Harbor Freight Badlands Apex Winch

IndominusHuman

IndominusHuman

JK Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 20, 2019
Messages
651
Location
Conway, AR
Someone tell me that I need to go buy this winch. :ROFLMAO:

I think its a good deal for the money (I can get it for $480 after their coupon) and I have heard good things about the new one.

There is also one at our local Harbor Freight and I haven't seen one in months.
 
I use Harbor Freight for some things, but I would never in a million years trust a HF winch based of all the negative things I've heard from people that own them. One guy I know with one has had it fail 5 times in a year!
 
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Just pull your line every other month and spool it back up under tension to keep the winch up and running. The only time I've had a winch fail was due to letting it sit too long without using it. Have fun on the trails!

IndominusHuman said:
Well, I bought it. (Sorry Chris :ROFLMAO: I feel like I've disappointed my dad)

It has excellent reviews. However, if it does crap out I will just get a higher quality one. :)
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IndominusHuman said:
Someone tell me that I need to go buy this winch. :ROFLMAO:

I think its a good deal for the money (I can get it for $480 after their coupon) and I have heard good things about the new one.

There is also one at our local Harbor Freight and I haven't seen one in months.
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I'm considering it and the Bull Dog winch plate and fairlead plate. The reviews of that particular winch are very good in general. At handful have encountered any trouble, and those that did that I found were with the remote. Of course I'm slightly biased - there's Harbor Freight quite handy.
 
I purchased this winch for my wife’s JK, used a couple of times and works great. Of course only have had it about 6 months so no idea on long term. The chord for the remote for some reason just falls out. I ended up taking one piece of electrical tape to one side of the chord, hasn’t happened again. I have a SB winch on my JK so figured we will have one of each and see what happens between the two of them.
 
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IndominusHuman said:
Well, I bought it. (Sorry Chris :ROFLMAO: I feel like I've disappointed my dad)

It has excellent reviews. However, if it does crap out I will just get a higher quality one. :)
Click to expand...
If it fails, posting the circumstances here would be nice. One of the things that a marketer I used to know told me is that quite often owners tend to mistreat things they buy, but hear are really not well made. I look at the middle reviews rather than the really bad ratings or really good ones. Good reviews often are by folks who just received something and haven't even tried it, while bad reviews are often by people who never read the manual (or couldn't read it). The quality of the stuff you pick up at HF can vary wildly, but that's true of any of the big box hardware stores as well.
 
Duster said:
If it fails, posting the circumstances here would be nice. One of the things that a marketer I used to know told me is that quite often owners tend to mistreat things they buy, but hear are really not well made. I look at the middle reviews rather than the really bad ratings or really good ones. Good reviews often are by folks who just received something and haven't even tried it, while bad reviews are often by people who never read the manual (or couldn't read it). The quality of the stuff you pick up at HF can vary wildly, but that's true of any of the big box hardware stores as well.
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I have had this winch for a year and a half now. I have sunk it in water, mud, gotten sand in it, and even froze it solid in -1 degree temps... I have pulled many people and self recovered a few times and it has never given me any issues.

My only complaint is the rope it comes with. When cheaper winch rope gets hot, it can compress (best word for it i guess) and this does. I plan to replace my rope, but that requires taking the whole bumper off and it just doesn't sound appealing right now since i rarely need the winch.
 
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IndominusHuman said:
I have had this winch for a year and a half now. I have sunk it in water, mud, gotten sand in it, and even froze it solid in -1 degree temps... I have pulled many people and self recovered a few times and it has never given me any issues.

My only complaint is the rope it comes with. When cheaper winch rope gets hot, it can compress (best word for it i guess) and this does. I plan to replace my rope, but that requires taking the whole bumper off and it just doesn't sound appealing right now since i rarely need the winch.
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I would think that hot line, especially any synthetic, would tend to stretch under stress, and more so if hot. Good to know though. I'm considering a Badlands for mine.
 
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@Duster not sure of the question but….Yes mine is a Rubicon HR with the Smitybil winch. The install went well, no modifications to the bumper. The brake vacuum pump had to be relocated other than that went well. My wife’s JK has the Badlands which is mounted to an aftermarket bumper. Just from visual though not sure how it would fit in the HR bumper as it seems a little large for that. But I believe that IndominusHuman has the same Recon bumper and looks like he got it installed.
 
I'm glad this thread is still going. I'm looking at pulling the trigger on the Badlands 12k pound winch from Harbor Freight. It seems to do well in some of the long-term review videos that I've recently watched.

I'm just trying to decide if I want to buy a stubby bumper, or get a winch plate and trim the ends of my bumper and put new end caps on it. Any thoughts on the winch or bumper choice?
 
Savior_Six said:
I'm glad this thread is still going. I'm looking at pulling the trigger on the Badlands 12k pound winch from Harbor Freight. It seems to do well in some of the long-term review videos that I've recently watched.

I'm just trying to decide if I want to buy a stubby bumper, or get a winch plate and trim the ends of my bumper and put new end caps on it. Any thoughts on the winch or bumper choice?
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We’ve use the Badlands winch a few times and so far has worked well. It was a Sahara so needed a different bumper. Picked up a stubby bumper and looks good, had spots for factory fog lights. Overall she is happy with the look of it. I just think in general I like the stubby bumpers and keeping the tires open.
 
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Danarch said:
@Duster not sure of the question but….Yes mine is a Rubicon HR with the Smitybil winch. The install went well, no modifications to the bumper. The brake vacuum pump had to be relocated other than that went well. My wife’s JK has the Badlands which is mounted to an aftermarket bumper. Just from visual though not sure how it would fit in the HR bumper as it seems a little large for that. But I believe that IndominusHuman has the same Recon bumper and looks like he got it installed.
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Ah, thanks. I thought that was actually going to IndominusHuman. His rig looks a lot like mine. except it is a JK, and mine is a JKU.
 
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Savior_Six said:
I'm glad this thread is still going. I'm looking at pulling the trigger on the Badlands 12k pound winch from Harbor Freight. It seems to do well in some of the long-term review videos that I've recently watched.

I'm just trying to decide if I want to buy a stubby bumper, or get a winch plate and trim the ends of my bumper and put new end caps on it. Any thoughts on the winch or bumper choice?
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I've had my Badlands Apex 12k for almost a year now. So glad I bought it! Looks great and works great! I've seen both your bumper choices with a winch and like them both. I have mine on a stubby stinger bumper.
 
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