I have had a lot of questions into the quality of a budget winch like the X-Bull winch, so I am doing a series tests with the X-Bull 13000LB winch to see how it stacks up against its dramatically more expensive counterparts.
you can use the tool bag as a winch dampener. I keep a 5' length of chain that I wrap around the winch line. people might freak out because you're not supposed to use chains for recovery,but keep in mind no energy is being applied to the chain,it's just wrapped around the winch line.. the chain can also be used to wrap around an axle or the frame of a vehicle with no recovery points.
No shackle! Feed the hook thru the handles. And add a few rocks or chunks of wood for weight if you want. Never add metal shackles unless absolutely necessary. One less thing to get slung thru the windshield, grill or into a person
have you had any problems with the bumper shifting? if you search youtube you can find videos of the ram trucks bumpers shifting when pulling with the tow hooks. and the westin mount seems to connect to the same points as the factory tow hooks. thanks, Mike.
Just so you know, you were not pulling 9000 pounds when you are rolling on the wheels. 9000 pound pull would be the entire truck off the ground.. Great video though, thank you.
Just so you know, when all your wheels are rolling freely, on level ground your resistance is only 25% of the total weight wich in your case is probably around 2000lbs. You can multiply the grade by vehichle weight in tons. In your case this only adds about 1000lbs to the pull. So your overall pull weight was somewhere in the ballpark of 3000lbs.
Good video! My only recommendation would be to remove the hook completely and use a shackle when connecting the winch line to the tree saver. I’ve had/seen more than a few hooks fail and have never seen a shackle break. It is a more positive connection when you are really using your winch.
I agree with you, however for testing I want to use the OEM part to test for durability. Normally I would have already replaced the hook. Thanks for watching and for your input, one of the main reasons I like doing YT videos is to interact with a like minded community.
Nice video. Do you keep the winch covered when not in use? I have read other company's suggest synthetic rope replacement every year? What's your opinion.
JACcreations I recommend covering if you can, I don’t, and visually inspecting the rope quarterly. If it looks like it needs replacing, then replace, otherwise keep using it. Additionally, just carry a back up with you and use the one you have as long as you can, then your covered and your saving money.
I got the Westin winch plate on amazon. You can go to the Westin website and see which one you need for your truck. They bolt on the factory tow hooks.
Just a question I bought one like two months ago it came with the two wireless remote but I am not sure if it comes another piece just for the remotes or kind a switch to insert it in the same place where you hook up the long wire remote or you don’t need it and it works just with remote?
Jose Lopez You can use the wire remote and plug it in or you can use either one of the wireless remotes and it will work, I keep the wire remote just as a back up in case the wireless fails. But technically they’ll all work independent of each other. I hope that answered your question.
The other videos were taken down because I got tired of armchair recovery specialists, here is a video of me using it about halfway through this the video I get stuck. It has held up just fine. It’s a budget winch though, so keep that in mind. I just got rid of it this year when I fitted my truck. 2019 Mid Atlantic Overland Festival; 10,000LBS + Steep, Slick Trail = Bad Idea? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Cf0ZzYsQdtk.html
Hey bud I see your doing overlanding videos now, how is the winch holding up over the past three years? Or have you upgraded since you uploaded this video? Thanks in advance, yall have a good one.
If the winch is truly rated at 13K pounds, then it should be able to lift 13K lbs vertically. I've always been suspect concerning winch ratings since they are quick to say that they are not to be used for vertical lifting. If your vehicle was truly 9000 lbs and at a 30 degree angle, then the lift would have to be able to pull 4500 lbs since the force needed is equal to the weight of the object times the sine of the angle. From looking at the photos though, I doubt it was 30 degrees. In practice though, it would be a bit more than 4500 lbs since there is a certain amount of rolling resistance of a vehicle even over a smooth hard surface. Air up your tires to the maximum and park your truck on a level smooth parking lot and you'll still be able to push it by hand even at 9000 lbs.
RebelViking912 not exactly, they are very heavy and would require quite a large amount of work to steal. You could spot weld the bolts where they attach, that would then require them to use a grinder, but at that point nothing would stop them.
Umm yea I'll always use a shackle in a tree saver. The hook will always fail before the shackle assuming you have a quality shackle. And the shackle will have a larger bearing surface to help resist damage to the strap. If you are worried about the shackle flying dont. Use the correct size Crosby, Campbell, or new holland shackle with a 5:1 safety rating that would make your hook much weaker then the shackle. Attach the hook with the mouth facing up so if the hook breaks the energy is directed downwards. You also should use a weighted blanket on the lines that are pulling towards the truck. So many offroad rigging companies use the safety rating as the full working load this is foolish. Shockloading the winch line, having abrasive surfaces, and bad sling angles all amplify tension on the components.
You are supposed to use the bag as a winch dampener. Run the line threw the handles or shoulder strap. For the price it's a pretty nice set. Good video tho and hope you keep making more.
Its holding up great, I have used it several times under heavy load and had zero issues. You can see it in action in my recent Mid Atlantic Overland Festival video where I got in a very muddy situation.
Why do people think the weight on a rolling vehicle is their weight of the vehicle? Like on level ground a person can push it. Maybe 100lbs. This tests only that the winch moves around. Lock the brakes via foot and then try it.
The vehicle was on an incline, it was probably a 15° incline that you can’t really tell on camera. But 500 people have made the same comment so welcome to the club.
@@johnmadsen37 if you consider probably 1% of the entire population even has a winch, and only one percent of that one percent probably has ever used it l, and of that one percent probably only 1% knows anything about winches and loads. So yeah, your average person wouldn’t know.
you say you have a 13k winch.. you wanna test 9k of its capacity ? ( you say your truck weighs about 9k in static/dead weight..) pull your truck vertical up a tree.. the you can say it's a decent winch.. till then, you only have "rolling resistance" maybe about 500 lbs of force being used..
Preston Gladd it’s all good. I’m curious though what you think about it. I’ve seen it on amazon and am wondering if it’s better than the Badlands 12000 and if it’s something worth buying. Great vide.
For the money you cant beat it. Mine is still going strong and have had no issues. If you have the money to spend on a warn then you have piece of mind, but honestly I don’t see any reason to not pull the trigger on this for the price and performance from what I have seen thus far.
