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Badland 12K Winch Install

6K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  johnboy68 
#1 ·
Got a Harbor Freight 12K Badlands winch for Christmas from the wife and kids.

Read a lot of reviews and it seems most folks are happy with it. I know we could go on and on about Chinese crap, but let's not. There's plenty of it to read elsewhere...

One of the main complaints about the wench is the placement of the control box. It is low and the cable can get wound in a way that could knock it off of it's mount. I wanted to mount mine with the control box under the hood and the remote connection close to the wench.

I got the Badlands universal channel winch mount and a Badlands wireless remote from HF with a 20% discount. I went to Lowes and got all new bolts and some electrical cable, connectors and some wire to match the color code of the remote. If you are going to mount the control box under the hood you have to rewire a few things, but it's easy and relatively straight forward. Just open up the box and you can figure it out.

I'm pretty happy with the way it worked out. There are a few things I may change after I use it a little.

Here are some photo's that give an idea of how it worked out:



Here you can see where I put the remote connection:






I'll let ya know what I think once I use it a few times. I do like the wireless remote. The only thing that I've noticed with it is it has a few seconds of lag between when you let off the button and when the winch actually stops.
 
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#4 ·
Louie4 said:
What are those springs for on top? Looks like a clean install. Let us know how it works out after some use.
They put pressure on the bar that goes across the cable. It helps the cable to wind up in a more uniform fashion. I was confused what they were for until I used it and saw it work.
 
#9 ·
Yes. I wanted to use four bolts to bolt the plate down but the way the fairlead that came with the winch mounts (it doesn't sit flush with the bottom of the plate), I had to bring it forward more.

I will probably get another one that does sit flush with the bottom and slide it back so I can use the four mount points on the frame. But yes, no drilling is needed for it to bolt up.
 
#11 ·
I run the same winch and have for that last year with no issue, I went ahead and traded it in for a new one since my 1 yr warranty was almost up and my new 12k also came with those springs so I would have to say the new models being sold must come with them now!

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