Badlands Apex Winch Is Under $500 This Weekend (11/5/21-11/7/21)

[Mudflap]

I've been hunting for a good deal for this winch for a while now and finally found one that I wanted to share. They have this type of weekend sale every year-ish for this winch, but don't quote me on it. The Badlands Apex winch is on sale for $479.99 ($509.99 if you don't have their membership card which is $30 for a year). I bought this winch recently when it went on sale for about $600 after tax, but this sale came up so I returned it and hopped on this one. It was worth the original $600 for me, but this sale is even better and I hope this helps someone finally pull the trigger like it did with me. I also heard very good things about this winch from many different sources, it's the only Harbor Freight winch I would trust (I've heard people don't like the others as much due to the cheapness).

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Good luck getting parts for it later.

 

[Chris]

Don’t do it, those things are pieces of garbage. I have a close friend who bought one of these with the extended warranty. In less than a year he went through FIVE of them. Granted he uses them quite a bit and he’s not easy on them, but still.

In his words exactly, “I would never buy one of these again and the ONLY reason I continue to run one is because every time one fails, they replace it with a new one due to the extended warranty I purchased.”.

 

[tworley]

I'll stick with my slow and cheaper superwinch 8500

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Don’t do it, those things are pieces of garbage. I have a close friend who bought one of these with the extended warranty. In less than a year he went through FIVE of them. Granted he uses them quite a bit and he’s not easy on them, but still.

In his words exactly, “I would never buy one of these again and the ONLY reason I continue to run one is because every time one fails, they replace it with a new one due to the extended warranty I purchased.”.

The next time he gets a warranty replacement, he should sell it as new and get a decent winch.

 

[Chris]

The next time he gets a warranty replacement, he should sell it as new and get a decent winch.

He has apparently. I don’t blame him!

 

[LJtheunicorn]

I've been hunting for a good deal for this winch for a while now and finally found one that I wanted to share. They have this type of weekend sale every year-ish for this winch, but don't quote me on it. The Badlands Apex winch is on sale for $479.99 ($509.99 if you don't have their membership card which is $30 for a year). I bought this winch recently when it went on sale for about $600 after tax, but this sale came up so I returned it and hopped on this one. It was worth the original $600 for me, but this sale is even better and I hope this helps someone finally pull the trigger like it did with me. I also heard very good things about this winch from many different sources, it's the only Harbor Freight winch I would trust (I've heard people don't like the others as much due to the cheapness).

View attachment 288731View attachment 288730

I bought the same winch on that deal for the 20% off coupon. I like the m8000 but if I use this for a few years and it holds up I’ll upgrade later.

 

[Mudflap]

Good luck getting parts for it later.

Wow I wasn't excepting something from Jerry on this post, but they claim that you can call and get parts from them. From my anecdotal evidence it seems that people have had success with this. This is a once in a blue moon item so I won't be using it very much. Also ponying up for a Warn VR Evo doesn't make too much sense from a cost standpoint, because it too is made of Chineseum.

I have a close friend who bought one of these with the extended warranty.

And, Chris, if my memory serves correctly from when I was doing research, your friend bought the Badlands ZXR 12000. I cannot remember which thread this was from but I do remember you talking about it. This winch is indeed not something I would buy.

To add, Matt's Off-road Recovery also uses this winch on all of their newer rigs and never complains about him. It got him and others out of many situations and he likes them. He also uses his winch a lot more often than a busy medical student like me would (maybe a few times during the summer). He also isn't the only person I've seen using this winch, a lot of other people who review it actually use the heck out of it and it runs just fine.

(p.s. I'm not here to argue, just to add the perspective of someone who isn't going for the most expensive parts out there and is trying to find a good medium like most people are. It also took a lot of self-convincing at first to even consider a winch from Harbor Freight, but with enough research this product actually surprised me.)

 

[Chris]

Wow I wasn't excepting something from Jerry on this post, but they claim that you can call and get parts from them. From my anecdotal evidence it seems that people have had success with this. This is a once in a blue moon item so I won't be using it very much. Also ponying up for a Warn VR Evo doesn't make too much sense from a cost standpoint, because it too is made of Chineseum.


And, Chris, if my memory serves correctly from when I was doing research, your friend bought the Badlands ZXR 12000. I cannot remember which thread this was from but I do remember you talking about it. This winch is indeed not something I would buy.

To add, Matt's Off-road Recovery also uses this winch on all of their newer rigs and never complains about him. It got him and others out of many situations and he likes them. He also uses his winch a lot more often than a busy medical student like me would (maybe a few times during the summer). He also isn't the only person I've seen using this winch, a lot of other people who review it actually use the heck out of it and it runs just fine.

(p.s. I'm not here to argue, just to add the perspective of someone who isn't going for the most expensive parts out there and is trying to find a good medium like most people are. It also took a lot of self-convincing at first to even consider a winch from Harbor Freight, but with enough research this product actually surprised me.)

To be totally honest with you, I don’t remember which model it is. I thought there was only one model but clearly in wrong. Be that as it may, I wouldn’t put my trust in ANY winch from HF. That’s just me, but I believe a winch is an important enough tool that this is NOT an area I would try to penny pinch with.

 

[Mudflap]

To be totally honest with you, I don’t remember which model it is. I thought there was only one model but clearly in wrong. Be that as it may, I wouldn’t put my trust in ANY winch from HF. That’s just me, but I believe a winch is an important enough tool that this is NOT an area I would try to penny pinch with.

Yeah I can agree with you on the non penny pinching part, I myself am a firm believer on ponying up on things that are important. I had the exact same opinion as you when my friend first recommended it to me, but with time and research my opinion changed. Now it doesn't help that I am a cheap person (or as I like to call it cost efficient), but this also means I do quite a bit of research on my options before I pull the trigger on something expensive. Believe it or not this is probably the only HF thing I am putting real trust in, but I'll update if for some reason it doesn't meet my standards when I install it.

For anyone who may be reading this post in the future, do your own research before you just throw expensive parts at your car. $500 is still $500 no matter how you put it, don't just blindly listen to some college kid on a forum. Go do your own research on things you are wanting to buy before throwing your hard earned money at it.

 

[andy29847]

I bought one last year. I like it. The reviews I read are good.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=badlands+apex+whinch+review

 

[pagrey]

For anyone who may be reading this post in the future, do your own research before you just throw expensive parts at your car. $500 is still $500 no matter how you put it, don't just blindly listen to some college kid on a forum. Go do your own research on things you are wanting to buy before throwing your hard earned money at it.

Glad you posted. Don't worry too much about some of the comments. @Chris at one time ran a Smittybilt winch that you'd get pretty much the exact same response about. He says now he wouldn't penny pinch but at the time I guess he thought SB was top of the line or something? Winch talk is 99% bullshit on the internet, go wheel and have fun, any winch is better than none to quote the forum asshole.

 

[Chris]

Glad you posted. Don't worry too much about some of the comments. @Chris at one time ran a Smittybilt winch that you'd get pretty much the exact same response about.

And yet a good buddy of mine has used that same Smittybilt winch and put it through the ringer without a single failure. That's why I decided to go with that Smittybilt winch. I picked that winch because I witnessed it being used in person more times than I can count without a single failure.

Can't say the same about the Harbor Freight winch (which my buddy went through numerous replacements). Okay, maybe it wasn't the same model, but I'm simply making a case that I don't trust the Harbor Freight brand when it comes to big purchases. I've bought countless numbers of power tools from them. All of them worked for a time, and yet several of them failed in less than a year. I don't mind purchasing smaller items from HF, but I've had enough experience with the more expensive stuff from HF that I know better now. My opinion is simply if you want it to last a long time and plan on using it fairly regularly, buy another brand.

I personally don't care what he runs, I'm simply sharing firsthand experience I have.

You are right though, any winch is better than none.

 

[LJtheunicorn]

I’ve had a badlands winch on my four wheeler that I take to mud parks regularly for 6-7 years and it’s never skipped a beat. Theyre all over the mud parks here in the south on everything from a grizzly 700 atv to massive mud trucks

 

[pagrey]

I'm simply making a case that I don't trust the Harbor Freight brand when it comes to big purchases. I've bought countless numbers of power tools from them. All of them worked for a time, and yet several of them failed in less than a year. I don't mind purchasing smaller items from HF, but I've had enough experience with the more expensive stuff from HF that I know better now.

Good point. I enjoyed getting stuff there much more before the Bauer era, now with all the brands like Apex it's difficult to keep track of what is crap.

 

[Chris]

Good point. I enjoyed getting stuff there much more before the Bauer era, now with all the brands like Apex it's difficult to keep track of what is crap.

I learned with their power tools. I started buying a bunch of them thinking that it wouldn't matter if I was cheating out because I wasn't going to be using them very often. So far I've had two grinders fail on me in less than 6 months, a drill, a jigsaw, and several others.

Not all of the power tools I've bought there have failed, but enough have failed that I started just spending more and buying Milwaukee brand.

Seriously though, any winch is better than none. If the OP got a deal on it and feels good about the purchase, that's all that matters. My HF experience may differ from others.

 

[Mudflap]

I learned with their power tools. I started buying a bunch of them thinking that it wouldn't matter if I was cheating out because I wasn't going to be using them very often. So far I've had two grinders fail on me in less than 6 months, a drill, a jigsaw, and several others.

Not all of the power tools I've bought there have failed, but enough have failed that I started just spending more and buying Milwaukee brand.

Seriously though, any winch is better than none. If the OP got a deal on it and feels good about the purchase, that's all that matters. My HF experience may differ from others.

I'm glad we can all come to somewhat of a consensus. Everyone has had different experiences and has heard different things. That's why I am a big believer on not believing shit until you've done your homework. I've heard bad things about Smittybuilt but I haven't done my research on them so I don't have much of an opinion their products. It would be wrong of me to listen to other people online who bash Smittybuilt without doing my research, this would be going purely off of anecdotal evidence. I think it is important to do your own research before taking such a strong side on something you haven't done your homework on. The main group of people that this hurts the most is the people listening who go purely off of hearsay (especially people who read these forums and don't actually have an account to ask questions with, which was me for the longest time. The silent majority of this forum.)

Even the TJ Guru himself, Jerry, said something on this thread that can be testified against with enough research. Don't take the word of strangers on the internet as the only way to do something, no-one is perfect. Other people have commented on this thread sharing their first hand experience with these products and I would still do my homework before throwing my money on what they experienced. This being said I do appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts and experiences on this topic that was just kinda a coupon post lol.

(p.s. I wouldn't touch most of the Harbor Freight's power tools from the research I've done.)