I know that the HF winches are a controversial topic, but has anyone ever bought one and tried to make it better? I ask because I had two of the HF Blue Pumps. You can get them for $25 when they go on sale but they're notorious for blowing because of the cheap capacitors HF uses as well as the fact that they have no overload protection so if something jams the pump it will overheat and the wiring will melt/short out. I searched around online and found someone who had a lot more electrical knowledge than me that provided instructions and a parts list for a more robust capacitor and a cheap, simple, overload protection device. I picked everything up from my local electrical supply shop and it took me about a half an hour to rewire everything. Since I got the pump on sale for $25 and the parts cost me about $35 I had a solid, reliable pump for only about $10 more than I would have paid if I bought the pump at the regular price.

I'm wondering if any other electrical whiz kids have purchased a HF winch, taken it apart and found the weak spots. I was disappointed to read the 4WD magazine shootout since the HF winch didn't work out of the box, but obviously it was an electrical problem, not a mechanical problem that caused it to not work. I'm hoping to catch the 12,000LB unit on sale to mount on the front of my Yota. The reasoning being that in case the HF mechanicals are not up to snuff, the 12,000LB unit should theoretically be way overbuilt for such a light truck. Still, I would be interested in making some tweaks to the electrical system in an effort to make it more reliable. Any ideas? I have a buddy who is an electrical engineer-he works for a large utility but he fools around with electronics, so I might just open it up for him and see what he thinks. He could probably point out a few weak spots.

 

A turd is still a turd whether polished, bronzed or called a J***.

:wabbit2:

 

Ok, so that was a no. Anybody else?

 

Well...everything is rebuildable.

I like the concept here.. Interested to see where they fail too.

People say *Ive never had one* that they are just rebadged mile marker...

 

this^^ Heard pros and cons on Mile Marker, Badlands, SmittyBuilt, etc. Seems the percentage swings more to the pros than cons.

HF is just another player in the market... I guess if your pretty handy rebuilding/reconditoning electro-mechanical stuff then it doesn't really matter what you buy....

 

That's the spirit I mean, isn't that what we do with our trucks everyday, just on a larger scale? I mean you could take a bone stock Yota with open diffs, P225/75/15 all seasons, and no other mods rock crawling and conclude that it's a worthless piece of crap based on it's performance versus a purpose built rock buggy, or you could actually look at the truck, evaluate it's weak points, and figure out how to make it better.

Probably true-I ran across a quote at Pirate that went something like this:

I guess part of it is I enjoy the challenge of making something better. I'd also take a lot of pride in the finished product. Don't get me wrong-if I had $600 to drop on a Warn I would, but I don't. It's tough enough for me to scrape together a spare $250 to snag the HF unit on sale with a coupon. If that plus $30-40 worth of electrical parts and some time spent fooling with it gives me a reliable winch I'll call that a win.

 

I'm not an electrical whiz kid. I did have to splice the remote control cable back together though. I wasn't paying attention and it got sucked into the drum, then pinched in half by the wire rope. But I've had no other problems with my 10,000LB HF winch, electrical or other wise. It's a beast, nothing weak about it, more than enough for my truck and then some. I'm planning on buying a 20,000LB snatch block in the near future(and seeing what it can really do). That's all the help it would ever need right there IMO.

 

whatever you do, post pics

and i think you'll be able to pull it off, with replacing/upgrading the following:
-solenoids
-internal wiring
-switches/contacts
-connections

and if you need a good motor at a good price: dbelectrical.com

 

Bookmarked that site. Thats a good one.

 

Let me clue you guys in on what a winch controller upgrade is all about...

Mile Marker MiFi Technology™





You can purchase these controllers as an upgrade kit for upwards of $542.

http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CGYQ8wIwAA#

Now if you can show me how to build one of those for cheap, then I'll be interested...

 

That looks fancy. It bashes solenoids, but they are cheap and easy to replace. That one just looks complicated.

And I think by "upgrade" just means take whats usually fails and replace it with something reliable.

 

ain't gonna happen "cheap"

it's variable control, which means 300amp+ motor control ($$$)

here's a 100amp for $88:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-Motor-Spe...item20b21adfc8

the direction/protection/speed circuit is easy and cheap, but hard to reproduce cheaper than mas-produced circuits.

 

then again, you could always buy a golf-cart/forklift motor controller:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-3-Cur...item519e8d28e9

(if you can find a 12v one)

 

the Trail gear winch looks pretty similar to the HF badlands winch

 

More like it looks nearly identical to.
https://www.yotatech.com/51891621-post11.html