harbor freight 12,000 lb winch

footer200 · Mar 18, 2014

Anybody have any experience with these 12,000lb. winches from Harbor Freight? I know they are cheap but do they even come close to the pull rating? Last at all? Or is it use it 3 times and thats it? I was not sure where to post this but I sure it will be found.

ishiboo · Mar 18, 2014

It's pretty easy to find info on them.

First, HF has a ton of reviews on them. Off Road Mag did an article/full test of the HF winch as well as a few others.

Pirate4x4 has a ton of info on them I'm sure.

Overall, they are VERY well reviewed and easily the best value in winching.

George2615 · Mar 18, 2014

I have their 8,000 lb winch on my trailer mounted in a box on the front of my tilt bed trailer. Use it several times a year since 2006 when I bought and installed it. Only problem I have on occasion is the brushes inside hang up once in a while. A tap with a small hammer gets it going again. I have been thinking of upgrading to the 12K.

luvmexfood · Mar 18, 2014

I have one and have used the fire out of it winching logs both upon my trailer and out of someplaces the tractor would not budge them. Manytimes I have hooked it and pulled both the pickup and trailer backwords. Mine is mounted on the tongue of my trailer and has pulled me out of binds a few times as long as I could go backwards because of how it is mounted.

After getting mine a couple of months later I purchased the wireless remote. Best money I ever spent. Got stuck and was able to hook to a tree and pull myself backwords, set in the cab and used 4 wheel drive sparingly and steer all the while using the wireless remote to winch myself out. Took a while but got out. They come with a lot of cable and I cut about 35 ft off mine, Watch for them on sale for $299. Mine has worked good for me and had a lot of tough pulls. Just be careful because when you hook it up something is going to give.

luvmexfood · Mar 18, 2014

Oh. And I recommend getting the mounting kit.

newbury · Mar 18, 2014

luvmexfood said:
I have one and have used the fire out of it winching logs both upon my trailer and out of someplaces the tractor would not budge them. Manytimes I have hooked it and pulled both the pickup and trailer backwords. Mine is mounted on the tongue of my trailer and has pulled me out of binds a few times as long as I could go backwards because of how it is mounted.

How do you run power to it?
/edit
I bought mine shortly after they started selling them and only used it a couple of times.
For those of you who use them do you limit your duty cycle to 45 seconds every 15 minutes?

George2615 · Mar 18, 2014

newbury said:
How do you run power to it?
/edit
I bought mine shortly after they started selling them and only used it a couple of times.
For those of you who use them do you limit your duty cycle to 45 seconds every 15 minutes?

I have my winch and elect. hyd unit for the tilt bed mounted inside a box on front of the trailer. They get their power from a separate automotive battery in the box. If your truck has a tow package it should have wiring that feeds 12V to one of the trailer plug pins. This is the wire that feeds power or charges the trailer battery when the trailer plug is connected to the truck plug. I also replaced the fuse that feeds the charge wire with an auto reset 30A circuit breaker because the winch would draw more than the fuse could handle.

newbury · Mar 18, 2014

George2615 said:
I have my winch and elect. hyd unit for the tilt bed mounted inside a box on front of the trailer. They get their power from a separate automotive battery in the box. If your truck has a tow package it should have wiring that feeds 12V to one of the trailer plug pins. This is the wire that feeds power or charges the trailer battery when the trailer plug is connected to the truck plug. I also replaced the fuse that feeds the charge wire with an auto reset 30A circuit breaker because the winch would draw more than the fuse could handle.

Yes, my 7 pin plug has the charger circuit. I wasn't sure if that was sufficient to keep a winch battery charged.

7879fordman · Mar 18, 2014

Have had the old style for around 10 years and it had finally died . Have pulled a bunch of heavy stuff out with it . And been used to hoist hay bales daily in the winter months .