[TowerTalk] Harbor Freight Winch

[EZ Rhino]

Okay, I've learned a few things as I've spend a boatload of cash at this place over the years.

Some of their stuff is perfectly fine.  Hand tools, sockets (not the ratchets though, get those at Sears!), grinding discs, etc. all seem fine.  They are usually cheap enough to buy and test one time to see if add'l purchases are worth it.  As a general rule, most electric powered hand tools there are garbage at best.  I had a drill once that didn't make it through one hole!  (I took it back).  Also their hand held spot welders are good for about 50 welds then throw away (buy the extended warranty!)  I had a bench top drill press that was junked in a couple years, but also have a floor model that has been fantastic.  So as you can see it's hit and miss.

I find it hilarious that they had the guts to actually add customer reviews to their website!!  There aren't many items with a lot of 5 star reviews.

So with the winch....I have two friends here locally that bought the red 2000lb hoist for their towers.  One has been perfect.  The other friend has been through 3 or 4 of them before he found one that worked out of the box.  That one was actually bought at Northern Tool (looks identical, probably from the same factory).

My first tower winch was the $40 HF worm drive hand crank, and like Dave sez, it didn't even crank the tower all the way up once and it was shot.  Total and complete crap!  The second was from Mile Marker, a reputable brand, but the one I chose was still a cheapie made in China.  It last a year, and getting the tower down when it pooped out on me was interesting to say the least.

The third (you can see a trend here that I sometimes don't learn...) was a HF winch, 2000lb, but this time I put a pulley on the cable to double the pull power, or rather, half the effort of the winch.  This was a good idea.  It's been going strong ever since.  I use a deep cycle battery to power it (I already had the battery, otherwise I wouldn't have gone this route!) and a wall wart type trickle charger to keep it going.  It uses an RF remote control key fob type controller, which is handy as I can walk away from the tower and watch it go up and down.  The controller has been a bit intermittent as of late; I think the contacts on the relay are dirty.  I need to get in there and clean them.

Having said all this, I also have a Warn xd9000i on my Jeep and that is like the Timex watch that never stops.  Fabulous piece of equipment.  

Chris
KF7P