I am going to purchase a winch to use on my truck. Is a Warn winch worth the extra money or will a cheaper (Harbor Freight/Tractor Supply type) be just as good? Thanks.

My father and i used harbor freight winches for the last 10 years, we do not use them on a regular basis. I have mine set up to run off of the rear receiver hitch, and my father runs his off his rear receiver, car hauler trailer and his front truck receiver. mainly we use them maybe 4 times a year. If i was gonna be using it once a month i would get a warn but being that i do not use it very often i use my road shock winch(harbor freight before they got badlands winches) my dad has the 12000lb badlands winch. I would say it all depends on what and when you plan on using it for, if its just to have in case you get stuck but isn't a big probability of being stuck then get a badlands but if your in situations where you need the winch more often than not then get a warn. The badlands 12000lb winch has great reviews and is plenty strong, mine has not failed me at all neither has my dads and for the cheap price tag ($299.99 usually) the badlands definitely worth a look. Once you wire up your vehicle for the winch with the proper wiring (2ga or 0 ga wire) then you can easily go from a cheap winch (if your not happy with it) to a warn winch.

X2 with wiredneck1. I have a dodge 2500 diesel with front and rear receiver hitches hard wired for my winch. I use the same 12000 lb harbor freight winch. I've used it to skid logs and pull stumps. It will skid my truck with another chained to it for an anchor in a hard pull. I used the winch tray from harbor freight to mount my winch on.. It's a handful to slide in the hitch alone but doable.

I also have the harbor freight 12k. Two years now i have been using it to skid logs among other things. The price is right and if you ad a good snatch block it will really shine.

Depends on how often you'll be using it. If quite often I'd say spend the extra coin on Warn. That's all I run on my quads & what I used to run on my truck & Jeep when I had them winched.

My son has the HF 12000 lb winch on the front of his Blazer. For the money it has never let him down and actually had good reviews in one of the 4WD magazines. If I was going to use it on a regular basis though I would probably get a Warn. But for the occasional winch out of a stuck postion HF would be the most cost effective IMO. My son built his mount as a Mech Engineering project for school. Use cad cam and stressed tested it and all. He got an A on the project. He had cool videos included in his write up.

i have a badlands winch and never had a problem. from what ive read if its in bursts they are fine. if your constantly winching youll have problems. so if your just winching stuck vehicles its fine. if your winching large logs one after another you might have an issue. ive had to winch my skidsteer and truck out multiple times with no issues