Is this broken Smittybilt winch fixable?

[mrblaine]

I saved a copy of it which will come in handy the next time someone asks about buying a Smittybilt or other cheap/similar quality Chinese winch.

The only problem with that is that it doesn't tell the whole story. The break and how it looks says that something was done to that winch that would have broken any other winch made anywhere that was mounted in a similar manner.

Something not the fault of the winch caused that. The casting looks to be very good quality. The fracture shows clean dense material without obvious porosity or casting defect and the fact that the chunk goes up the side of the foot into the frame area means the corner was pushed up with high force. That can't happen with the other 3 fasteners still in place without the mounting feet damaged unless something pushed up that corner. My money is on the steel cable winding up on one side and blowing up the winch.

 

[mrblaine]

Interesting. I've had mine since 2014 and its pulled me out of thick texas mud and winched a disabled cj5 through some gnarly rocks in the sierras, along with little here and there use through out the years. No issues yet.

Not interesting at all. There are 1000's upon 1000's of those crap winches in use with very few issues reported other than "it just quit one day".

 

[hosejockey61]

The only problem with that is that it doesn't tell the whole story. The break and how it looks says that something was done to that winch that would have broken any other winch made anywhere that was mounted in a similar manner.

Something not the fault of the winch caused that. The casting looks to be very good quality. The fracture shows clean dense material without obvious porosity or casting defect and the fact that the chunk goes up the side of the foot into the frame area means the corner was pushed up with high force. That can't happen with the other 3 fasteners still in place without the mounting feet damaged unless something pushed up that corner. My money is on the steel cable winding up on one side and blowing up the winch.

Could it be from overtightening the mounting bolt on that corner?

 

[mrblaine]

Could it be from overtightening the mounting bolt on that corner?

Not at all with the caveat that if the base plate is proper as Blackjack mentioned, then the only force acting upon the mounting feet is compression from the bolt in the web that hole goes through. The only way the bolt could do that from tightening to any torque level, would have to be the equivalent of stacking a few washers under the other 3 feet and then you would likely observe damage to more than one foot. If it is mounted to a flat rigid surface that can act as a base plate, the bolts can be tightened to failure without damage to the feet.

All winches that utilize that mounting system including Warn need to have the base plate proper because that provides the rest of the winch structure to keep the drum bearings/bushings in alignment to keep the drum turning smoothly. Without that, you only have the tie bars or integrated solenoid mount to stabilize the structure and it will fail.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

I sure would have liked to have seen how that winch was mounted before its casting broke.

 

[InOmaha]

I bet if you drop the winch from 3 ft onto concrete right on that corner it could break a chunk off. 60-80 lbs of weight and an impact force on cast aluminum.

 

[mrblaine]

I bet if you drop the winch from 3 ft onto concrete right on that corner it could break a chunk off. 60-80 lbs of weight and an impact force on cast aluminum.

Which has little to do with anything. I ordered and received a NIB Warn 9500ti that was broken in half in the box from the shipper dropping it. All you could see on the outside was a little ding on one corner of the box.

 

[Blackjack]

I sure would have liked to have seen how that winch was mounted before its casting broke.

A couple pics of the plate with the winch off of it would tell us what we need to know.

 

[Blackjack]

Not at all with the caveat that if the base plate is proper as Blackjack mentioned, then the only force acting upon the mounting feet is compression from the bolt in the web that hole goes through. The only way the bolt could do that from tightening to any torque level, would have to be the equivalent of stacking a few washers under the other 3 feet and then you would likely observe damage to more than one foot. If it is mounted to a flat rigid surface that can act as a base plate, the bolts can be tightened to failure without damage to the feet.

All winches that utilize that mounting system including Warn need to have the base plate proper because that provides the rest of the winch structure to keep the drum bearings/bushings in alignment to keep the drum turning smoothly. Without that, you only have the tie bars or integrated solenoid mount to stabilize the structure and it will fail.

This. Sometimes those value priced mounting plates/bumpers will come back to bite you literally. If the plate is not square, have mounting holes that are not aligned and be adequately braced to prevent distortion under load it is of no value.

A year ago I was asked to analyze the failure of a 12k winch that was mounted onto a log skid. The gentleman had just bolted the winch to one of the I beam rails that made up the skid. I beams are far from flat and he had made the holes oversized to allow the mounting bolts to tighten up without binding not realizing the stress he had induced in the winch frame. Needless to say once he had put a load on the winch it turned itself into a projectile. Luckily noone was injured but a winch hurtling through the air is not something you want to experience. Around that same time a winch on a JK failed spectacularly and I suspect the bumper it was mounted to distorted and led to its failure as well.