"Buyer is responsible for return shipping costs and insurance. Warranties are offered by the manufacturer and will be honored by the manufacturer. All shipping and handling fee will not be returned in any case."
-sounds like if u send it back, they fix it and return it, youll end up paying what a warn costs. might as well just spend the few extra $$$ to get quality you know wont let you down. anyone (i know nc has em) seen traffic incident management patrol trucks (usually first on accident scene on highway)? theyve got warn winches front and rear...theres a reason they're there, the state dot doesnt have time to fool around with crap.

 

[Wow, That sounds just like buying some of American products today, Ford, Chev, Chrysl, Etc... ]

LOL so sad but so true...

[
They said all this once about Made In JAPAN!!!]

True enough, and as the Chinese ease into their new prosperity with world trade their quality of life will improve. It is already improving rapidly - some companies are beginning to realise the benefit of continued sales based on reputation for quality rather than maximizing profit on one order and then looking for new fish...



2ToyGuy - I used to completely agree with all that, but as trade opens doors the common people there are beginning to prosper from it. Everything is relative though - currently skilled engineers are earning about $1.50 an hour, factory laborers half that - and it's really good money for them in their environment! Better than they could get a few years ago under their old "system." As this trend continues life there will change. Trade is trade, the world economies are complex, things will change and world economic models will adapt. I can only see long term good come from all this. One way to look at it is the best defense from 'their way of life" might just to assimilate them into "our way of life"...."Resistance is Futile"

Enough political meanderings. From everything I've read those winches are generally pretty good - but if you buy one get a great price. For 80% the price of a Warn, why not get a Warn? But for half the price - hard not to consider it.

 

One point I'd add to all this is that it really doesn't matter what the quality of the winch is if the user abuses it or the install is lousy. I'd say that no matter which winch you buy, do yourself a favor and educate yourself on the finer points of winching and you might find that even a cheap winch will give you years of troublefree service. My dad gave me a copy of a great article on winching from one of his 4WD magazines...here's some highlights:

- Know what your stuck coefficient is...factor in grade, terrain, loaded vehicle weight, etc

- Realize that your 9500lb winch WON'T pull 9500 pounds on the topmost layer, so PLEASE don't spool out 10ft of cable and expect that your winch rating is plenty

- Double lining gives you some great benefits: you can spool out much more cable and you get the doubling effect of the two line pull

- Cycle your winching so you don't overheat it

- Keep the cable lengths short and cables as large as possible, keep the connections clean, you really want to minimize any voltage drop any where you can, so a good battery is also a must

I'm not saying that your winch will never fail if you do these things, but at least you're doing all you can to help it out.

 

Nuther persective. (I'm sure I told this story before.) I had Warn 6000 on my 85 and never felt it lacked the power I needed. One day it just failed. Bad deal too, stuck in mud and on company time no less! (nice little trail near one of our shops - looked like a good shortcut to me!) Anyway, later I took at all apart and the motor was rusted solid. It was out of warranty so I called Warn to order a motor. When I asked for the total they informed me that it was a design flaw and had been redesigned - a new motor was on my doorstep the next day - at No Charge! That's impressive.

 

i wanted to chime in here even though this is an old post. i bought a milemarker winch and it was exactly the same as some of these winches. so its not jsut the low name guys rebranding this stuff .
the reason some of the more expensive winches are so is also the speed at which it winches. and for a casual off roader probably not a big deal, for some competitive offroad rock crawler it probably is .

maintainece maintance maintance.

also , some of you that have paid high doller for your warn winches will probably out live us poor bastards , but youve got the right idea too, check outthe specs on some of those warns , water proof electroinics and such , none of the cheapies have that .

to get me thru a few seasons , of pleaire off roading , ill probably end up getting another cheap one , until i can afford to buy the true warn winch i really want.

also , for a killer deal on mile marker winces check out www.4wheelparts.com

airrikk17