HF 12,00 Lb Winch Versus WARN 12K

So I got a decent sized trailer and decided to mount a winch on it. Eventually The trailer will possibly have more carrying capacity than the winch will pulling. So a 12K winch is nice enough for now. Being lazy I did not feel like flopping around my Warn 12K onto a trailer when needed.
The Warn comes with a larger drum and a longer 12K rated pulling distance. Warn also has 125 feet of 3/8 inch cable.
HF is 65 feet of 3/8 cable with a smaller drum and less 12K strength pulling distance.
Magnets on the HF winch being glued in versus Warm bolting theirs in. I did like the 45 second usage time with a 4 minute 15 second cooling period of the HF winch. Guess I will not be in a hurry.
The HF winch comes with a cable guide and does not look like it will tolerate any pulling from an excessive angle. The HF winch with the larger drum and no cable guide is a lot more tolerant of angle pulling.

I picked up the HF12K winch because of the minimal usage, the typical straight line pull onto a trailer and the inexpensive price.
To actually use this on the front of a vehicle? Well, as long as all your pulling is a Honda econo-box in a straight line, it should work fine.

Bruce; You can say and think what you like. I bought a HF 12000 lb winch to use gathering fire wood. I had 3 large piles of trees pushed up at the neighbors he offered to me for fire wood. I used the heck out of that winch pulling logs out of those piles. Big stuff little stuff some at pretty sharp angles. I never came up against the duty cycle. Some stuff tangled up and laying beneath other logs. FOR THE MONEY, at probably 1/2 the price of Warn the HF will PERFORM. I've used it to pull a stuck tractor, a baler that mired down along side the water way, pulled tractors onto my trailer. Its never let me down, done all I ask. When this one shucks out, if ever, I'll buy another. gobble

I have one of those HF type winches on my hydraulic tilt bed trailer,have dragged some heavy loads onto the trailer with it.If the load is very heavy I use a snatch block for increased pulling power and to slow the winch down as it does run a little fast.Can at least buy 3 of these winches for what a Warn would cost so I figure I'm way ahead money wise.

With proper use of a snatch block a winch can always have a straight line pull no matter how offset the item is.
And you got to have a pretty big trailer to make a 12,000 lb winch and a couple of snatch blocks even break a sweat.

The trailer I picked was old school that someone removed the 15" split rim wheels and tires on. I am looking, long term, at some 12K axles with drum brakes, I might even have to pick up a 3rd axle. By the time this is done, I will no longer have my 21K D4d Cat. Just an over sized trailer. That HF winch should work well enough with the things I should wind up doing with it as long as I use a 24K plus rated snatch block.
HF currently selling snatch blocks that are good for about 300 pounds. I already broke one of those awhile back. Then again, I was using the WARN winch. . .
The wife will get annoyed soon enough when the HF winch just sits there on the front of the trailer and gathers rain drops.
~Honey~~ I need a cover. . . Yep. Gonna be in trouble again.

I got a 9K unit at TSC, probably made in the same factory with the same Chinese slave labor as HF. The thing is awesome! I got the one with the synthetic rope instead of cable, so it was marked down to somewhere around $160-175.00. Really glad I got it. I also have a pto winch off a duece and half I want to rig up into a logging arch, but that's a pretty involved fab project.

I replaced the old 2500 HF badlands winch on my pickup with a TSC 3500 newer style winch that was on sale for 79 bux last month. Much better winch. Used all the same electronics so I have the new wires doing nothing. Saw where TSC sells the same wire set for 49 bux. Guess that makes the winch worth 30.

Put the old one in the barn for a hoist. Runs just fine with a battery charger hooked to it. That 2500 did a lot of pulling with a snatch block added. I've broke the cable on it twice but mainly cause I was pulling across a sharp edge.

The H/F Badlands winches get some pretty good reviews. I have several, not the 12K yet but will put one on my gooseneck trailer this summer.

You only bought it cause you're cheep !!!! Used mine the last time I went to Manning to get that equipment. Winched my truck and 25 ft gooseneck trailer up a hill about 200 feet. Have had mine about 6 years and no problems. My warn went south and no parts to fix it.

Hey guys... a question...


Is the 12k rating based on a pulley being used so that the wench is only pulling 6k???

Or can I pull a 12k tractor up the ramps and onto my 40' dovetail gooseneck with a single cable, direct pull,one cable, no loop back...

and do I have to de-rate the load for going up the ramps???

Maybe rated for 12,000lbs however they are best not used over 6,000lbs .

The rating is when the cable is wrapped around the smallest diameter of the drum, i.e. first layer. Each additional layer of cable on the drum reduces the pull capacity.
Ratings are for direct single line pulls, (no pulley blocks)

(quoted from post at 14:22:31 01/17/21)
Hey guys... a question...


Is the 12k rating based on a pulley being used so that the wench is only pulling 6k???

Or can I pull a 12k tractor up the ramps and onto my 40' dovetail gooseneck with a single cable, direct pull,one cable, no loop back...

and do I have to de-rate the load for going up the ramps???

Click to expand...

I doubt that it will take 12k to pull a rolling 12k.

Good afternoon: In my mind it would mean it could pull the rated load straight up off the ground.

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.

It should have came east!!! lmao