Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Winch opinions

After a colossal stuck Saturday, I am looking at adding a winch to my 2002 F150 hunting rig. I have looked at all the options, and have pretty much settled on one of the Warn Semi Hidden mounts that puts the winch behind the OEM bumper... now to settle on a winch.

This will not get hard, rock crawling use..maybe a few times a year. I have experience with Warn, having used them for years. That being said, I am not looking at spending that kind of money...

I have pretty much narrowed it down to the Smittybilt XRC 9500, or the Superwinch LP10000..does anyone have any experience with either winch?

I have superwinch TS9500 which I think I ordered off amazon, it's been great, it's pulled a crew half ton ford up a steep grade with the belly dragging in red clay/rocks in colorado. It's made quite a few winter pulls out on a frozen lake in deep snow and I've drug cars up on my trailer with all 4 tires locked. I rigged a snatch block from a clevis and an iron pulley wheel I found at fleet farm store, I've only used the block a few times but it is a must if you have a winch. It doubles your pull strength.

I prefer the Warn winches. For 1/2 T pickup,unless you are pulling a trailer an 8000 lb winch would be enough.I have a 9500 on my 2500 Dodge Diesel.
I have a receiver hitch on front and back of my truck and have the winch mounted on a plate that includes the stub that goes into the receiver. Each end of the truck is wired so I can connect the winch at both ends. Sometimes you need to pull back instead of forward.Also,the winch sets inside the garage except when trips dictate I would need it.

Front mount...you're driving through a wide, deep mud hole and you get stuck. A front winch will pull you deeper into the mud while a receiver mount that you can move to the rear will pull you OUT of the mud.

I have a front mount receiver hitch on my GMC and use a Warn winch. I have power cable to the rear and can use it there when needed. It is very handy for dragging logs, hoisting stuff, and getting unstuck when the front end is not optimum for getting unstuck.

I have no desire for a receiver hitch winch...they are typically only rated for 9000lb line pull, and that is only if perfectly straight on. When mounted, they kill approach angle, and when unmounted, I dont care to wade through mud and mess while carrying a hundred pound winch and cradle. Lastly, and most importantly, the front receiver hitches for my truck mount the receiver under the airdam, making it terribly low.

In the past, I have had both receiver and permanent mount winches, and prefer the permanent mount much more.

Air dam can be cut out so receiver can be fitted higher. Snatch block can fix off angle pull and if you have a winch, a snatch block is almost mandatory.

Each to his/her own though. Just posted what works for me

I would stay away from the smittybuilt...I run a Superwinch Tigershark SR 9500 on my Jeep Wrangler and it works awesome. No issues. On my truck, it's a power wagon so it came from the factory with a warn 12,000 winch on it. Haven't used it yet...

They will all fail so warn isn't the absolute best....the only time I've had a winch fail was a warn.

It's worth get synthetic line...

Be careful with a total spool out. I watched and helped a group of guys in a terrible spot with their brand new Warn spooled out 100% with the cable becoming disconnected from the spool.... That was a mess. I was jealous of his warn, with owning a superwinch TS9500 myself, untill I saw his Warn [bleep]. They used gorilla tape to try to help the cable get some wraps on the spool and every 20th or so attempt it would friction grab the spool well enough to make a pull. But in doing so, the cable arrangement on the spool limited the pull length both in the way of reach and cable draw distance. It bunched up ugly and busted the connecting bars on the winch body, it was so ugly. I watched those guys destroy that brand new winch on it's first use. Besides all the trouble due to the cable to spool issues, the motor got so damn hot so fast... we were using snow packed around the motor to try to help keep it cool.

The older winches will have a cable receiving slot or hole with a fastener of some sort, like a big set screw so you can reset the cable if you accidentally pull it off the spool. This warn, it had a stupid crimp band at the end of the cable that was poorly crimped at the factory, guys were running the cable out by hand, free spooling to hook. They weren't jerking on it, just walking. Got to the end of the spool and the cable popped loose, it all went to hell real fast from there forward.

I've had my superwinch spooled 100% many times and it's attached to the spool correctly.

Just thought I'd throw that out there, maybe research cable to spool attachment types when shopping.

100% correct there Dave. As I remember,the instructions that came with my 9500 lb Warn said never do a 100% spool out. Always have few wraps on the drum