Recommendation on winch brands and pulling capability?

 

Give us a little info.
JK or JKU, How much $$$ willing to spend.
JK I would go 8,000#
JKU nothing less than 10,000#
Personally I run a Warn M8000 on my JK. DOn't care if I only use it occasionally.
When I need it I want it to work.

 

I have a 2014 Willys JKU. Not sure how much I want to spend. I am curious to see what people are using. I know Warn's are the most popular, and probably the best. They are pricey. Curious if anyone has any experience with other brands too.

 

The rule of thumb is the GVWR of the Jeep times 1.5, so if your Jeep has a GVWR of 5700 lbs stock, figure another 300+ lbs for aftermarket equipment, so you are looking at a minimum of 9000 lb rating. Fortunately there are plenty of 9500+ lb winches in the affordable range, Right now in my opinion the Superwinch Tigershark 9500 SR is a great buy at $499. You get a quality synthetic line winch with a respected and proven brand name at an affordable price. I personally got the Tigershark 11500 SR, which has a higher capacity, you can get this for $650 online, I got a great deal on mine from another forum member, but I was going to go with the 9500. I have also owned the Recon 10,500 lb winch and had good experience with it, a bit slow and loud but it got the job done.

I would look at Superwinch and MileMarker before Recon, Engo and Smittibilt (in that order). If you are looking at doing consistently long pulls, you may want to look into a hydraulic winch, a bit more difficult installation but it will not drain your battery or burn up an electric motor.

 

So many threads out there on this. Try a search and read through them. Any winch will be fine. There is no proven higher failure rate on any non-warn brand winches compared to warn. And disregard the recommendation (it will be recommneded at some point) to read the winch shootout from a popular off road mag. The test and results are so biased that it's a bit crazy...

My opinion, buy what you can afford. If it is a Harbor Freight 10K winch for $300 then buy that. if its $1500 and you are considering a Warn, buyt the HF winch and spend the savngs on other gear.

Of course, if you are doing tons of winching, you may need a constant duty winch...then look at Warn or Mile Marker...

 

Thank you, Was reading up on Superwinch yesterday.

 

Thank you! I was kinda of thinking this way. I was out three times this year, never needed other than someone with a tow strap to get me out. Only one of my buddies that had a winch actually need to use his.

 

As for all Jeep parts, you get what you pay for. I run a WARN and it has never left me hangin'

 

I got a 12,000 lb smittybuilt XRC winch, the water resistant variety with synthetic line. 449 shipped. On sale a couple months ago.

I've used it 6 times.

It's done fantastic each time.

The two worst pulls... a Ford 150 crew cab that slide off a road into a ravine in the snow and mud. hit the bottom of the ravine and crumpeled the bed. Three pulls to get it out, 70degree angle at the top. A dodge diesel served as a anchor behind me strapped to me. Got him out!

Last night pulled a doge 3/4 ton out of 3 feet of snow and slush. 3 pulls and 50 feet... used a ford 150 as an ancor.

4 other pulls... works like new still...

 

I would read 2 articles on the Expedition Portal page that really helped me decide what to get. Here are the links, the first is a review of 12k winches, but they discuss what you need and why, and the second is all about how to use what you have the right way. It may help you decide what you may need in the future based on what you're getting into.

http://expeditionportal.com/tug-of-w...2v-winch-test/

http://expeditionportal.com/winching...eview_id=24854

As for me, I just purchased an old Warn 8274 that I'm planning on doing a rebuild on. Can't wait to get her going!