Is badland recovery gear from Harbor Freight any good?

[OverlandEasternCT]

Im new to the offroad equipment and was planning on buying some ARB stuff, however browsing at my harbor freight i see they have a whole line of recovery gear from soft shackles to snatch straps. Anyone use them and are they ok on a budget? Im not going anywhere super remote any time soon but will be doing some beach driving and some local trails this summer and want to have some basic gear. And obviously who doesnt like to save money where they can? Thoughts? *EDIT* I decided against buying the harbor freight stuff. Bought all ARB. A little expensive but the peace of mind of having a known reputable brand vs kind of unknown especially as a newbie was worth the extra money.

 

[Kent R]

Hot topic, but I will keep my reply simple and short.
Good ideas to save money but not a good idea when talking recovery gear. I dont know anything about Harbor Freights equipment so I cant speak to their testing standards but if it was me I would be digging deep into the Working Load Limit (WLL) and Minimum Breaking Load (MBL)
The brand I have found to be reasonable in cost and has a very high testing standard is Gear America, it is what I cary on my rig and have for several years.

 

[BasketCaseTech]

I will say this about harbor freight winches... We have a 40ft trailer that we use for sea containers. We had a Smittybilt X2O 15k winch on it and had nothing but trouble with it. The control box leaked and rusted the solenoids solid, the motor wouldn't spin all the time and you had to tap the casing with a hammer lightly to get it to spin, then the non gearbox side of the winch broke one of the mounting pads clean off (6 months old). Smittybilt customer service is literally one guy in SoCal. He took our info and said he would work on getting a replacement part. 5 months and multiple calls later where the guy told us to "stop calling, the part will get there when it gets there" and the part finally arrived. It was for a 12k winch, not a 15k. Called again and had to send a picture to prove it was the wrong part. He finally decided he would get the part coming but it would be a while as it is coming from "overseas" and could be a while. We gave up and bought a Badlands Apex 12k winch and put the Smitty parts on the shelf. The Apex has been nothing but a workhorse. One time the driver got the nose of the can caught on the rear lip of the trailer and it stopped solid. Driver didn't notice, the winch kept pulling, and finally snapped the wire rope (it was 3/8 steel core and he was running it 2 part through a snatch block). Respooled the winch with fresh wire and it's still working fine to this day. 2 years and probably 150+ pulls on it. I would 100% buy another if we needed.

The correct Smittybilt part arrived 13 months after we bought the Apex.

 

[Mr_Mnml_Engnr]

I will say this about harbor freight winches... We have a 40ft trailer that we use for sea containers. We had a Smittybilt X2O 15k winch on it and had nothing but trouble with it. The control box leaked and rusted the solenoids solid, the motor wouldn't spin all the time and you had to tap the casing with a hammer lightly to get it to spin, then the non gearbox side of the winch broke one of the mounting pads clean off (6 months old). Smittybilt customer service is literally one guy in SoCal. He took our info and said he would work on getting a replacement part. 5 months and multiple calls later where the guy told us to "stop calling, the part will get there when it gets there" and the part finally arrived. It was for a 12k winch, not a 15k. Called again and had to send a picture to prove it was the wrong part. He finally decided he would get the part coming but it would be a while as it is coming from "overseas" and could be a while. We gave up and bought a Badlands Apex 12k winch and put the Smitty parts on the shelf. The Apex has been nothing but a workhorse. One time the driver got the nose of the can caught on the rear lip of the trailer and it stopped solid. Driver didn't notice, the winch kept pulling, and finally snapped the wire rope (it was 3/8 steel core and he was running it 2 part through a snatch block). Respooled the winch with fresh wire and it's still working fine to this day. 2 years and probably 150+ pulls on it. I would 100% buy another if we needed.

The correct Smittybilt part arrived 13 months after we bought the Apex.

That is a helluva story!

 

[genocache]

You do 150+ winch pulls in 2 years?!

On Youtube there are several off road recovery businesses posting recovery videos. For the last couple of years they have been using Badlands winches with no published failures with perhaps a dozen winches on 5-6 rigs. Though granted most recoveries are done with snatch ropes, Yankum ropes and soft shackles and they probably get them cheap for the advertising.
Forget wire rope, go with Freedom winch line.

 

[OverlandEasternCT]

I will say this about harbor freight winches... We have a 40ft trailer that we use for sea containers. We had a Smittybilt X2O 15k winch on it and had nothing but trouble with it. The control box leaked and rusted the solenoids solid, the motor wouldn't spin all the time and you had to tap the casing with a hammer lightly to get it to spin, then the non gearbox side of the winch broke one of the mounting pads clean off (6 months old). Smittybilt customer service is literally one guy in SoCal. He took our info and said he would work on getting a replacement part. 5 months and multiple calls later where the guy told us to "stop calling, the part will get there when it gets there" and the part finally arrived. It was for a 12k winch, not a 15k. Called again and had to send a picture to prove it was the wrong part. He finally decided he would get the part coming but it would be a while as it is coming from "overseas" and could be a while. We gave up and bought a Badlands Apex 12k winch and put the Smitty parts on the shelf. The Apex has been nothing but a workhorse. One time the driver got the nose of the can caught on the rear lip of the trailer and it stopped solid. Driver didn't notice, the winch kept pulling, and finally snapped the wire rope (it was 3/8 steel core and he was running it 2 part through a snatch block). Respooled the winch with fresh wire and it's still working fine to this day. 2 years and probably 150+ pulls on it. I would 100% buy another if we needed.

The correct Smittybilt part arrived 13 months after we bought the Apex.

Is smittybilt the same as badland?

 

[OverlandEasternCT]

Hot topic, but I will keep my reply simple and short.
Good ideas to save money but not a good idea when talking recovery gear. I dont know anything about Harbor Freights equipment so I cant speak to their testing standards but if it was me I would be digging deep into the Working Load Limit (WLL) and Minimum Breaking Load (MBL)
The brand I have found to be reasonable in cost and has a very high testing standard is Gear America, it is what I cary on my rig and have for several years.

Well thats what i was thinking too. I dont want to cheap out but if its still solid equipment, it wouldnt hurt to have. Ill check that brand out however

 

[WYWander]

Is smittybilt the same as badland?

No. Harbor Frieght sells the Badlands brand and Apex is their heavy duty winch series name. HF = Badlands = Apex. They have other series for lighter applications.

 

[Kent R]

Well thats what i was thinking too. I dont want to cheap out but if its still solid equipment, it wouldnt hurt to have. Ill check that brand out however

Your original post did not mention winch's. I have heard absolutely nothing bad about the Badlands winch from Harbor Freight, we have lots of members running them with no problem.
As with any gear, the issue is always testing and ratings

 

[OverlandEasternCT]

Well thats what i was thinking too. I dont want to cheap out but if its still solid equipment, it wouldnt hurt to have. Ill check that brand out however

Your original post did not mention winch's. I have heard absolutely nothing bad about the Badlands winch from Harbor Freight, we have lots of members running them with no problem.
As with any gear, the issue is always testing and ratings

Yeah im more or less just seeing about snatch straps, soft shackles, etc. basic recovery gear

 

[BasketCaseTech]

Sorry I was tired and was assuming you were talking about their winches as opposed to recovery gear. Their recovery accessories are just fine as well. The purple recovery straps are great, they will easily meet their WLL, but as with any rigging don't exceed the WLL. The screw shackles are good for their ratings, I have never stretched one I was using properly. Don't use their tow straps for recovery... they are designed with a stretch factor and will load up potential energy and convert it into kinetic energy when you least expect it. The thing to remember also is their rigging is usually a 3:1 safety factor for breaking strength unless otherwise marked. Most import rigging is the same as well, and you don't get into the 5:1 safety factor unless you get alloy rigging or buy Crosby/Gunnebo/Williams. Do not use their tie down chains for recovery. They are grade 43 or proof coil and are not designed for anything other than tying down a load (that is debatable as well as most states require grade 70 or better). Also remember when using soft recovery gear, it doesn't matter the brand, something as small as a piece of gravel on the ground or a burr in a piece of rigging can cause immediate failure. You will never find a donut snatch pulley or a soft shackle on anything I operate.

 

[North American Sojourner]

My winch is a amazon $295, 12.000 lb pull china built workhorse. As I've said before there are NOT 13 winch factories in china. If you take the plastic off the Badlands you will see my winch.
Same construction without the FanFair. LOL
I used mine almost every day in the Mark Twain National Forest working for the Forest Service and several self rescues and vehicle pulls. Never failed, never a problem. I've had Warn and it was okay but motor finally gave out. For $295 when this one craps the bed, I'll buy another.
Price went up.
Zim
Amazon.com: ZESUPER 12V 13000-lb Load Capacity Electric Truck Winch Kit Synthetic Rope, Waterproof Off Road Winch for Jeep,Truck,SUV with Wirless Remote and Corded Control(13000-Rope) : Automotive

For the record. I use purchase reviews religiously. Hundreds of people telling you a product is good is..................well..................good.

 

[Offroadnutz]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TKBB1XJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

For the record. I use purchase reviews religiously. Hundreds of people telling you a product is good is..................well..................good.

I would disagree with this regarding amazon. I have written numerous 1-2 star reviews on crappy parts, onLy to have the review censored and rejected. I have noticed this mostly when amazon is the seller verses a third party.You cant trust their reviews when they exclude the negative ones.

 

[North American Sojourner]

I would disagree with this regarding amazon. I have written numerous 1-2 star reviews on crappy parts, onLy to have the review censored and rejected. I have noticed this mostly when amazon is the seller verses a third party.You cant trust their reviews when they exclude the negative ones.

I've spent thousands at amazon and never gotten a crappy anything. Mostly because I read the reviews. LMAO
Zim

 

[smritte]

Several decades of AAT work winching trees, rocks, vehicles and whatever got in the way. About a dozen regular volunteers using winch's at diffrent times. The last five odd years, I started seeing the Chinese winch's being used along side the bigger brands. I've seen all of them fail, mostly due to overheating. The Warn's didn't overheat as bad as some of the others. In reality, we abused these things. If your going to abuse it, buy good or buy several. I can buy 3 HF winch's for the price of one Warn just to burn out the motor on the Warn.

The biggest failure across the board (beside smoking the motor) was, lack of use. Run the winch in and out once a year to keep the armature and brush's clean. Often, someone would join us just to have their winch not work. Sometimes tapping on the case fixed it, other times (at home) we would pull it apart and clean the brush's. It didn't matter what brand.

What does concern me today is what I read about the cheap synthetic winch cables breaking. It seems there's very low quality cable's out there.
I wouldn't have an issue running a HF winch but now I would second guess the cable quality.

 

[PapaDave]

Older thread, but I have the Apex 12k winch from HF and it’s been great. Comes with a head relocation unit and all the cables and connectors to do it, plus the main heavy duty battery switch. I’ve been running it on my Tundra up in North Idaho for 2 years with a number of recoveries. With the extended warranty I can go into any Harbor Frieght and swap it out if it breaks. That’s a nice benefit.

I just moved it into my new bumper

 

[North American Sojourner]

All their gear is okay for the money. I used their straps for weeks to haul tree trunks with no problems. I'm hard on shit but it pays off.
Zim






That is not me on the tractor. I'm much better looking. LMAO

 

[North American Sojourner]

Older thread, but I have the Apex 12k winch from HF and it’s been great. Comes with a head relocation unit and all the cables and connectors to do it, plus the main heavy duty battery switch. I’ve been running it on my Tundra up in North Idaho for 2 years with a number of recoveries. With the extended warranty I can go into any Harbor Frieght and swap it out if it breaks. That’s a nice benefit.

I just moved it into my new bumper
View attachment 290973View attachment 290974

This truck is just delicious. LOL
Zim

 

[PapaDave]

Older thread, but I have the Apex 12k winch from HF and it’s been great. Comes with a head relocation unit and all the cables and connectors to do it, plus the main heavy duty battery switch. I’ve been running it on my Tundra up in North Idaho for 2 years with a number of recoveries. With the extended warranty I can go into any Harbor Frieght and swap it out if it breaks. That’s a nice benefit.

I just moved it into my new bumper
View attachment 290973View attachment 290974

This truck is just delicious. LOL
Zim

Haha thanks! It’s currently getting a new free engine due to Toyota’s recall. It’s like a free 51,000 miles in my case! Thanks Toyota!

 

[Defiant Offroad]

I have the Badlands Apex 12k winch, and like everyone else, mine has worked great. I've also used their tow straps, soft shackles, and snatch block. They've all done the job without any issues.