if you get pretty much any car or truck magazine they have hf coupons every month, great coupons for lots of stuff, and almost always a 20% off a single item coupon. It says you can't combine with other coupons but I always have and they have always done it. plus there is usually a coupon that if you spend $10 or more you get a free gift like gloves or multimeter. bring the whole magazine in; they just scan the coupons, no need to cut it up. And the 4 wheel magazines lately have had the badlands winches in there with special coupons. the 12k badlands has been 299 for a while in them. seems like a good deal if you just use it like I would for the excursion, dragging logs and around the property, but if you really needed it for recovery I'm not sure I'd want to rely on hf quality. I have 2 other hf winches I use on my trailer and crane truck just to move things around and they are ok... just not the best in the world.

 

I downsize the ratings of HF tools to about 1/4 their rated "whatever". By that logic a 12k lb HF winch is probably the same "real" capability as a 4k lb "quality" winch.

Even then, $299 is a great price on a 4k lb winch and it'll go great with the WARN bumper I'm going to get for my birthday next week.

 

well, like for both the 2k and 3k winches I have, they ship with something like 10 or 12 gauge wire on the controller. On the 2k winch on my flatbed, I have 1/0 wire run from the firewall to the rear and then I just ran the wire to the controller that came with the winch. Well there have been a few times when it stalls out lifting heavy stuff, that 10 gauge wire gets hot to the touch, and I throw some 2 gauge jumpers on it straight from the battery to the winch terminals, and it just starts eating up wire. Obviously the thin *** wire is limiting it from its full capacity, but unfortunately thats what they put on the controller.... just stupid stuff like that. Also the free spool lever broke off at its first opportunity, now you have to use vicegrips if you ever wanna use that. thankfully it never gets used on the crane application its on.

 

Thanks for the post ! Good deal......making me feel better about the purchase for sure!!.....alot of skeptics out there

 

btw 4wheeler magazine has a coupon in it for this winch for $329 or something, and the 20% coupon, so combined that would be under $300... they also have a 5k winch that is relatively compact for like half that, I might pick one up for the trailer...