Educate me... Winches

Hello everyone, new to this forum & pretty new to wheeling. I'm on my 3rd jeep. My first was a 2001 4.0L 5 speed. The second was a 2007 2 door auto. I did quite a bit to the 07, front & rear bumpers, rock sliders, lift, 33's, winch, etc.., but shortly after doing all that we had a baby girl and the Jeep just had to go. The other day I went and picked up a new Billet Silver JKU Willeys. This is my daily driver and I am not a hardcore wheeler. I plan on using this Jeep to take the family to Colorado, Wyoming and few other places here and there. I want to be able to use it on some of the trails etc.. I am not going to rock crawl or relentlessly beat this thing. I will occasionally crawl around malls, parking lots, and toys-r-us. I like quality gear, but I don't like wasting my money. Here is my plan so far. 2.5 Teraflex lift, Spidertrax 1.5'' spacers, Nitto Terra Grappler G2 285/75-17. I am undecided on bumpers, so any advice there would be appreciated. I don't know a lot about winches. I just want something nice that won't break my pocket book. Odds are this thing will never be used, but I want it to work if it does. Any advice would be appreciated. Also, if there is a preferred vendor, I would like to know that too.

If you want something that you know WILL work when you need it, I would highly recommend a U.S. made WARN winch. Do NOT get one of their Chinese made VR series winches. For your needs, something like an M8000 is all you really need and it won't break the bank.

As far as preferred vendors go, Trail Jeeps is one that supports this forum and I would encourage you to give them a call or send them a PM for more info.

I've got an m8000. It has done what I needed it to. The best part is the confidence I have that it will work when I need it and the support of US jobs.

cramey74 said:

Hello everyone, new to this forum & pretty new to wheeling. I'm on my 3rd jeep. My first was a 2001 4.0L 5 speed. The second was a 2007 2 door auto. I did quite a bit to the 07, front & rear bumpers, rock sliders, lift, 33's, winch, etc.., but shortly after doing all that we had a baby girl and the Jeep just had to go. The other day I went and picked up a new Billet Silver JKU Willeys. This is my daily driver and I am not a hardcore wheeler. I plan on using this Jeep to take the family to Colorado, Wyoming and few other places here and there. I want to be able to use it on some of the trails etc.. I am not going to rock crawl or relentlessly beat this thing. I will occasionally crawl around malls, parking lots, and toys-r-us. I like quality gear, but I don't like wasting my money. Here is my plan so far. 2.5 Teraflex lift, Spidertrax 1.5'' spacers, Nitto Terra Grappler G2 285/75-17. I am undecided on bumpers, so any advice there would be appreciated. I don't know a lot about winches. I just want something nice that won't break my pocket book. Odds are this thing will never be used, but I want it to work if it does. Any advice would be appreciated. Also, if there is a preferred vendor, I would like to know that too.

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First and formost, Welcome to wayalife! :standing wave: Stop by our "give us a wave" section and itroduce yourself and your new jeep! congrats btw. It is definitely a rough decision on figuring which brands to go with and whatnot. I am in a similar situation as my girlfriend is 13 weeks pregnant. Im looking for something 1. affordable 2. reliable 3. something im only going to have to spend my money on once. It looks like your going around the same route i am as of setup. This is just my 2 cents you can take it or leave it right here my friend. Ive narrowed my setup down to this..

Lift- Evo Leveling kit or Rancho 2" Sport system

The evo leveling kit is a really nice setup and there are no better then the plush ride coils. I like this setup and lean towards it because of the affordability and the versatility to run 35s if desired(all you have to do is chop your flares). If you run this setup your looking at about 235$ if you run your stock shocks. If it were me i would probably look into RS9000XLs for their adjustability for an additional 450.

Ive just discovered the rancho 2' lift system and it is very similar to the evo leveling. The difference is you can get shocks with this kit affordably. Ive seen it around with rancho9000 shocks which are adjustable for about 500$.

Wheels/tires- you are doing the correct thing by using spacers. I have ATX slabs from my previous build that i will be using with 35 trail or mud grapplers (i havent decided yet) Just know if you chop your flares you can run a 35 inch tire or 33s if you dont chop your flares. If you change your wheel i recommend staying with 17' wheels because of the price difference per tire.

As eddie said i recommend staying with WARN winches solely based on their reliability. Only spend your money once my friend :thumb: As for bumpers i would recommend evo. They make a quality piece and they dont require you to trim your frame as other companies do ( to my knowledge). Goodluck in choosing your setup and i look forward to hopefully seeing a build thread from you!

On this topic, can someone explain to me the difference between a Warn zeon, and a Warn M8000 besides looks? Warn calls them both premium winches...abd theyre priced about the same...

Edit: of equal pull rating of course....

MedixJK said:

On this topic, can someone explain to me the difference between a Warn zeon, and a Warn M8000 besides looks? Warn calls them both premium winches...abd theyre priced about the same...

Edit: of equal pull rating of course....

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The only thing I can add which probably really isn't anything at all but the M8000 has been around for a while and the zeon line is newer I believe.

mudmobeeler said:

The only thing I can add which probably really isn't anything at all but the M8000 has been around for a while and the zeon line is newer I believe.

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Yea, and i saw that the gear ratio on the M series looked to be lower....that about all i could find. I keep thinking there has to be a bigger difference or they would stop making the M...

MedixJK said:

Yea, and i saw that the gear ratio on the M series looked to be lower....that about all i could find. I keep thinking there has to be a bigger difference or they would stop making the M...

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I think the zeon line winches have a pretty fast line speed.

I had an M8000 on a yj I use to own. It was a good winch the few times I used it. While the M8000 would probably be enough, if I were buying another/new winch I think I would look at the zeon 10s if I weren't getting another Powerplant. Specially if the winch set on top of the bumper instead of in it.

A buddy has a zeon 10s but we haven't used it yet. Lol. Damn, guess we need to actually go wheeling sometime soon.

mudmobeeler said:

I think the zeon line winches have a pretty fast line speed.

I had an M8000 on a yj I use to own. It was a good winch the few times I used it. While the M8000 would probably be enough, if I were buying another/new winch I think I would look at the zeon 10s if I weren't getting another Powerplant. Specially if the winch set on top of the bumper instead of in it.

A buddy has a zeon 10s but we haven't used it yet. Lol. Damn, guess we need to actually go wheeling sometime soon.

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Pretty much what i was thinking. I guess basically, i was trying to figure out why, if they cost the same, would anyone but the M?

If I had the money I would've gone with a Warn as stated above. Cost was a factor for me so I went with a Smittybilt X2O 10k with synthetic rope. It's been reliable for me so far but I've also only used it a handful of times. I have some buddies that have been using the XRC series for years without any problems which helped my decision. That being said, if or when my Smittybilt fails, I'll be getting a Warn. But for now it saved me a few hundred bucks.

Warn is the only option in my book. I've put mine to a lot of use pulling myself and others in all kinds of conditions and it's been more than worth the money

I'm also in the market to get a winch, I was wondering if anyone knows if it worth to get the zeon 10s platinum over the zeon 10s?

Edit : oh and do I need 10000lbs or is 8000lbs enough to for a jku

Brod said:

I'm also in the market to get a winch, I was wondering if anyone knows if it worth to get the zeon 10s platinum over the zeon 10s?

Edit : oh and do I need 10000lbs or is 8000lbs enough to for a jku

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I run a 9000 pound warn on my jku, I have had yet for it to not be enough.

Brod said:

I'm also in the market to get a winch, I was wondering if anyone knows if it worth to get the zeon 10s platinum over the zeon 10s?

Edit : oh and do I need 10000lbs or is 8000lbs enough to for a jku

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The platinum was kind of a turn off for me just because with something like a winch, I would rather have a hard wire with continuity. The last thing I want on a trail is a wireless component to fail not allowing me to do what I need it to. I didn't fully research the technology, but wireless for me just wasn't was I was looking for.

I really appreciate all the feedback. I am looking hard at the M8000 with synthetic line. GoWarn has it a decent deal. Is there no love for SuperWinch or Ramsey?

Thanks,

Chris R.

WJCO said:

The platinum was kind of a turn off for me just because with something like a winch, I would rather have a hard wire with continuity. The last thing I want on a trail is a wireless component to fail not allowing me to do what I need it to. I didn't fully research the technology, but wireless for me just wasn't was I was looking for.

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I came to the same conclusion myself. While it will probably work just fine, I couldn't pull the trigger on the platinum.