Baystate Jeepers

Three questions
1. Does the club require a winch
2. Is a harbor freight one good enough to start with
3. The harbor freight only comes with 80’ of cable is that usually long enough

1. no
2. Kind of. You kind of answered your own question asking it. Some have them they work ok slow as f.
3. 80 is plenty that's what extenders are for.
4. Most importantly upgrade the synthetic line when can. A lot safer and less weight also.

Hi Jon, mandatory equipment can be found in Article 5 of our By-Laws. From the BSJ Site click on About Us then click on By-Laws. Hope this helps.

It is not required but limits you on what trails you can go on if you don't have lockers.

I went a few years with BSJ without a winch and never had an issue. That meaning that so many others had winches and I had tow ropes so there was never a time I "HAD" to have one. I ended up buying one when I got a steel front bumper and I've used it both on the trails and at home pulling out a stump, tying off a tree I was cutting down so it went in the direction I wanted. I would stick with a "real" winch and not a harbor freight one. I would also stay away from wireless controls as they all seem to have significant delays. You don't have to get a US model Warn for big bucks, but stuff like Quadratec work well and have all parts available if you need to fix or rebuild it. Come on runs and look at what people are using and ask them about them. I have chosen a lot of what I've bought doing this. Oh, and I very much support what Mark said about going with synthetic line. Metal line is very scary. When synthetic line brakes, it can be dangerous, but instead of swinging 50 yards to do huge damage, it just drops to the ground.

honestly, the Harbor freight winches are pretty good. I did have an issue with "long pulls" and the motor's thermal cut-off required me to wait a bit to continue winching as it needed to cool for a few minutes to start again. Some people don't install the cut-off for that reason but given the cost and the convenience of the 39 dollar wireless remote, it's a nice thing to have in case you need it. If you want to follow people into crazy stuff you may want a better winch that works for longer harder pulls. I really like Superwinch and they have great customer support. They used to be local until they got bought out.

Fitting if you're thinking about winches...

The harbor freight badland 12k gets okay reviews, but the Superwinch 10K is synthetic and cheaper and faster and better, look around: https://rackupgo.com/products/superwinc ... nch-171020

I have 3 Superwinches on my rig (front, rear and suck down) and they have had zero issues in 10+ years… and I use the hell out of them. Not sure if Superwinch quality is still the same now but at least they used to make very reliable winches!

I've had mine on my rig for 4+ years and never had a hiccup...