Looking to put a winch on the jeep. Anybody use or have experience with the openroad winches? theres several YT videos that say there good, but reviews can be bought. I have never seen one in the wild, but they have good prices and good stats. synthetic rope, wireless remote and you get a cool hat!
Openroad winch experiences?
- Thread starter Heatheopioa
- Start date
Winches are very much a get what you pay for kind of deal. I would seriously consider your needs and projected usage then come up with a realistic budget for a recovery kit and a winch. A good set up will not be cheap.
That being said, the first thing that came up for me when I googled Openroad winches is a reddit thread about how one purchaser's winch destroyed itself.
That being said, the first thing that came up for me when I googled Openroad winches is a reddit thread about how one purchaser's winch destroyed itself.
Thanks for the info. I have not seen that, i will try to find it. We are newbies to the jeep world, so we will be only doing some easy and light trails at first and maybe working our way up. I definetly want something reliable, but also dont see my self need the top of the line, but i could be wrong. I have been told modding jeeps is a very slippery slope
Thanks. I have been actively looking there as well. I have about a week before I intend to by one.
I found that reddit page. I read through the whole page and there where several people who have had great experiences with the brand. Im sure it's like everything else. Good and Bad. They just haven't been around long.
I mean I have a Warn Evo, which a lot of people call junk because some of the parts are sourced in China. Never had an issue in three years. And the truth of the matter is, with the global economy everything has Chinese sourced parts or metals in it.
My hesitation is more no name brands are no name for a reason.
Agree with this. "Kit" is a good way to put it. Short story is that you need more than just the winch.
If you're looking to save a buck you may consider a Harbor Freight Badlands. Imo probably no better or worse than most of what's out there, but I've found their customer service/replacement policy pretty decent if you do experience an issue.
I find that to get the best deals, you gotta look and look reasonably often, but not be in a "rush"...
I got my Warn Zeon 10-S for half the price of retail and it came in the OEM box even (though to be fair, the box had a hole in it and I had to buy two OEM nuts for it)
https://wranglerjkforum.net/threads...us-an-islander-side-project.32367/post-468343
Also please get some quality tree savers if/when you do get a winch.
Not much to add here but a few years ago on offerUp, I bought 3 Warn i9000 winches that were "used" and a little sun faded for $500. All worked great. The winches were from some agency in AZ that automatically replaced them after X amount of years. I would guess from inspecting them, they were only used a handful of times. I did a rebuild on one for my TJ, well not really a rebuild but more of a paint and reseal (even added an aftermarket sticker that boosted the capacity to 9500lbs). One of those deals that make you smile.
And also practice how to winch long before you need to do a pull in the field... watch YouTube, talk to experienced users, etc. Winching incidents happen and happen fast, often with nasty consequences. I have a close friend who lost the tips of two of her fingers due to a simple winching incident...
Last edited:
I have an old Warn on my LJ. One JKUR has Smittybuilt, and two JKU’s have a HF Badlands. Haven’t had any issues with them. That said I’ve only had to use the Smittybuilt once. The Badlands have used a half dozen times. The warn assuming the PO put it on their when they got the LJ it would be about 18 years old and still works.