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Harbor Freight 12,000 lb Winch is WORTH the hype

mpeugeot

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johndeerefarmer

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Most of them are, but not all, thankfully... There are even a bunch that won't keep a stable arc for shit... However, there are those rare few that work. You just don't want to be the person who has to learn the hard way. I will give you an example they aren't all shit, my Dual MIG 180 (#43026) which I purchased before 2000 for $299 and still works fine today (although I have upgraded a few things along the way).

35 amps 100% duty cycle *** 45 amps 100% duty cycle
60 amps 65% duty cycle *** 80 amps 48% duty cycle
100 amps 30% duty cycle *** 140 amps 18% duty cycle

Now, at 140 Amps, yes... it was under 20%, but I almost never used the 140 Amp setting because I wasn't welding 5/16" plate to 5/16" plate very frequently.... which it would do at 140 Amps. Mind you the Miller 175 (which was more than double the cost at the time) would only manage 25% duty cycle at 140 amps. So, yes, the Miller was "better", although it didn't have features the HF 180 did like a spot welding feature or reversible polarity. Also, the Miller 175 certainly wasn't $300 better, and the Miller 180 was $1200 at the time. Not everything Harbor Freight is junk - Just most of it! :D
I ran a Millermatic 185 for about 15 years then got the 211. I have had both shutdown and have to cool off but then again some stuff that I build isn't exactly hobby type stuff. I have built several trailers, a spray rig and a steel tornado shelter. I tend to tack them together and then start welding without stopping.

I looked at the Smittybilt Gen 3 and the manual makes no mention of duty cycle. I also see no mention of duty cycle for the Warns.

I did see some dealer post that he had four or five times of Smittybilts fail as compared to Warn.
 

mpeugeot

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I ran a Millermatic 185 for about 15 years then got the 211. I have had both shutdown and have to cool off but then again some stuff that I build isn't exactly hobby type stuff. I have built several trailers, a spray rig and a steel tornado shelter. I tend to tack them together and then start welding without stopping.

I looked at the Smittybilt Gen 3 and the manual makes no mention of duty cycle. I also see no mention of duty cycle for the Warns.

I did see some dealer post that he had four or five times of Smittybilts fail as compared to Warn.
The 211 is a nice machine... My friend has a ton of really big millers (all water-cooled TIG) runs the piss out them welding aluminum intercoolers. I think the smallest one he owns is a syncrowave 250. Those have a crazy duty cycle.

If the HF Apex 12k synthetic doesn't work out, well lesson learned, but having researched it, it doesn't seem like a bad choice. It has more capacity by a far margin than I need for a 4500# vehicle. So I am not anticipating trouble when the pull is nearly 3x my vehicle weight.
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