HF 12,000# winch on sale again... $299 !!!

sota · **Joined:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:44 pm **Posts:** 379

http://widgets.harborfreight.com/wsw...4&keycode=1004

there's the coupon. i'm mad as heck since I just bought one for $399 on a coupon!

hate or love it, $299 is a tasty deal on a winch.

Boomerang · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:46 pm **Posts:** 184

I don't trust anything from Harbor Freight, I am not aware of many or any quality brands they carry and if they do carry brand names, they are not going to be the same quality tools builders or mechanics use. They are throw-away tools

sota · **Joined:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:44 pm **Posts:** 379

it's fairly ignorant and uniformed to lump all goods supplied by a shop into a single category. that would be like saying that all my sears craftsman tools (most of which I've had for almost 2 decades) are crap simply because I broke one of the sockets last year.

Boomerang · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:46 pm **Posts:** 184

sota wrote:

it's fairly ignorant and uniformed to lump all goods supplied by a shop into a single category. that would be like saying that all my sears craftsman tools (most of which I've had for almost 2 decades) are crap simply because I broke one of the sockets last year.

No, actually, it is nothing like your Craftsman tools from SEARS. You just listed a top brand from a major distributor. HFT sells the cheapest stuff to come from some chinese factory. Ignorant and uninformed? I've been inside a local HFT store and I have been in the construction industry for a long time. I actually know good tools when I see and use them...

HFT tools will do the job, as long as the job is not too demanding and very short lived. These are not quality products, they are aimed at people doing small home jobs for themselves and not really building anything for someone else.

Boomerang · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:46 pm **Posts:** 184

BTW, Craftsman is not an american company anymore last i checked and I've heard that their more recent quality has gone way down as well.
You do know that even the top brand names you'd find on construction sites are not the same tool from the same manufacturer you'll buy at some local big retail store, right?
There is construction grade, midgrade (cheaper plastic/rubber outside and interior parts), and then there is the stuff HFT sells

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:51 pm

This should get better as it goes
:roll:

gtommec · **Posted:** Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:59 pm

I used a Harbor Freight (Chicago Electric) winch for over 4 years with no issues (other than it being slow)

Boomerang · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:46 pm **Posts:** 184

Truth be told, I do not know much abou their winch brands, but i'm guessing few people really do. I just know a bit about their tool selection

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:22 pm

Boomerang wrote:

Truth be told, I do not know much abou their winch brands, but i'm guessing few people really do. I just know a bit about their tool selection

There impact sockets are the best on the market,also agreed upon by both a Matco and SnapOn dealer.

But there winches suck.Last big test on winches that same winch did not work right out of the box.

sota · **Joined:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:44 pm **Posts:** 379

while it obviously isn't very confidence instilling that a unit delivered to a magazine was DOA out of the box (assuming it was the unit after all. I'd expect the reviewers to have some clue as to what they're doing, but you never know.) that doesn't mean ALL units are going to be DOA. can't for the life of me find that article either, but at least one popular name brand winch failed their test cycle as well. seem to remember the name began with a W...

I admit when I bought mine before i even bolted it up to anything the first thing I did was rig it up to a small SLA battery and make it spin the motor and planetaries a couple times to make sure it wasn't DOA. it wasn't, I bolted it up, I tested it, I've used mine now several times and you know what, it works fine.

as for HF's tools in general... some are crap (the pot metal wrenches are horrid, there's no denying that) but quite a few are darn nice little pieces for the money. no they're not "professional" grade. but then if you're shopping at HF and trying to make a ton of $ at a job then you've got other problems. although that's not really being fair to them either. nearly everything I've bought from HF has worked at the minimum adequately for the tasks I've asked of it. even items I've bought, abused and expected to throw away once I was done ($50 chainsaw comes to mind) are still working fine.

do you in general get what you pay for? sure. do you have to pay top dollar for adequate service? not necessarily. so far I like the winch. every time I've asked it to do something in the month I've owned it (a total of 5 different days and about 15 different tasks or "winching events" if you want to look at it that way) it's performed. have I tried to do something seriously crazy with it? no. someone want to find me a mud pit to get stuck in and I'll give it a shot. but as of right now I can see no reason why it wouldn't at least work to pulling at a minimum half its rated capacity without even so much as a hiccup. winter is fast approaching so who knows... maybe I'll be pulling stupid people out of ditches with it soon enough. I'll let you know if and when that happens and what the results are.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:01 pm

I have quite a few of the HF sockets impacts, broke one the other day or should say BugginKJ did but I've also broke Sears, Matco and SnapOn over the years, so for the money what the heck
As far as the winch goes,
several on various forums have them and use the heck out of them.
So its like anything else

ridenby · **Posted:** Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:05 pm

Wheel with a couple of people that have HF winches,theirs work when needed. $299 is a good price. :JEEPIN:

riptricket · **Posted:** Wed Sep 07, 2011 10:27 pm

don't see it on there... maybe just blind.

Boomerang · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:46 pm **Posts:** 184

I saw it, but for the $399 price, didn't show a $299 discount.
Hey, if it fulfills your specific needs why not.
Persoanlly I'd be afraid to go cheap and unproven on something that essentially important, but as Sota mentioned maybe someone could charge $20 each to pull people out of ditches, make your money back and buy a more quality brand when this one finally poops out

ramlebliberty · **Posted:** Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:00 pm

they work pretty good, I saw one pull at least 10 vehicles out of sticky NC clay mud a few weeks ago and it kept chugging. It was the 9k lb. one also! Kid said hes been using it weekly off road, even pulled a f-350 frame deep out of the sand on freeman park, no problems. My major thing with HF is to do your own quality control. They hate me there because I'm constantly opening up boxes, making sure whatever I buy isn't jacked up. And if you can get the warranty, do it, save the reciepts. I bought a welder there about 2 1/2 years ago and have used the #&#$&*$ $*$#( out of it, and had one issue, brought it to HF and they took it without looking at it and let me pick out a new one! I love HF, maybe when I hit the lottery I'll buy snap-on again. But being on a government workers salary and having 2 kids its the cheap orange Chinese stuff for me.

Boomerang · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:46 pm **Posts:** 184

ramlebliberty wrote:

. But being on a government workers salary and having 2 kids its the cheap orange Chinese stuff for me.

I hear you!
I have screwdrivers that have handles that spin on the steel because they were made so cheap they didn't even add a knob of sorfts on the steel to keep them attached to the handles..
2 kids / 2 cows / 2 garbage disposals / 2 wild starving wolves / currency creamators = same things

At The Helm · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:17 pm

This coupon was sent to me today. Maybe it will help someone.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:23 pm

You can break anything - just some things are more apt to break FOR you just by the nature of their construction

Like troy said with the Harbor impacts

I wrung off one of my snap on reducers (after breaking the 1/2 ratchet) - switched to my NT reducer, closed my eyes, grabbed a hold of the 8 foot steel "handle extension" and stepped off the stool and after bouncing a few times it finally croaked loose

a bunch of my big stuff 2" + to 6" range is HT sourced - and i could have paid 500 bucks for the set but I didn't , they were about 140 ish. They aren't pretty.. but they're tough. I've had to fix the anvil holes in a few of them but when you're pounding on stuff with something that looks similar to a backpack fed mini gun it's going to get abused

that being said.. you just have to apply some common sense as to what you're buying and whether or not the replacement of said item due to premature failure or failure to abuse is going to be a large concern - some offbrand winches are worth their weight - some.. of the same model.. aren't. QC becomes a huge issue with the cheaper stuff - like ramble said.. real good idea to start opening boxes

One of the biggest things in particular with the winches is to find out what the DUTY RATE is. Some of the badland winches as HF is advertising is only like 5%

My thing.. is 299 is only about 200 off of getting something with a higher duty rate and higher quality selenoid/motor. When we got our NT9k I figured we wouldn't use it much so it was worth the risk but we ended up using it a ton, and it's never gave a problem other than normal wear and tear - feel like we got our 299 out if it several times

sota · **Joined:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:44 pm **Posts:** 379

absolutely agree... it all depends on what you're using it for and how often you're using it. and you are correct about the duty cycle... here's the snip from the user's manual for the 12,000# winch...

Duty Cycle Rating
5% (45 sec at Max Rated Load; 14 min, 15 sec Rest)

note what it says... 45 seconds AT MAX RATED LOAD. if you're tugging on something so hard that you're hitting 12,000# straight line pull (or 6,000# max if you're almost of the way in) and you're not already line doubling you're in much more serious s**t than even one of the best WARN winches can get you out of.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:43 pm

snatch blocks 4tw

HF 12,000# winch on sale again... $299 !!!

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