Is an Open Road 13,000 lb. Winch worth the purchase

[Gstrange]

I have been reviewing several videos on winches and I know that Warn is the go to name brand for function, but I have a limited budget and was wondering if the Open Road winch is worth the money? I will be installing a winch on my Gladiator. Any positive or negative thoughts appreciated.

 

[Ubiety]

Don't know anything about the Open Road brand but you should check out Harbor Freight's Badlands winch(es). The Badlands are far cheaper than the more expensive brands and have been getting great reviews.

 

[Gstrange]

Don't know anything about the Open Road brand but you should check out Harbor Freight's Badlands winch(es). The Badlands are far cheaper than the more expensive brands and have been getting great reviews.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll check them out as well.

 

[NCFireGuy]

I concur

Don't know anything about the Open Road brand but you should check out Harbor Freight's Badlands winch(es). The Badlands are far cheaper than the more expensive brands and have been getting great reviews.

I totally agree about the Badlands APEX., I have had and used it for over 2 years without a problem. The original badlands I had worked for 3 years until get got water in the planetary gears. Bang for the buck they are really good.

check out Casey LaDelle on why he likes the Badlands Apex

 

[Ubiety]

I concur


I totally agree about the Badlands APEX., I have had and used it for over 2 years without a problem. The original badlands I had worked for 3 years until get got water in the planetary gears. Bang for the buck they are really good.

check out Casey LaDelle on why he licks the Badlands Apex

Love Casey LaDelle!

 

[oldmopars]

The "Cheap" winches seem to be great for us weekend warrior types. I have an XBull I got from Amazon, several years latter and I still love it. Mine is a 13K, but the others seem to be just as good.
If I was full time, competition, rock crawling all the time I would buy a Warn or other high price name brand. But for us, that will use it a few times a year, the budget friendly ones are great value.

 

[Sparksalot]

Matt’s Off-road Recovery uses Badlands winches on all the vehicles. He’s using them for his daily bread and butter.

 

[NCFireGuy]

Matt’s Off-road Recovery uses Badlands winches on all the vehicles. He’s using them for his daily bread and butter.

Matt and Cassie put those things to work all the time.

 

[Dilldog]

The 8274 is the only winch that Warn actually makes themselves, the rest are assembled using Chinese parts, most from the same MFGs that supply the Bad Land winches. For that reason the 8274 is the only Warn I would buy. Granted they do spec their winches heavier and faster than Bad Land, but I have seen the Bad Land winches used HARD and frequently and hold up just fine. Since Warn stopped making stuff in the US I just don't believe they are worth the money...

 

[MOAK]

Before the influx of cheap winches there were only a handful of choices, Warn, Ramsey, Superwinch. I went with Superwinch As it was the best bang for the buck 10 years ago and it still performs flawlessly. It would give me pause to consider a budget winch that planetary gears would fail if gotten wet.

 

[Dilldog]

Before the influx of cheap winches there were only a handful of choices, Warn, Ramsey, Superwinch. I went with Superwinch As it was the best bang for the buck 10 years ago and it still performs flawlessly. It would give me pause to consider a budget winch that planetary gears would fail if gotten wet.

I hear ya, but regular cleaning and inspecting of you equipment would prevent that.
However I will say, servicablity is one of the reasons why the 8274 is hands down my favorite winch, it runs oil in the gear train that you can change and all the switches are off the shelf automotive mag switches. Hard parts are the only thing you can find at any auto parts store anywhere in North America. Also they can be worked insanely hard. I used one to pull two full sized Chevs out of a gully, both were squareboddies with big blocks and 1ton axles, probably 10K pounds, up a roughly 8% grade and on snow covered clay. It was insanity, the ammount of amps being pulled resulted in a cooked battery and alternator and burned cables, but the winch got us home.

 

[NCFireGuy]

It

Before the influx of cheap winches there were only a handful of choices, Warn, Ramsey, Superwinch. I went with Superwinch As it was the best bang for the buck 10 years ago and it still performs flawlessly. It would give me pause to consider a budget winch that planetary gears would fail if gotten wet.

came with the truck and was outfront. The O ring went south and I never noticed it. The fail was on me not the winch.

 

[AggieOE]

The 8274 is the only winch that Warn actually makes themselves, the rest are assembled using Chinese parts, most from the same MFGs that supply the Bad Land winches. For that reason the 8274 is the only Warn I would buy. Granted they do spec their winches heavier and faster than Bad Land, but I have seen the Bad Land winches used HARD and frequently and hold up just fine. Since Warn stopped making stuff in the US I just don't believe they are worth the money...

Honestly, it doesn't matter where things are made. Everything depends on the money and effort you put into quality. Although some internal parts are sourced abroad, they're made to the exact spec engineered by Warn. Additionally, Warn is ISO9001 certified which is a certification revolving around their design process and quality enforcement.

If we only bought items made in the US, then we probably wouldn't buy Land Cruisers, Defenders, and/or Ford F150s or anything made by ARB or Eezi-Awn.

I'm sure the Badlands winches work great. At the end of the day, even a plastic table works just as well as an oak one (not that I'm saying these winches are that far apart).
To the OP, I've never heard of Open Road but I'm sure they work well in their intended environments. I sincerely doubt you'll be let down by your purchase. Try it out and let us know your thoughts!

 

[MMc]

I am a super wench fan for 20 years. Westin purchased them a couple of years ago so ?????

 

[North American Sojourner]

If you take the plastic off the Badlands winch, it looks like this.
$329 or less on Amazone.
I've got a twenty that says there are not 14 winch factories in China. LMAO
I was bad stuck in West Virginia and it pulled my F250 out just fine.
Zim