Sup JK CROWD! I have for the longest time been debating about which one of these to get. Both 10k both synthetic. Who's got experience with either of these, actually seen them run or fail. I'd don't care if you know a guy, who knows a guy who has one. If you know something post up!

 

I've seen both fail (actually, I've seen two Zeons and a cti fail). Early failures with warn seem to be electrical defects, get fixed by warn and work from there on. Where things start to diverge is when more time passes. You see lots of 5-10 year old warns out there pulling just like they did day one.

I run an Engo and I am not biased. I don't expect it to last more than two years. In fact, the control box made it one before it corroded to crap and failed while I was on the trail. Total mess. While out of warranty, Engo sent a new box 2 day air at no cost. Do I expect they will when it fails this year? No, and I wouldn't ask them to.

The budget winches aren't garbage. In fact, they may be right there with Warn in some cases. Where the issue comes in is made over seas and the consistency in quality is the issue. Might be good parts, but if a process let's bad seals go by in 1 out of 10, it's luck of the draw. Just one example.

 

For smittybilt products, I think the built overseas argument's ship has sailed. Their products now are pretty darn good for not a tone of money. I would buy the smittybilt winch, if it dies, they will fix it...if it dies again, buy another and still have money left compared to the warn.

 

Have a Smittybilt X20 Comp myself and it's worked just fine. Just couldn't justify the cost of a Warn zeon at the time of purchase and I'm more than happy so far.

 

I purchased the warn zeon 10s last year and used it at least a 1/2 dozen times with some difficult pulls and absolutely loved it was very impressed hope it doesn't fail soon it's a lot of $$$$$ especially with our Canadian dollar..... I too had the Engo and same problem as earlier post above ..... less then two years and it crapped out with no such luck getting any help from the company after many emails ..... Oh well I know it's because I was in Canada and they didn't want to incur any financial charges to help a customer out...... As long as I'm still doing a lot of harder type of wheeling rocks etc I'll spend the money...... But once I get to the stage of mall crawler and wheeling easy trails a couple times a year just to get out id have no problem buying a value priced winch again to have just in case but I'd buy from a local company for better customer service.

 

2 Smittybilt X20 and 2 Zeons in the group. All work awesome with non issues and no downtime. There are also a few older XRCs in the group and they just keep pullin.

 

I have been impressed with first 2 pulls so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOl5s_2jYPg

 

If you have the budget and want a tough winch, get a Warn. If you want a good and more affordable one, go for a Smitty.

 

After a lot of debate, I just purchased the Smittybilt x20 10k synthetic. Until I am proved wrong, my thought is reasonable price/capabilities for something that is only going to be used every once in a while.

Purchased from Morris 4x4. Was able to use $50off code, get free shipping, and no sales tax. Wish I could have found a better deal, but no one seems to discount these winches.

 

Can't say enough good things about the Warn Zeon 10-S. I've got over 20 pulls on it in the nearly 3 years that I've had it. It performs great, and overheating is non-existent. Plus...it's just a downright, sexy looking winch! I'm not real intrigued about the new Platinum versions of them however. I like having a cord for the controller. Trying to keep up with a small, battery operated remote just seems like more of a headache. I also have to worry about yet another battery to keep charged.