Would this be large enough to pull out my 94' two door track ? Has anyone had any experience with HF winches ?
Thanks,
Raz

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=91780

It should be strong enough, at most you might have to run it through a snatch block.  It's pretty light weight at only 54 lbs.  The XRC8 weighs in at 94, but they are just about the same price.

http://www.4wheelparts.com/Winches-Winch-Accessories/XRC8-Winch.aspx?t_c=18&t_s=300&t_pt=100702&t_pl=6426&t_pn=S/B97281

I just sent off a request for more info to Smittybuilt, let you know what I hear.

Ive got acouple winches and the smittybuilt  is a good winch for the money there are better  but not for 300$ plus 5000 lbs  isnt quite unuff

I would go with a 8K, Thats what I run. You can never have too much pulling power available. Especially when there's not much difference in price. And on the up side, If you ever need to you will be able to help someone out with a larger vehicle.

I run a HF 8K winch and haven't had any issues with it, other than a solenoid going bad (but that may have been my fault, when I was wiring up an in-cab switch).
IIRC, mine has 100' of 3/8" cable, not the 5/16" that most 8K's have.....and better than the 1/4" that the 5500 has.

The Smittybuilt would definatly be more reliable, plus would have service parts available like Warn & Superwinch. I'd be worring about the HF motor burning up even under medium pulls, and with possibly no replacement parts, you'll end up with an expensive door stop.

I run a HF 8K winch and haven't had any issues with it, other than a solenoid going bad (but that may have been my fault, when I was wiring up an in-cab switch).
IIRC, mine has 100' of 3/8" cable, not the 5/16" that most 8K's have.....and better than the 1/4" that the 5500 has.

Yeah, the HF 8K has 100' of 3/8" cable. Thats what mine has. The only thing I don't like about it is the remote. Mine has torn up several times

Quote from: Skyhiranger on March 17, 2009, 05:38:11 PM

I run a HF 8K winch and haven't had any issues with it, other than a solenoid going bad (but that may have been my fault, when I was wiring up an in-cab switch).
IIRC, mine has 100' of 3/8" cable, not the 5/16" that most 8K's have.....and better than the 1/4" that the 5500 has.

Yeah, the HF 8K has 100' of 3/8" cable. Thats what mine has. The only thing I don't like about it is the remote. Mine has torn up several times

I hardwired some switches (one in the dash, the other on the backside of the solenoid box), so I don't have to worry about using the remote anymore.  But I never had any issues with it when I did use it (other than my thumb got tired of holding the button).

It should be strong enough, at most you might have to run it through a snatch block.  It's pretty light weight at only 54 lbs.  The XRC8 weighs in at 94, but they are just about the same price.

http://www.4wheelparts.com/Winches-Winch-Accessories/XRC8-Winch.aspx?t_c=18&t_s=300&t_pt=100702&t_pl=6426&t_pn=S/B97281

Lightweight?  I just weighed my Warn M8000 with a synthetic rope and it is 36 pounds!!!  54 pounds seemed a bit heavy to me but I run synthetic rope.  The 100' of steel cable weighed 16lbs, so the Warn with the steel cable was 48 lbs.  I was able to buy this Warn off of Truckaddons on Ebay with free shipping for $500 and Ebay provided a $50 coupon so my cost was $450 delivered to my door.  When I install this second one I will have Warn 8000 lb winches on both the front and rear bumpers. 

I'm just going by the listed weight.  I have no idea what they actually weight out out.  Might be the same thing with a smaller motor.

Rope is tempting due to it's light weight and it breaks really nice compared to a broken cable.  But cable takes a lot less maintenance. 

For what it's worth, the HF winches are made in the same factory as the Milemarker winches....They're not the best in the world, but they'll do the job.   Rule of thumb with winches, you ideally want to buy a winch that is capable to pulling 1 1/2 times your vehicle weight.   I'd be a little skeptical of a 5k winch particularly on a single line pull on a incline, or with a vehicle severely stuck in mud.    Both of those factors will effectively increase a vehicles static weight dramatically.    I would look for a winch rated at 8-9.5 thousand pounds for our rigs.