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Posted by D Sherman on Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 02:07:08 :
In Reply to: Champion Winches??? posted by SUPRDUD on Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 00:45:57 :
Never heard of "Champion". Is it like the one in this picture? If it's a cheap Chinese winch, they probably all OEM them from the same Chinese factory and just have different stickers put on them. My thinking about cheap tools is that a lot of times the cheap tool you do have is better than the quality tool that you don't have. Some people say "always buy the best", but some people have more money than some other people. I tend to think the best compromise is buy a used one of a good brand if possible. If it was me, and I was mildly stuck in the mud or the snow out in the boonies, I'd rather have an el-cheapo winch than no winch at all. The cheapy would probably do the job since all I need is a little tug, not something that will truck from a tree limb. I keep a set of cheap hand tools in all my rigs, and they've saved me many times. Better the cheap you've got than the good one you don't.
One thing for sure is that those 8000 lbs are Chinese pounds, which are discounted about 4:1 relative to real pounds as far as I'm concerned. They probably arrived at the 8000 lb figure based on a computer calculation that if everything was made of perfect materials and perfect workmanship, the gear case would explode at 8001 lbs. I had a Chines "1000 lb" transmission jack fold up and collapse when I put a 400 lb transfer case on it. The Harbor Freight manager wasn't very happy about taking it back in its crushed-beer-can condition, but I insisted. I only escaped broken ribs by rolling out of the way just in time.
I always get a kick out of the label on the Garwood winch on my M35. It's rated at 10,000 lbs, is built like a tank, but says "light duty" on it. Meanwhile all those cheesy winches say "heavy duty" on them.
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