[TowerTalk] Harbor Freight Winch

[David Gilbert]

I can't speak for all Harbor Freight winches, but the manual worm gear 
winch (rated at 2,000 pounds) I bought for occasional duty to lift my 
mast/antennas (total weight about 300 pounds) out of the rotator 
literally chewed the toothed gear to pieces in a matter of minutes.  I 
had to sit there and liberally grease it with high quality lithium 
grease every revolution of the gear in order to just finish the job 
before the teeth totally disappeared.  The worm gear apparently was made 
from hardened steel but the toothed gear might as well have been 
copper.  I replaced it with a Thern model 465 (similar dimensions, rated 
at 750 pounds) and have had no problems since.

In my opinion, Harbor Freight tools should be considered disposable 
items.  I once bought a medium sized crowbar there that literally bent 
from my non-leveraged arm strength alone.

Friends don't let friends buy Harbor Freight tools.

73,
Dave   AB7E


On 12/19/2011 1:42 PM, Michael Goins wrote:
> Has anyone used the Harbor Freight winches? They have a 2000 lb electric
> that is priced nicely at the moment on sale.
>
>
> Mike, k5wmg