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Current state of winches?

realsquash

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2020
Member Number
2146
Messages
1,225
Loc
Southern Wisconsin
The last winch I had was an 8274 with an Amsteel Blue winch rope. It was pretty awesome, but it's long gone. It was fast, too. Now I'm getting back into wheeling a little with an XJ and need to get a winch to show off at the mall.

I see chicom winches all over the place now and I have no idea what's junk and if you actually get anything for spending the big money on a Warn. I suspect Warn has had Chinese parts for a long time, but?????
 
The 8274 is still awesome, if you don’t mind the packaging. My jk came with a 10k Xeon, and much like new 8264’s the sticker shock is real. With that said, the Xeon has been a great winch. The wireless remote with clutching has been invaluable as I do a lot of deep snow wheeling and winching. The line speed is among the quickest that warn offers as well.

I have several friends running the smitybilt winches and none have had a major failure or complaint.
 
Craigslist 8274 with xp motor, Albright solenoid, rope and in cab controls. I keep picking up Craigslist m8000 between 109-150. Some needs solenoids.
 
Wilson said:
My jk came with a 10k Xeon, and much like new 8264’s the sticker shock is real. With that said, the Xeon has been a great winch. The wireless remote with clutching has been invaluable as I do a lot of deep snow wheeling and winching. The line speed is among the quickest that warn offers as well.
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This is the one I bought a couple of years ago after I finally killed my Ramsey. I like it so far and the wireless remote has been damn handy.

That said I subscribe to Matt's offroad recovery on youtube and that clown seems to use the shit out of his Badlands winch with no issues...
 
Edited for update on the vipers.

X's whatever on the 8274s. Can literally be had for $100 with a little luck. I had the 9.5xp motor and newer contactor. It was damn fast. I like the extra line capacity also. Like Wilson, mine burned.

Currently I have a 9.5cti-s, HF 9k, a 4500 viper and 6k viper.

I got the cti 2nd hand, new in box. It's damn close to the 8274s speed and power. With a little less line. No fancy remote though. Much better packaging.

The HF 9k is fine. I got it for fucking $200 and if I have an issue, i have 2 stores within 40 mins. It's slow as hell and I really hate the style of winch, like the M8000 where the 2 halfs are held together by rods, winch to the side for a bit and you can explode the housing, ask me how I know. This will probably end up on a receiver and be used for random shit.

The vipers are typical cheap junk, maybe worse. The 4500 has been fine, the 6k has blown up both times I've actually had to use it more than 2 feet.

For my crawler build, no question, I'll have another 8274.

Or if you're a baller, go after the new 10274-100 or whatever it is :grinpimp:
 
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Have a Warn X8000i on the tacoma and it's old enough to be made in america. It still pulls great.

My crawler came with a used Smittybilt that's around 10 years old and still works great. My buddy has one out of the same batch for his trailer and tow rig and it's going strong as well. based on that I decided to pick up a smittybilt for my trailer.

Saving a few bucks for the HF/Amazon brand winches didn't make sense to me for the extra piece of mind of the """name brand""" Smitty
 
This convo keeps coming up.

obviously the 8274 is the king of winches. I have one on the rear of my rig (I do a lot of logging and like the speed) and I have a HF 9k on the front. It's slow but works fine. I keep most of my rigs in my shop, so they are dry. the chinese winches will get moisture in the motor and die.

I have a buddy whos house recently burned due to the wildfire. He had a much larger Warn winch that looked like a very big version of the 8274. I was wanting to buy it from him for years, but it burned when his shop went up. I wonder what that was? Electric. way bigger than 8274 but same overall packaging.
 
Lil'John said:
To piggy back mildly... what is the "best" upgraded motor for the 8274? Ignore going Gigglepin on it:flipoff2:
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Bow 2 if you're keeping stock gears. They make a Bow2+ but it will require some more upgrades.
 
Provience said:
obligatory Hydraulic Milemarker 2speed winch with a ported stock power steering pump and a small/midsized cooler and never think about it again.
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I had one, used the automatic trans cooler in the rad as a cooler, but with a Ford C2 pump, it was fuckin useless. I've since added a Saginaw pump but I sold that winch many years ago.

I keep finding Warn M8-12000 winches cheap as fawk and I like them. Also scored a worm gear Ramsey RE12000. Slow as hell but pulls like hell.

I've always wanted a 8274 though for the speed
 
I have a HF winch on my trailer. The battery cables are complete garbage. One year and they were rotting inside and the winch would pull. It also broke the housing. While it doesn't impact working, still sucks.

winch5_sml.jpg


My three wheelers are all early 70s so they get 8724s. One already has one but needs motor rebuild/replacement.
 
E8F29276-42B7-4B4D-84CC-A576B0D89C4E.jpeg
Pictures for anyone who cares. I’m into this all said and done $600-700ish.
 
Another brand to consider is ComeUp. Had the seal 9.5 on my last rig and worked good. Only grip was freespool wasn't overly easy to pull but I also didn't use it much and might have gotten easier with use. I will look into them again on a new rig.
 
The surprise fastest winch line speed I’ve found that’s not as big as an 8274 is the superwinch Talon. We run this on our race car with the wireless remote. It’s power out line speed is jogging speed.

https://www.morris4x4center.com/sup...MI0eL2iYCx7gIVYj2tBh0j4wpSEAQYASABEgKip_D_BwE

I currently have an 8274, a Ramsey patriot 9000, a Warn 9.0 RC, a superwinch talon 4500 SR, and a harbor freight 5000#. I think they all kick ass, line speed per dollar (If buying new) though I gotta give it to superwinch.

One of my good buddies has a trailgear 10,000 (chicom) and I’m pretty impressed with it too. It has absolutely the easiest free spool I’ve ever felt. Any of my winches if I want to free spool out, I kick the winch in neutral throw the rope over my shoulder lean out to about a 45° and start walking because they have a hard drag. I did that to my buddy’s TG, when I leaned away from the winch I fell down and the rope slack piled up on me. You can just walk the whole drum empty and barely feel it.
 
blakes said:
This convo keeps coming up.

obviously the 8274 is the king of winches. I have one on the rear of my rig (I do a lot of logging and like the speed) and I have a HF 9k on the front. It's slow but works fine. I keep most of my rigs in my shop, so they are dry. the chinese winches will get moisture in the motor and die.

I have a buddy whos house recently burned due to the wildfire. He had a much larger Warn winch that looked like a very big version of the 8274. I was wanting to buy it from him for years, but it burned when his shop went up. I wonder what that was? Electric. way bigger than 8274 but same overall packaging.
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Not sure if you're serious about not knowing, but if it looked like an 8274 then it was probably a Belleview.
 
Provience said:
a new one being $2k, $600 isn't a bad deal.

i've never found them for $100 either :laughing: they probably keep them with the $150 super duty 60's and $300 6.0 LS's
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Father in law got one at a yard sale for $75. I paid $500 for mine, but it was in almost perfect shape.
 
8274, the best winch hands down, if you have the room to fit one.

The Zeon is probably the low profile winch on the market these days, They're quiet, they pull like hell and the rope retention set-up in the drum is the best out there, period.

If you want a cheap off-shore winch, the Smittybilt is probably the best. They work well for cheap and the warranty is very good.

For older low-pro winches, the Warn M-10 and 12K winches are very stout.


Provience said:
i've never found them for $100 either :laughing: they probably keep them with the $150 super duty 60's and $300 6.0 LS's
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Craigslist and Offerup, they used to come up every few months. Found one a couple years ago for $125 down in Elma, sent my buddy after it and told him to offer $100, he scored it for $75.00. Rebuilt for $100-ish and now on the front of his 80.



Isdtbower said:
Did you say it was a mall crawler?

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You have a problem with polished aluminum Ben. That said, a polished 8274 would look so much more classier on the front of your project. :smokin:
 
[memphis said:
;n282842]I need to find one of these cheap 8274 winches
mine set me back $600 and I haven’t seen one within two hours of me since
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me either, I’ve bought two for $500 ea and paid $300 for my first one 18 years ago
 
Wilson said:
me either, I’ve bought two for $500 ea and paid $300 for my first one 18 years ago
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Worth every penny though right? It’s not like a brand new one is much better than one from 1975 that’s in good shape. If the electric motor burns up put the newer version on and you’ve basically got the new winch. My 8274 is a 1975. I think I’ve replaced two solenoids and that’s it.
 
I rebuilt the old 8274 I had. They even sold a set of decals for it. Other than the packaging it seems like a completely superior design. I saw a brass plated one online, that has the mall bling for sure. I scoured the CL and Fuckbook Marketplace and nothing of real interest. One 8274 for $750, looks about 40 years old and beaten.
 
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