So I've been looking for a winch lately but don't seem to have to much money laying around to spend. So a buddy came up to me and said he has a few brand new 9000lb badlands sitting around and he'd sell me one for 140 which is a great price for any winch!! Buuuuut its a harbor freight brand correct? I was wondering if any of you guys has had much experience with this specific winch. If so I wanna know what yall think about it and reliability cause I never have good experience with harbor freight stuff and tend to stay away

 

They had a winch pull-off a while back with the top ten winches, Warn took first place, badlands (harbor freight) took third, and half did not finish.

 

140s a good deal, just know what your buying. Some love em, some hate em!

 

I love harbor freight.
I've heard nothing but good things about them.
Petersons did a review on them said they were good winches if i recall.

 

I've always just had bad experiences with anything I've bought from there before. But I'm thinking 140 for a winch is better then not having one at all!! Even if it saves me once it'll be worth it

 

4wheeler mag one just did a "winch shoot out" , and the HB winch wasnt tested, because it didnt work out of the box.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/techartic...out/index.html

 

Well thats unfortunate hahaha

 

might be staged. i mean. if they really wanted to test one. how hard is it to go get it swapped. its not like they are reviewing it live....

i see another winch test in a different mag. and they ran a bunch of test but they did the under water test as number two so they could kill off a few off brand ones. if they really wanted to compare all the winch equally. should have done the under water test last since they were never rated to run under water..

its all about who advertises with them. in other words. MONEY. if the top dogs lose money to cheaper and just as good winches. those top dog winch companys wont advertise in their mag anymore.
just like the news stations do undercover stories on oil change places. they never attack dealerships (brand names that has ads with them) but smaller companies like jiffy lube *not that i care for them lol* just saying

 

i buy a lot of stuff at HF, but I am not sure if i would use one of their winches...
most of their stuff that uses electricity is best considered disposable or limited use...
but for $140 i would give it a shot

 

I agree for the most part, based on my experience with their stuff. Except that the winch I bought from them appears to be just as good as any other 10,000 Lb. winch. In terms of general quality. And from what I've been hearing from others, it seems that's not out of the norm. Nearly everybody that's had anything to say about a winch they bought at Harbor Freight has said something(s) positive(including me).

But yeah, I don't buy power tools there that I expect to last. But I'll be damned if they don't do the job as long as they do though. And cheaply I might add.

 

So I decided I'm gonna get it off my buddy, for 140 brand new it'll be a good deal. But I don't have a bumper to mount it too yet so you guys will have to wait a few weeks to get my opinion on performance!