Project Farm tests cheap winches

macleanflood

I break sh!t
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Love to see a M8000 or higher end Warn tested.

The hitch basket was a bad idea but understandably convenient and necessary for the tests.

The 6.5 HP motor might not have been enough to drive the alternator and a separate amp pull number from the alternator would be interesting.


-Mac
 
This one kinda gets a thumbs down from me. I know that in the short format he uses to strike a balance between being informative and entertaining tends to leave little room for being all nerdy. I also get that some of the failures were due to BS ratings on winch plates (BTW no reciever plate should be used with any winch over 10k) but you would have thought after the first one he would have reevaluated what happened and not repeat the same failure twice. Hell he built a beefed up rig pretty much knowing he would have a failure.

He also collected some good data in that he was taking amp draw measurements but completely omitted that info in grading the winches. Amp draw is one of the choices of the "pick two" rule along with pulling power and amp draw. Not every winch user is looking for the strongest or fastest pulling but sometimes efficiency is the primary motivator.

But the big one for me is that last pull test. To basically say I know that winches are rated for max pull on the first layer on the drum but screw it lets pull out less than ten feet and see if we can pull their advertised rating before they fail is dumb. I would have much rather seen first layer pull comparisons including amp draw.
 
couple questions-
  1. is it typical to see a 25% drop in pull strength on the outer wraps- not one rally got above 9000lbs
  2. I had a superwinch snapped that OEM synthetic line and I didnt think I was working it that hard. interesting to see that fail-Better to Just buy the wire rope version and then het a quality synthetic line?
  3. last but not least- Does this mean I will see more Zeek winches on the road than Badlands🤷‍♂️
 
couple questions-
  1. is it typical to see a 25% drop in pull strength on the outer wraps- not one rally got above 9000lbs
  2. I had a superwinch snapped that OEM synthetic line and I didnt think I was working it that hard. interesting to see that fail-Better to Just buy the wire rope version and then het a quality synthetic line?
  3. last but not least- Does this mean I will see more Zeek winches on the road than Badlands🤷‍♂️

1. All DC electric winches will see a decrease in output for each subsequent layer of rope as it changes the overall effective mechanical ratio of the winch. Now higher geared winches with big motors will have less effect but it is still there. I have found that typically for a majority of full size winches that equals out to about 8% per layer. You can see that Warn actually publishes that in their performance specs that and that they only rate the fifth layer for 5872 lbs.
vr12.jpg


2 This is a problem with a lot of the imported winches in that they cut corners on the quality of line that they provide.

3 Lets hope we see less of either.
 
I bought my Warn M8000 with wire rope and immediately put a cheap Amazon synthetic winch line on it. I've since removed the hook and tied/weaved up my own cheap version of a freedom winch line.

I'm actually waiting for my winch to arrive back from Warn...I drove it up to Clackamas last week and they swapped the motor and drum. Vitaliy says he thinks I side loaded the winch...and I have done some pulls sideways but I thought the hawse would keep the load somewhat to the front.

I think HF had the marketing muscle, the prices and enough stores that when something goes wrong you stand a chance or support.

-Mac
 
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I'm actually waiting for my winch to arrive back from Warn...I drove it up to Clackamas last week and they swapped the motor and drum. Vitaliy says he thinks I side loaded the winch...and I have done some pulls sideways but I thought the hawse would keep the load somewhat to the front.


-Mac

Synthetic line has a tendency to bunch so if you side load it will actually load the drum flanges more than steel line will. Conversely if you are in a straight pull the line will crown in the center of the drum and if left unattended will put undue strain on the tie bars. I see this a bunch on ATV winches when folks are using them to raise a plow.
 
I am rarely disappointed with Farm Project's comparison videos but I was on his latest that tested various winches. Especially since he used Warn's cheapest winch which was imported from China. And that, as mentioned above by Blackjack, he only tested for max pull on the top layer of rope was insulting and just plain wrong. I would have loved for him to have included one of Warn's great Oregon built winches like my 9.5xp and watch Warn walk away with a solid win.
 
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I am rarely disappointed with Farm Project's comparison videos but I was on his latest that tested various winches. Especially since he used Warn's cheapest winch which was imported from China. And that, as mentioned above by Blackjack, he only tested for max pull on the top layer of rope was insulting and just plain wrong. I would have loved for him to have included one of Warn's great Oregon built winches like my 9.5xp and watch Warn walk away with a solid win.

Based on the title of this thread I thought point was that he was testing cheap winches. The Warn he tested is cheap, yours is not. As far as what wrap the pulled on, that was not ideal but was it comparable across all the test subjects?
 
I am rarely disappointed with Farm Project's comparison videos but I was on his latest that tested various winches. Especially since he used Warn's cheapest winch which was imported from China. And that, as mentioned above by Blackjack, he only tested for max pull on the top layer of rope was insulting and just plain wrong. I would have loved for him to have included one of Warn's great Oregon built winches like my 9.5xp and watch Warn walk away with a solid win.

It is alright that they stuck with the entry level winch and it placed pretty much where I expected. I think that the gen 2 VR would have placed a little better as its motor gear ratio combination pulled a bit harder at the expense of amperage.

Based on the title of this thread I thought point was that he was testing cheap winches. The Warn he tested is cheap, yours is not. As far as what wrap the pulled on, that was not ideal but was it comparable across all the test subjects?

But in reality it is not truly comparable since the different winches had different types and quantities of rope on the drum so the final ratio would be different between them. First layer testing would keep the playing field level.
 
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I am rarely disappointed with Farm Project's comparison videos but I was on his latest that tested various winches. Especially since he used Warn's cheapest winch which was imported from China. And that, as mentioned above by Blackjack, he only tested for max pull on the top layer of rope was insulting and just plain wrong. I would have loved for him to have included one of Warn's great Oregon built winches like my 9.5xp and watch Warn walk away with a solid win.

I'm the opposite. I watched several and found that I was almost always disappointed but I tend to view stuff a lot differently than most and pick up on stuff that the average person just doesn't give a shit about.

One of my bigger issues are his "bang for the buck" comparisons where he has some funky chart that shows you can drive screws for .023 cents each if you don't mind buying cheaper driver bits that strip out and break more often than the ones that cost you .028 cents per use. Screw that, I want to know what is the best that will last the longest with the least amount of associated bullshit. What it costs to get that is generally a pittance compared to the aggravation of using something cheaper because it has his "bang for the buck" stamp of approval.

In that vein, I promise you that had he dropped your winch in the mix, the cents per use that put an entry level made in China piece of poo on top would have offended you most grievously.
 
But in reality it is not truly comparable since the different winches had different types and quantities of rope on the drum so the final ratio would be different between them. First layer testing would keep the playing field level.
What a great opportunity to do some wonderful education to help folks understand how all this works and he missed it.
 
Synthetic line has a tendency to bunch so if you side load it will actually load the drum flanges more than steel line will. Conversely if you are in a straight pull the line will crown in the center of the drum and if left unattended will put undue strain on the tie bars. I see this a bunch on ATV winches when folks are using them to raise a plow.

Practically every winch I have been around other than a casual glance walking by that has a steel cable, also has gouges on the underside of the tie bars on both sides. Probably due to how we do recoveries on our trails where there is rarely an anchor in front of you and most generally off to the side and not very far away. That leads to a lot of side pulls that bunch up the line until it rubs on the tie bars.
 
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I'm the opposite. I watched several and found that I was almost always disappointed but I tend to view stuff a lot differently than most and pick up on stuff that the average person just doesn't give a shit about.

One of my bigger issues are his "bang for the buck" comparisons where he has some funky chart that shows you can drive screws for .023 cents each if you don't mind buying cheaper driver bits that strip out and break more often than the ones that cost you .028 cents per use. Screw that, I want to know what is the best that will last the longest with the least amount of associated bullshit. What it costs to get that is generally a pittance compared to the aggravation of using something cheaper because it has his "bang for the buck" stamp of approval.

In that vein, I promise you that had he dropped your winch in the mix, the cents per use that put an entry level made in China piece of poo on top would have offended you most grievously.

The more I watched what he did I’ve come to the opinion that he reminds me of the people who make documentaries with an intended outcome. I now find him unwatchable.
 
The more I watched what he did I’ve come to the opinion that he reminds me of the people who make documentaries with an intended outcome. I now find him unwatchable.

There are a lot of issues with his fixtures for testing the strength of stuff and how inconsistent they are with regard to pulling the same direction on each item being tested.

His cutting tests using weights to load a grinder and similar to test how fast a cut-off disc cuts are also highly flawed. I know from using many different brands that each one has a pressure it likes to cut the fastest. Less and you just overheat the metal and cutting edge on the disc, more and you just burn through the disc.

He is almost, not quite but almost the bleeping jeep of the product comparison world.
 
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Practically every winch I have been around other than a casual glance walking by that has a steel cable, also has gouges on the underside of the tie bars on both sides. Probably due to how we do recoveries on our trails where there is rarely an anchor in front of you and most generally off to the side and not very far away. That leads to a lot of side pulls that bunch up the line until it rubs on the tie bars.

Yeah it is hard to train yourself to stop part way through the pull and reset the line on the drum to avoid that from happening.
 
There are a lot of issues with his fixtures for testing the strength of stuff and how inconsistent they are with regard to pulling the same direction on each item being tested.

His cutting tests using weights to load a grinder and similar to test how fast a cut-off disc cuts are also highly flawed. I know from using many different brands that each one has a pressure it likes to cut the fastest. Less and you just overheat the metal and cutting edge on the disc, more and you just burn through the disc.

He is almost, not quite but almost the bleeping jeep of the product comparison world.

There are many things he doesn’t factor in. His tests are extremely specific usually lacking any variability such as you describe. Running the same tests with varying pressure would be an example but instead he moves on and tests some other aspect.

He does have nearly 6x the subscribers as BleepinJeep so it’s working for him.