For those who have had winches mounted on the front of their jeeps in the winter, what has the salt and grime from winter roads done to it? Has it effected the outer winch casing, cable or otherwise made them into a rusty mess!

And no I don't want to move South or West out of the snow!

 

If it's not made with an aluminum case it becomes brown and if not rope the cable becomes brown. I just replaced one after 2 1/2 years and as I inspected the drum it too was brown and full of brown gunk, even the rope at the drum was polluted. I had a cover but the underside stayed exposed. I know both Warn and Superwinch have aluminum cased winches ie, Warn's 9.5ti.

 

I heavily spray down my cable with WD-40 every Fall, and give the whole winch a light coating. The paint on the winch (Warn M9000i) is flaking off, but no rust.

 

My Warn 9.5ti still looks good after almost 4 years of MI salt. Paint is still fine. I wipe the cable with an oily rag once a year. I am changing bumpers soon so plan to give it a good cleaning during the process.

 

Thanks guys. I want one bad, but want it to last and not get eaten apart by road salt!

 

You NEED a winch, go buy the Warn 9.5ti $80 rebate right now

 

Get the cti it's the same price and newer model. Best price I could find was Chris at Jeep Add-Ons

 

Most quality winch cases are made of either aluminum or another alloy. If you run rope instead of cable you'll also avoid rust there too. Then, you can run either a neophrene or vinyl cover to finish it off. The neophrene cover can be washed a couple times a year too to get the salt off. $55 for cover is cheap protection for both the rope and the winch itself.

I don't live in snow year round but I do a lot of snow runs and my T-Max is on year 10 and going strong!

 

Does the Smittybuilt xrc-10 comp series have an aluminum casing? I cant find it in the literature on-line.