Harbor Freight Winch questions

[nyoffroad]

I'd post up a pic but it would be a waste, considering it's sitting on the floor of my storage container. Oh well, maybe some day.

 

[Indyharleyguy]

Ive got the regular 12k harbor freight winch mounted upside down behind the front bumper. I cut out the front flat license plate area and put a roller fairlead cover on it. It has a Daystar urethane winch hook isolator so the hook nestles in sideways and hides easy. I put the winch box remote mounted to the fender next to the washer jug. It's wired in direct to the front battery with the included parallel circuit breaker pack. I had to buy some additional wire and I sheathed most of it with some cheap mesh wire loom with heat shrink on the ends.

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Wow, very cool . That's the best setup I've seen. Thanks for the pics.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

 

[chestercopperpot]

I modified a winch mount plate to fit tight behind the front bumper. Also mounted the winch upside down, trimmed the bumper, and gave the star some fresh paint. Works great. Its also the regular 12K harbor freight winch.

 

[Curtisje]

 

[Indyharleyguy]

Ive got the regular 12k harbor freight winch mounted upside down behind the front bumper. I cut out the front flat license plate area and put a roller fairlead cover on it. It has a Daystar urethane winch hook isolator so the hook nestles in sideways and hides easy. I put the winch box remote mounted to the fender next to the washer jug. It's wired in direct to the front battery with the included parallel circuit breaker pack. I had to buy some additional wire and I sheathed most of it with some cheap mesh wire loom with heat shrink on the ends.

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Hi can you show me some more pictures of how it's mounted underneath? Thanks

 

[Indyharleyguy]

I modified a winch mount plate to fit tight behind the front bumper. Also mounted the winch upside down, trimmed the bumper, and gave the star some fresh paint. Works great. Its also the regular 12K harbor freight winch.

Hi how hard was it taking your front bumper off? I'm going to take mine off tomorrow.

 

[G744]

HF 12K winches pull hard, at a decent speed, too.

2 problems with the three I have:

The control relay just quits, no easy replacement without going to outboard solenoids. Always at a most inopportune time. (Like most of the Chinese winches) Golf cart jobs work pretty well for that.

Yeah, they pull hard. They just don't hold back worth a damn, especially if you're trying to control unwinding under a big load. It can start to run away, and the only way to stop it is go into pull mode. It can get very interesting when that happens, looking like some kind of chinese fire drill.

Then again, most planetary drive winches use the inside of the drum with a sort of Sprag drive to do that job. Once they get hot, no dice.

A better winch has an external drum brake, or one on the worm gear.

BTW, I used them to pull my 700' deep well with iron pipe. 21' at a time.

Just so you know.

DG

 

[sneekyeye]

Hi can you show me some more pictures of how it's mounted underneath? Thanks

I really just made sure to measure it properly and cut it so the winch was centered on the plate. It's mounted to four holes I had to drill in the frame with a right angle drill and stubby bits I cut down. I'll see what I can get for a photo.




So the first couple of pictures are laying on the ground looking up at the frame ends where there are two bolts on either side. The second is the cutout made in the front bumper, you just have to work out the placement so it is pretty well centered. The last two show how much frame is left in front of the mounting plate, and the cutout notch I had to make in order for the shackle plate bolts to be accessible.