12k Winch Comparison: Pull Strength, Pull Speed, Power Amp Draw

[SierraBronco]

I caved to the peer pressure. Ordered a groove fairlead from Yankum today. Never done a brummel connection. I may need to borrow your crotchet needle, lol.

I did it with a steel punch and black tape

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[GPPBronco]

When shopping I also liked the lighting on the Superwinch winch and controller. Thought it would be a handy feature. When I added the RC winch yesterday for someone else I noticed it had a load indicator so it cycled through green, yellow and red to give a visual cue. Not sure if just gimmicky or useful but I also thought it could be handy for quick reference.

Also you raise a good point about Ingress Protection (IP) ratings. Most I’ve seen live between IP66 to IP69. Here’s some data on how to decipher their meaning

https://www.enclosurecompany.com/ip-ratings-explained.php

Thanks for all the research. This will be an invaluable thread for anyone trying to pick a winch that meets their budget/use.

 

[rguest3]

I caved to the peer pressure. Ordered a groove fairlead from Yankum today. Never done a brummel connection. I may need to borrow your crotchet needle, lol.

Yankum will be happy to sell you a Synthetic Rope ready to go along with their fairlead. No hook or any metal included. Just use Soft Shackles instead. Safer too.

 

[SierraBronco]

Yankum will be happy to sell you a Synthetic Rope ready to go along with their fairlead. No hook or any metal included. Just use Soft Shackles instead. Safer too.

Or spend five minutes online and learn to tie a brummel lock with the synthetic line you already have.

 

[nolimits]

Yankum will be happy to sell you a Synthetic Rope ready to go along with their fairlead. No hook or any metal included. Just use Soft Shackles instead. Safer too.

Prior to me razzing @SierraBronco about needing to borrow his “crotchet needle” I called Yankum to see if they sold a fid on their site as I couldn’t find it.

They don’t by the way. But the rep sent me a text to one on Amazon. Also he confirmed the Factor 55 one works as well that I asked about when I heard they didn’t sell their own.

https://a.co/d/7e98pjB
https://www.factor55.com/p-fast-fid-00420-01

He wasn’t pushy to sell me a new line at all. In fact he mentioned I was welcome to send my rope to them and they would do it for me. I’d have to pay shipping to get it there but they would package the tied rope with my new fairlead and ship back together so I didn’t have to pay shipping 2x.

I was impressed with their response and willingness to help without making me spend more money.

Or spend five minutes online and learn to tie a brummel lock with the synthetic line you already have.

As tempted as I was to just send in my rope and let them do it, I thought getting a fid and learning was my best bet. Mainly because I figured knowing how to splice a broken line on the trail may save my bacon one day.

For those that haven’t seen or found them yet, below is a link to Yankum’s video on how to do the brummel lock along with a video to Factor 55’s video whose method is a little different but shows their fid in action.

 

[SierraBronco]

Prior to me razzing @SierraBronco about needing to borrow his “crotchet needle” I called Yankum to see if they sold a fid on their site as I couldn’t find it.

They don’t by the way. But the rep sent me a text to one on Amazon. Also he confirmed the Factor 55 one works as well that I asked about when I heard they didn’t sell their own.

https://a.co/d/7e98pjB
https://www.factor55.com/p-fast-fid-00420-01

He wasn’t pushy to sell me a new line at all. In fact he mentioned I was welcome to send my rope to them and they would do it for me. I’d have to pay shipping to get it there but they would package the tied rope with my new fairlead and ship back together so I didn’t have to pay shipping 2x.

I was impressed with their response and willingness to help without making me spend more money.




As tempted as I was to just send in my rope and let them do it, I thought getting a fid and learning was my best bet. Mainly because I figured knowing how to splice a broken line on the trail may save my bacon one day.

For those that haven’t seen or found them yet, below is a link to Yankum’s video on how to do the brummel lock along with a video to Factor 55’s video whose method is a little different but shows their fid in action.

It just makes the most sense to know how to do it yourself.

+1 on the customer service experience. They definitely do a good job.

 

[nolimits]

For those that haven’t seen or found them yet, below is a link to Yankum’s video on how to do the brummel lock along with a video to Factor 55’s video whose method is a little different but shows their fid in action.

It just makes the most sense to know how to do it yourself.

I was studying up on the brummel lock as that’s on my list of activities today.

I found another interesting video. Apparently this guy was at an overland event and Factor 55 was there and gave him some gear because his was crap. The F55 guy ends up doing a repair/replace in the field using their fast fid. It’s not a direct translation as they are using technique specific to their ultra hook product.

What caught my attention is around the 5:20 mark they show how to unbury the existing brummel lock used to secure the metal thimble. This helps save as much winch rope as possible. He then states the brummel lock doesn’t use as much rope as a traditional deep bury splice so you lose about 10-15% of max breaking strength (MBS).

Shortly after he mentions the fast fid has some measurements pre-printed and a long or deep bury for 3/8” rope is 20-27”. He mentioned the brummel lock he pulled apart was about 10” so for max strength you need about 3x that length.

In comparison, the Yankum video shows about 34x the rope diameter, or 34 x 0.375 (3/8”) = 12.75”. I'm not suggesting or implying this is bad or wrong data. The Yankum technique has additional steps to create the loop and I would speculate that weighs into their recommendation of 34x diameter. But I am curious if anyone has any deeper knowledge on the topic?

Also around 12:40 the F55 guy makes another interesting point about cutting some strands out of the end of the rope at various lengths. He explains a tapered transition is what we want as opposed to a blunt transition which is a break point.

The Yankum video shows this detail also; however, the F55 fast fid video, with owner Mike, didn’t show this. My guess is they either forget or maybe don’t have as much test data when that video was shot. The guy from the other F55 replacement video mentioned early on the fast fid was introduced about 5 years earlier and in the spill about the stranded lengths mentioned F55 had destructively tested various scenarios and what really mattered most was they weren’t left in a blunt end condition.

Unless someone has better data I plan to follow the Yankum instructions with a tweak to bury deeper per the F55 recommendations.

 

[SierraBronco]

I was studying up on the brummel lock as that’s on my list of activities today.

I found another interesting video. Apparently this guy was at an overland event and Factor 55 was there and gave him some gear because his was crap. The F55 guy ends up doing a repair/replace in the field using their fast fid. It’s not a direct translation as they are using technique specific to their ultra hook product.

What caught my attention is around the 5:20 mark they show how to unbury the existing brummel lock used to secure the metal thimble. This helps save as much winch rope as possible. He then states the brummel lock doesn’t use as much rope as a traditional deep bury splice so you lose about 10-15% of max breaking strength (MBS).

Shortly after he mentions the fast fid has some measurements pre-printed and a long or deep bury for 3/8” rope is 20-27”. He mentioned the brummel lock he pulled apart was about 10” so for max strength you need about 3x that length.

In comparison, the Yankum video shows about 34x the rope diameter, or 34 x 0.375 (3/8”) = 12.75”. I'm not suggesting or implying this is bad or wrong data. The Yankum technique has additional steps to create the loop and I would speculate that weighs into their recommendation of 34x diameter. But I am curious if anyone has any deeper knowledge on the topic?

Also around 12:40 the F55 guy makes another interesting point about cutting some strands out of the end of the rope at various lengths. He explains a tapered transition is what we want as opposed to a blunt transition which is a break point.

The Yankum video shows this detail also; however, the F55 fast fid video, with owner Mike, didn’t show this. My guess is they either forget or maybe don’t have as much test data when that video was shot. The guy from the other F55 replacement video mentioned early on the fast fid was introduced about 5 years earlier and in the spill about the stranded lengths mentioned F55 had destructively tested various scenarios and what really mattered most was they weren’t left in a blunt end condition.

Unless someone has better data I plan to follow the Yankum instructions with a tweak to bury deeper per the F55 recommendations.

I’ll have to watch the videos to see the differences. Our brummel knot went back through the rope a couple times, and we had a long tail(?) though definitely not 30 plus inches. And the taper just makes good sense to me. As you pull on the rope the outside will tighten around the inside, and that friction is where your strength comes from. To just have the rope abruptly stop and the outside neck down seems like a bad situation.

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

I’ll have to watch the videos to see the differences. Our brummel knot went back through the rope a couple times, and we had a long tail(?) though definitely not 30 plus inches. And the taper just makes good sense to me. As you pull on the rope the outside will tighten around the inside, and that friction is where your strength comes from. To just have the rope abruptly stop and the outside neck down seems like a bad situation.

While I've only ever read instructions and watched videos and not *actually* done a brummel splice (yet) a consistent item has been the recco for a taper.

 

[nolimits]

Finally got the bumper & winch installed along with Yankum fairlead. Will be tying a new knot probably later today.

 

[nolimits]

Anyone considering a 12k, in particular, the HF Badlands it seems like today is the day for a deal.

$600 - 40% ($240) = $360

https://www.harborfreight.com/12000-lb-winch-with-synthetic-rope-and-wireless-remote-56385.html

In-store only; today (12/19/24) only.

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