smitty winch

[Destroyer000]

has any one had any problems with the Smitty built 8k winches? i bought one a year ago an ive used it about 8 times... went to use it today to pull my buddy out of the brook an the winch pretty much crapped out.. the engagement lever. came right out of the unit.... theirs a little spring that seems to keep tension on the engagement lever but iam not sure if the spring is "worn" or what ..

 

[metalmacguyver]

Contact Jim to see what kind of warranty there might be.

 

[Jim Oaks]

** Factory Warranty: 2 Year Mechanical / 1 Year Electrical

 

[Loanranger]

Came right out huh? The only two problems I've had with either of mine, was the red wire on the remote came loose from it's lug on both controllers, and the engage lever kicks to freewheel sometimes if there's no load on the line. Still a great deal for the price.

 

[Destroyer000]

it was bought from 4 wheel parts not jim. i mean if i can modify it, it still works.. i dont see shipping out a 100lb winch to get this little problem addressed.

 

[metalmacguyver]

Have you verified that you will need to pay for shipping on the winch?


Removing the cable for shipping will make it a good bit lighter.


I would probably fix it anyway rather than deal with shipping it and stuff.

 

[odie1969]

If you bought it at 4wheel you might go back and talk to them, they may deal with all the warrenty issues for you. just a thought. good luck.

 

[Will]

Came right out huh? The only two problems I've had with either of mine, was the red wire on the remote came loose from it's lug on both controllers, and the engage lever kicks to freewheel sometimes if there's no load on the line. Still a great deal for the price.

Not if it doesn't work. I went through 2 CHinese winches in a few years and my Chinese 16hp I bought for my loader suddenly started coming apart at about 200 hours. The plastic flywheel fan disentegrated, then the pushrod guideplates wore through and it wouldn't run right with the valve rockers jumoing all over the retainer--now the head gasket just disintegrated. It's like they designed it for 200 hours. But in reality the reverse engineered a good design and use unharded steel for the guideplates, cardboard for the body of the gasket and unreinforced resin for the fan. I would fix that winch if I could find the parts--as I am doing again with me engine, but a great deal to me is that you buy it, you bolt in on, you don't have to mess with it again.

 

[Loanranger]

Not if it doesn't work. I went through 2 CHinese winches in a few years and my Chinese 16hp I bought for my loader suddenly started coming apart at about 200 hours. The plastic flywheel fan disentegrated, then the pushrod guideplates wore through and it wouldn't run right with the valve rockers jumoing all over the retainer--now the head gasket just disintegrated. It's like they designed it for 200 hours. But in reality the reverse engineered a good design and use unharded steel for the guideplates, cardboard for the body of the gasket and unreinforced resin for the fan. I would fix that winch if I could find the parts--as I am doing again with me engine, but a great deal to me is that you buy it, you bolt in on, you don't have to mess with it again.

I have to agree with you to an extent. But the sad truth is nothing is built that well anymore, not even US built. The problem I'm had with the XRC winch, is the exact same problem I had on a Warn winch on another vehicle prior. I've never been stranded because my winch didn't work, and I've seen just as many high dollar winches have just as many problems.

 

[Destroyer000]

well i got ahold of smittybilt an ive emailed a tech an he said that thers a roll pin a ball bearing and a spring hes going to be sending me the parts i need to fix it on THERE DIME.. now thats GOOOOD customer sevice!

 

[swynx]

can we just call it a sh*tty built already.... aint no smitty about it haha, after all yours did crap out on u

 

[Destroyer000]

because of a bad roll pin its a Sh*tty bilt winch? so does that mean when your truck breaks down on you its a sh*tty trucK?

 

[94 lngbd]

ok so the smittybuilt is china made as wells as The BADLAND winches from Harbor freight & the prices @ HF are even lower. Theres even a coupon ad in 6/12 edition of FOURWHEELER pg .68

6000lb reg.$319 sale $239 9000lb reg.$399 sale $299 12000lb reg.$499 sale $339

any one have any input into these vehicle recovery winches?

I have a atv 3000 lb winche from HF mounted on the cross bar just behind my cab on my ladder rack to help pull my dolly up 9ft ramp when I have heavy wood stoves to scrap.

It states to undo the cable & apply 500lbs pulling pressure to end to redrum the cable. What I did was put a tree hugger strap around a utility pole & pull my truck forward 50 ft. This winche has 50ft of 3/16 cable.

I then left truck in neutral & engine running & started to pull truck back towards pole.When trucks back bumper was nearly to the pole I then grabbed the cable with my welding gloves & disconnected from tree huugger strap & continued to pull cable onto drum. My truck weights right around 4300 lbs empty so that by it self was even more then the 3/16 cable & winche are rated for.

I first used the winche to pull a 6ft long double slider Snapple cooler into my truck & Friday I pulled a 28ft park model trailer frame up a slight hill & closer to flat ground to cut up & all four tires were froze. Yesterday I even used it to drag a old golf cart up the ramp & into the bed of my truck,that was by far most work its had as the rear tires on the cart were locked up & the tires straddled my ramp ,so the cart was being dragged over exspanded metal ramp along its undercarriage.

If the 6000lb-12000lb perform as well as my 3000 lb then I will be buying 2 9000lb winches before the coupon expires on 8/17/2012 Limited to 4 per coupon.


I figure that if CSI & SmittyBuilt are China built as well as BADLAND then why not go with the lower priced one. And being that FOURWHEELER is running there coupon ad then that must say something good about those winches

 

[brinker88]

4wd mag did a review on all of these INCLUDING the Rough Country winch. I'll have to find it.

Im a Rough Country dealer at the shop I work at so I get a good discount on the winches. I can get the 9500 lb steel cable winch for $300 shipped INCLUDING their amazing customer service.

 

[straycat]

I have a Warn and a Smitty and never had issues (and hope I don't). I let a few buddy's borrow them when they need one for a long week of camping and wheeling. Most of my budd'y now have the Smitty (8k) and love them. I don't know of anybody that has had any issues with Smitty. I have a buddy who broke his Warn (10k) twice with his 98 Ranger. It was operator error...lol. He had a warranty and that covered it, but next time he will have to pay to have it repaired.