What winch brand?

Hi,

I'm looking into winches for my 5th gen 4R. I'm not looking for "you get what you pay for" answer. I would like to hear different opinions, everyone's good vs bad experiences with what brands yall run. So, what is yall's experience? What bad experience or good did you have with what brands?

Thanks!

 

I have a Harbor Freight Badland ZXR 12000 that I got a few years ago for sub $300. I swapped the steel line for a synthetic line from Yankum.

Its been great, no issues, works everytime. I know like you said there's this ethereal "buy once cry once" thing with winch bros. But my Badland winch has winched everytime I've asked it to winch. The Badland wireless controller is pretty neat too.

 

Really, how often are you going to be winching yourself out of bad situations? If the answer is anything more than hardly ever, you need to make better choices and the HF Badlands is the way to go. Look up Matt's Off Road Recovery videos. Every winch he's using on his off road tow truck is a Badlands winch. That dude winches A LOT.

 

This is what I want to hear actually, I hear so many reviews shitting on badlands. Matts offroad uses them and they seem durable. I just wanted people's opinion. The most I see in my area is getting stuck in mud pits, accidentally, of course.

 

Yeah, the Smittybilt and Warn crowd will always turn their noses up at Badlands. Who TF cares.

 

Smittybilt X20 synthetic rope for me. If you get one, make sure you are properly trained on how to use it. Too many incidents out there with folks not knowing how to properly set this up or use it correctly.

 

Thats a huge part of why I got all the metal out of the system. All soft rope, soft shackles, etc.

I don't wanna be like that one dude that took a trailer ball to the dome.

 

Welcome from Wisconsin! We have a Warn winch on a UTV, it's old (2008) but it cost more than PVT Pablo's Badland. It's rated at 4500#, has been good to us, after years of use it needs a rebuild @ $250. For a little more money I could buy a winch that would be more than sufficient to pull out our 4Runner! Our friend has a Badlands on his UTV, I believe it cost $165, is rated for more poundage, and ironically looks just like our Warn. If we were to put a winch on our 4Runner, I would look into the Badlands for sure. Good luck.

 

Another Badlands fan here. Mines been on for 4 years. Works every time. Can't beat the value. People shit on the Badlands to justify the money they spent on something more expensive. I figure if the off-road recovery pros use the Badlands winch, it's good enough for a weekend warrior like me.

 

You might consider an old Warn Winch if you can find one in good shape

 

Battle of the Winches - @4runner-4x4

 

I bought a Warn VR EVO 10 S earlier this week for $783 including tax and free shipping. I was originally planning on buying the Badland Apex 12k and was waiting for it to go on black Friday sale because last year it dropped to $480, but they didn't put it on sale this year, so when I found the Warn on sale, I figured if it's only $147 more for the Warn, might as well go with the Warn.

 

I haven't heard anything negative about them. But, I haven't researched them, either.

Not always. I have a Warn, and I like it. I went with Warn on recommendation and reputation.

But, a lot of the guys I wheel with run Badlands and have no issues.

 

Last year HF had a 12 days of Xmas sale….one day was 40% off all winches. Bought a Badlands Apex 5500 for my SxS for $157.

 

I would guess that most people that shit on Badlands were around when those winches first came out and they were not good. It sounds like things have changed since then, but it's going to be hard for people who have been around the off-road world for a long time to lose that initial impression.