKU# 11-96236)

Also, do not mount the controller box on top of the winch. If you do the cable will tear it up when you spool it in. Several of the reviews mention this. I mounted mine on one end of the winch and it works great. These containers generally weigh 5,000 lbs. and the winch doesn't break a sweat pulling them up.

Awesome advice. Is there somewhere you saw these modifications or came up with them yourself?

 

[HMCFab9]

They are supposed to be a good winch for the money.
Only complaint I've heard is that they are slow.
I read that a guy from the Milemarker winch company designed the HF winch & it has a good design.

 

[justme-]

Remember Hf only buys an existing product... it's not made specifically for them.
My brother in law has the 10K version mounted on his car trailer. I was not impressed by the apparent quality, and it is slow. In comparison I have 2 10K Ramsey worm gear industrial duty (formerly wrecker winches). Granted we're talking industrial versus mount on your front bumper to look cool and occasionally pull you out of mud duty, but the difference is very obvious. The speed is as well, my Ramsey is faster.
My ramseys have also been out in the elements for over 10 years in my possession alone, not including their previous life and they have weathered far far better than the HF has in 4 short years.
I've always gone by getting what you pay for... and when I need a winch it has to work. An hour drive from paved roads in the mountains is not the time to test the durability of your winch.
If you want to mount something to a trailer to aid in loading rolling cars or make your jacked up F150 that never see's a dirt road look tough, go HF. If you want a winch to depend on save your $.

 

[VocaTexas]

I read about the mounting of the control box in some of the reviews on the HF website, I believe. The mods to the fairlead rollers I came up with myself. (I forgot to say above, the fairlead roller tubes will need to be shortened just a bit if you install the bearings. Easy work with a metal chop saw.)

No, it's not a fast winch, and I'm certain that a better winch can be had, but when money is tight you do what you can. I've been very satisfied with the winch, and I'd buy another one if this one was to give it up, but it shows no signs of doing so right now. If I could have afforded a Warn for $1500 I might have bought it, but this one does the job for a lot less money.

 

[emeraldcoupe]

awesome crew!!

 

[diggerrick]

You can usually find a $25 coupon for the wireless remote.
http://www.harborfreight.com/wireless-winch-remote-control-69229.html

I bought one and adapted it to my old Superwinch, but also had to buy a remote relay to make it work.

 

[Bogey won]

$350 shipped on sale, Tuff winch off eBay with ****** block, gloves, remote, winch with 100ft or cable maybe 80 ft now, works on my car trailer and its 12k, wish i had bought 17k, love overkill.

Pard had your winch on professional car hauler took it back, didn't cut the mustard for pulling cars on a 7 car rig, too slow, not strong enuff he say. Your experience may differ.

 

[Steelhorse27]

I have one on a car trailer that we use on a slider/reciever set up with the wireless remote....... Works well we everything I've thrown at it but I wouldn't say it's the cream of the crop. Good value I think

 

[Danglerb]

Looks like the Ramsey is nice and only 5x as much ...