Winch 4 less

[Brer Wilson]

Great value for less than $50.00

[Frank Angerano]

Im a big fan of you get what you pay for but where did you find it and any name on it ?

looks good. 

[Brer Wilson]

Believe it or not, harbor freight tools w/wireless remote and I have put this thing through the works and it will not quit.

Badlands is the brand

Edited January 2, 2019 by Brer Wilson

[Frank Angerano]

That’s great to know. Awesome find brother. 

👍

[JacobSlabach]

yep.  got one of those on my Kawasaki bayou 300- never let me down (used it to pull a shed upright that was falling down, and to lift the front of my atv when I replaced the front shocks).  I lost the remote, but just bought a rocker switch on ebay or amizon for $12 and it works just like a WARN winch now..  I'd go with the BadLand winches any day of the week cause worse case, you can go though like 4 of them for the price of a Warn the same size.  They even have free-spool (and of course in and out) so you dont spend all night just letting the winch out.

It is louder than the warn winch that came with my polaris but the warn sounds like its grinding gears lol

I'll just run it till it stops and then get a badland for it.

[Brer Wilson]

Yeah I pulled out 3 10 inch round 80 ft long pine trees with it 2 days ago.

[Jcl98bayuo]

Where'd ya find that

[JacobSlabach]

12 hours ago, Jcl98bayuo said:

Where'd ya find that

BadLand winches are sold at Harbor Freight.

dunno if you have those retail stores down there...?

[Michael Thibaudeau]

Harbor Freight is getting better with there tools lately. The winches seem to work good

[JacobSlabach]

I say they have really great value on most everything they sell for the price.  I bought one of their 6.5 predator engines for a baja minibike and would buy one again- never had any problem out of it and I ran the crap out of it (including flipping the minibike upside down once lol).  I think their winches and engines have awesome value.  Would not recommend a socket set form there...

[Brer Wilson]

I'm going to see how the atv ramps look and possibly by some tonight. 

[OGCURTIEWAYNE]

i have been hearing alot about this. the mounts are pretty universal so you can mount it to any atv sxs with the right mount plate. 

[Brer Wilson]

I went to Lowes and got two 2ft pieces of pre drilled thick angle iron .

[JacobSlabach]

I mounted my badland into the bumper of my bayou with the mounting plate onto a 1/8" piece of garden bed liner...  thought for sure it would snap first time I used it but i guess bed liner is tempered and it has never bent out of shape or snapped and Ive done stuff to it that made the winch complain.  Parked the bike behind a stump and pulled a shed upright with it-  I know for a fact that it was pulling a LOT more than 2500 pounds.  It was an oak stump and it started breaking lol...  didnt do a thing to the winch or homemade mounting plate.

[Arby911]

I’ve got one on my Yamaha and a #12000 on my truck. Both work great and the wireless remote is sweet!

Edited January 13, 2019 by Arby911

[cavry]

I set up a HF winch on my Bayou 4 years ago. Just thumb button control.  The planetary locked up the 4th time I tried to use it.  Nothing heavier ever than pulling another shut down ATV out of a creek. I took it apart and realigned every thing, put it back on the Bayou and free-wheeled 30 Ft. of cable out to a tree and hit the switch, half way back in it locked up again.  No Satisfaction from HF. Never again will I buy one from them.

[JacobSlabach]

2 hours ago, cavry said:

I set up a HF winch on my Bayou 4 years ago. Just thumb button control.  The planetary locked up the 4th time I tried to use it.  Nothing heavier ever than pulling another shut down ATV out of a creek. I took it apart and realigned every thing, put it back on the Bayou and free-wheeled 30 Ft. of cable out to a tree and hit the switch, half way back in it locked up again.  No Satisfaction from HF. Never again will I buy one from them.

I think the difference between the products that harbor freight sells and other products is that their are more lemons.  (this applies mainly to their badland winches and the predator engines)  I think you should give them a second chance.  you can get like 5 badland 2500 winches for the price of 1 warn 2500 winch...

[mikeexplorer]

I do agree WARN winches are pricey, but I have always had a WARN winch on all my machines and it has never let me down. One time I blew out the star gear in mine, but the winch was overloaded in a desperate attempt to pull a side by side out of a dangerous situation. The gear gave out first rather then destroying the whole winch. $30 in parts and the winch was good to go again.

I also use it for plowing, the winch gets a good workout with the plow. I personally think they are worth it since when you need it, you need it.

 

Maintenance is also needed, every two years I take them apart and clean them out and re-grease the winch. I have an excellent PDF guide on how to do this (attached)

Winch Cleaning Guide.pdf

[pokerl0w]

I bought a 2500# badlands from HF a year ago myself. I needed to pull a bounce house. So I bought that cheap thing and dragged a 500#+ bouncer (with water) along the ground that I "mounted" to a holey cement wall  I look to mount it on my bayou now and drag some fallen firs and sugars around here (bark beetles killed us in the sierras past couple years).

[cavry]

poker10w,  I'm glad yours is working for you.  Just sayin' They can be bad.  In think that one just had shoddy gears to start.

 

[pokerl0w]

to each their own. I would recommend HF/china to start only depending on your application. my needs are medium but infrequent. 
once I get a $10k can-am or something I really do not need, maybe I get the money winch. or if I knew I would be saving lives like @mikeexplorer, there's no price on a life saving winch!

 

[mikeexplorer]

It wasn't "life saving" the driver of the side by side was ready to bail if the machine let loose. (Passenger already got out of the machine and is sitting on my girls machine in picture)

She had to sit on her machine to add weight because the quad was lighter then the side by side and was  being pulled back  towards the drop off.  She winched to my machine, I was  winched to a tree holding everyone in place. The side by side in trouble can be seen in the background. I was  winching in and had Michelle run her machine to help pull the side by side out, her quad lost traction and bam, that blew out my winch's gears. (but the winch held, I just could no longer spool in) Her quad is also equipped with a WARN winch and was more powerful then my old one. (at the time my machine was a 2007 400, came with a WARN 2000 lb winch) Hers was 2500 lb winch,

With the  added weight on her machine and careful winching, we pulled the side by side out.

The side by side had some kind of aftermarket winch and was not strong enough to pull the machine out, this is why we had to do it this way.

In the end, nobody was hurt, and we all got out safe.  This was a true test of winches.

Mike

 

[Frank Angerano]

That’s a great story.  Scary but great.   I just bought my first winch for one of my bikes.   Not sure how it’s going to go since I’m not a winch kinda guy! If it goes well I’m ordering a second one.   So take a look at this winch I picked up and any feed back would be appreciated.   

Thanks.  

[pokerl0w]

@mikeexplorer  you winch, but you save

@Frank Angerano I like it. Probably that 2500# badlands is same as your 2000#. I imagine both max out around 90% and the badlands a bit lower. I bet we can find comparable pics of internals and have a "battle of the winches" sticky. Actually, be cool to have a sticky of "winch savers!" heh

[mikeexplorer]

22 hours ago, Frank Angerano said:

That’s a great story.  Scary but great.   I just bought my first winch for one of my bikes.   Not sure how it’s going to go since I’m not a winch kinda guy! If it goes well I’m ordering a second one.   So take a look at this winch I picked up and any feed back would be appreciated.   

Thanks.  

I have heard good things about this brand, bolt pattern should be the same as any WARN winch.

 

Mike

 

[JacobSlabach]

1 hour ago, mikeexplorer said:

I have heard good things about this brand, bolt pattern should be the same as any WARN winch.

 

Mike

 

did that come with a mounting plate?

[Frank Angerano]

No. I got that separate.  I found a mounting plate for that particular bike.     

[Tom Jefferson]

Did it come with a mounting bracket?

[Frank Angerano]

No sir no bracket.   I had to buy one.  The one I bought was for my model bike and it’s a bolt on.  

[mikeexplorer]

Yes, mounting bracket would be specific to the make and model machine. Some utility quads have this already in place, ready to add the winch.

Mike