Keep existing winch and swap line, or buy just new?

[discomeans]

My RRC came with a Smittybilt of unknown age. On the right hand side the label says "XRC3-9500" but looking at pics on their site it appears to be a XRC Gen2. It's currently got steel cable, and for weight saving as well as safety I'd prefer to change it to synthetic.

According to Amsteel's conversion guide, 5/16"x92' cable means getting 5/16"x100' synthetic line. From them, that's about $360 shipped. Plus I'd need to get a new fairlead which generally seems to be near $100.

I've only used winches in training, but I do generally travel solo so a winch is a higher priority for me. And I haven't used this winch yet (Florida is pretty flat so even trying to find a place to really test it isn't straightforward.) So I'm wondering if I should just ditch this winch and get a brand new one under warranty, already with synthetic, plus the proper fairlead. I can pick up a EVO 10-S for under $800 from Amazon right now, or a Smittybilt XRC Gen3 9.5k with synthetic for $660.

So for $200 more I could have a whole new winch... any reason not to go that route? Plus I could probably sell the existing winch on FB easily enough and at least break even on the deal

 

[Blue]

Check out Custom Splice for winch lines and accessories. Really good group of people.

That being said, I'd probably go for a new winch. They're all planetary gear winches....the warranty on the Warn Evo is better and it's rated at 10k lbs too. But for another $100 you could upgrade the Smitty with synthetic to a 12k.

 

[1of40]

Maybe buy new and sell what you have to someone that needs a cheaper option.

 

[Flyfish]

If you end up just converting your existing winch to syn line, it might be a good idea to make sure the new line comes with a heat sleeve. That will protect the first wrap of line from the heat of the drum.

 

[discomeans]

Writing this post helped me make the decision, like "rubber duck debugging" in tech.

I ordered a new XRC Gen3 from 4WP for about $630 yesterday after tax and coupon. I considered going Warn but a Warn EVO-10S is closer to $800 and the two year additional warranty wasn't worth the cost difference for me at this time. 5 years is still good.

 

[1of40]

Writing this post helped me make the decision, like "rubber duck debugging" in tech.

I ordered a new XRC Gen3 from 4WP for about $630 yesterday after tax and coupon. I considered going Warn but a Warn EVO-10S is closer to $800 and the two year additional warranty wasn't worth the cost difference for me at this time. 5 years is still good.

Good call. It would suck to be stuck and know it was due to trying to save a few hundred. Gotta pay to play sometimes.