Which Winch!!!! Need Advice

Something about the name Engo, I would never buy one.

The name gives me a weird vibe.

i met the owner a few months back, hes a is the son of the founder of mile marker. he makes good winches but im partial to Warn and Warn defiantly makes a superior product
 
No, didnt get a warn, if I was going to spend that much money, i would have bought a bumper instead, first.

I got the X2O, W-aterproof Smittybilt 8000.

I compared the XRC to the X2O and the X20 is almost a completely different winch, seems like alot more thought went into the building of it, the components are nicer, and i think it will fit my application of behind the front bumper. Im hoping anyway. Plus they come with a Lifetime Warranty, and I got a warranty from 4Wheel Parts as well that will cover it and i can exchange in store if I need to.
They were on sale, and I got a "military" discount, basically the guy just wanted me to buy one, cause I was comparing all of them in there and couldnt decide, so out the door for about $400 with a warranty, I feel like I got a pretty sweet deal.
 
No, didnt get a warn, if I was going to spend that much money, i would have bought a bumper instead, first.

I got the X2O, W-aterproof Smittybilt 8000.

I compared the XRC to the X2O and the X20 is almost a completely different winch, seems like alot more thought went into the building of it, the components are nicer, and i think it will fit my application of behind the front bumper. Im hoping anyway. Plus they come with a Lifetime Warranty, and I got a warranty from 4Wheel Parts as well that will cover it and i can exchange in store if I need to.
They were on sale, and I got a "military" discount, basically the guy just wanted me to buy one, cause I was comparing all of them in there and couldnt decide, so out the door for about $400 with a warranty, I feel like I got a pretty sweet deal.


so you got two warranties -one from the smittybuilt X20, and one from 4wheel parts!? i have some ocean front property in Kansas id love to sell you its got a private beach and wonderful views... dude smittybuilt is owned by 4wheel parts you just bought two different warranties for the same thing. if anything smittybuilt breaks or is defective you just take it back to 4wheelparts for your warranty anyways -that sales man took you for a ride man.

and for what its worth i bought my Warn for $300 and had warn rebuild it and customize it with other parts i wanted for free... i have seen too many smittybuilt winches dead out of the box, and a lot more fail on the trail when needed in mid pull. i have yet to see someone with a warn get left "hanging" with a dead winch. now having said that i know a few guys running the smittybuilt winches that have had no issues and they got a good deal on them $300 for a brand new winch is hard to argue with and im happy you have a new winch. but when it comes time to use that warranty for the 3rd time and you have to pull your bumper ect for the 3rd time im sure its gonna get old and your gonna hate it.

but like i said im glad you have a winch now. imo winches are the best off road tool you can have, better than lockers imo
 
-not everyone likes buying used stuff and having it rebuilt.... and not everyone can find a good candidate to have rebuilt for a good price.

-and it sounds like the warranty(s) came with it.
 
so you got two warranties -one from the smittybuilt X20, and one from 4wheel parts!? i have some ocean front property in Kansas id love to sell you its got a private beach and wonderful views... dude smittybuilt is owned by 4wheel parts you just bought two different warranties for the same thing. if anything smittybuilt breaks or is defective you just take it back to 4wheelparts for your warranty anyways -that sales man took you for a ride man.

and for what its worth i bought my Warn for $300 and had warn rebuild it and customize it with other parts i wanted for free... i have seen too many smittybuilt winches dead out of the box, and a lot more fail on the trail when needed in mid pull. i have yet to see someone with a warn get left "hanging" with a dead winch. now having said that i know a few guys running the smittybuilt winches that have had no issues and they got a good deal on them $300 for a brand new winch is hard to argue with and im happy you have a new winch. but when it comes time to use that warranty for the 3rd time and you have to pull your bumper ect for the 3rd time im sure its gonna get old and your gonna hate it.

but like i said im glad you have a winch now. imo winches are the best off road tool you can have, better than lockers imo

seriously though kid, how many have you personally seen "dead" or "die" mid pull. i call BS. or I call it "operator error". the control boxes are quirky on them. if you have no knowledge of how anything in this world works, yeah, any product could leave you hanging.
 
-not everyone likes buying used stuff and having it rebuilt.... and not everyone can find a good candidate to have rebuilt for a good price.

-and it sounds like the warranty(s) came with it.

the winch i bought was by no means a good candidate to be rebuilt, it had been on the front of a j**p that was in an accident it literally fell apart when i picked it up. i called Warn and they said no worries bring it in and they would see what they could do. i didnt have to pay labor, but i think that was more to do with my military service and the fact that it was going on a search and rescue vehicle but still thats only a $80 savings on a $1200 winch i along with most others on here im sure would be more than willing to shell out an extra $80 when buying a $1200 item for $300...


im sorry i wasnt trying to knock the guy an i guess my post kinda came across that way. i am truly happy he got a winch, and got the one he had wanted. i hope it gives him many years of good use
 
I was looking at the same winches about two weeks ago.

I was planning on the x20, my buddy suggested I might want something like a 9000 or 10000 and suggested shelling out for a Warn.

I didn't see one negative review about the XRC or the X20 but I took his advice
Found a brand new xd9000 for 600 cash.

Hard to beat that deal.

I figured its worth shelling out because I can take a winch to my next truck or really any truck I buy in the future so I don't mind as much.
 
seriously though kid, how many have you personally seen "dead" or "die" mid pull. i call BS. or I call it "operator error". the control boxes are quirky on them. if you have no knowledge of how anything in this world works, yeah, any product could leave you hanging.

ive seen one winch brand new out of the box dead, it ended up being the contact inside the motor was not connected/touching that one i saw personally -coworkers, i have a friend who bought one(granted one of the first ones a few years back that was DOA, not sure what that was cause i never saw that winch. and i have seen 3 technically fail on the trial first one just didnt pull, but the guy said it worked the last time he used it... another one died in the middle of the pull out at browns camp on airplane hill(not a good place for a winch to die) we thought it might just be over heated(though we didnt know why, first time it was used that day, and it had only pulled for about 5') so we let it site for about 10 min and tried it again. got about 6" of pull and then click click click... nothing that was an xrc10, and i dont know what ever happened with those two cause i didnt know the guys real well, just wheeling with a big group. and the last one was on a friends 4runner after the pull the freespool lever got jamed into the locked position and it would never freespool, and finally it just started making noises like it was eating itself alive untill the thing seized up. you could hear it wanting to work but it wouldnt, something inside was broken and jammed.


my warn 9.5ti has a broken case on it over the motor, i dropped it down on a rock one day when i was out wheeling my pickup(the entire weight of the front of my truck was resting on the winch on a rock dropped down from about 2') it split the housing open like a melon. its been that way for 3 years now, that truck has been driven in rain, snow, dusty roads, muddy roads ect. the winch is on a mobile mount so it also get put on the back of my 4runner as a dual winch set up, and has been on road trips ect -3years and probably 20kmiles of yuck has gotten up in there and the winch has not hiccuped once! one day ill get around to taking it into warn but for now its working just fine as is. i know warn will take care if it and me. when i buy from or buy a product from a company with a reputation for building industry leading products and long lasting products as well as superior customer service, i have no problems shelling out the premium price, because i know that i will be taken care of and not hung out to dry.

4wheelparts is known for selling cheep knock-off crap and then telling its customers "that sucks, thats too bad, buy another one..." even with their warranties, they will still charge you handling fees and shipping on the new winch ect. my old co worker who had the DOA winch (xrc8), we took it back the same day he bought it and they didnt have another one at that store so the had to order a new one. but it was covered under warranty right?, nope not really, he had to pay the shipping on it $75, and a prossesing fee or $30 so he had to pay another $105... he asked for his money back and they told him sense the winch had been opened they could not take it back...
 
not getting the right service a lot of the time is a personal problem and lack of balls. IMO. kind of like how i disagree w your Opinion
 
Does Warn make one of the best winches on the market? Sure. Does the cost of the warn reflect that fact? Absolutely. I've run several different winches and the only issue I ever had with any of them was an old Mile Marker that got soaked in a river in the middle of winter. The control box got fried and that was that.

Same concept on a lot of other products in my opinion. Does ARB make the best locker available? In my opinion yes. Does the cost reflect that? Yep! Would a cheap lockrite locker still get the job done? Of course it will.

Everything comes down to how much you want to spend.
 
or waste


"Does ARB make the best locker available? In my opinion yes. Does the cost reflect that? Yep! Would a cheap lockrite locker still get the job done? Of course it will."

-but those are two different beasts. how can you compare two totally different types of products as the same thing.

-I swear im done with responding. :-)
 
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By no means was I bashing smittybilt, I just wanted to let you know how I came to my decision.

Part of it depends on how you use it, if you're making one or two pulls a year that aren't a life or death situation then either should get the job done.

I just didn't want to be using mine and in the back of my head have doubts.

I saw a mike marker used three times one day and it performed great.
 
-but those are two different beasts. how can you compare two totally different types of products as the same thing.

-I swear im done with responding. :-)

I guess the same way I could compare absolutely anything. Normal cheap battery or diehard platinum. Most wouldn't view a normal battery as a waste and might even go as far as to say that the diehard is overkill or a waste. Do you need me to compare more random products for you to understand my first example or will this one do the trick? :D
 

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