RUGCEL WINCH12000lb New Waterproof Electric Synthetic Rope Winch 12V with Hawse Fairlead,2 in 1 Infrared Remote Control,Wired Control,Black Rope,for Truck SUV

This 12,000 lbs wench is great! The installation was pretty much straight forward. Match bolt holes for my bumper and was very easy to install. The wiring harness is well marked but the little rubber boot connector are a bit of a fight to get seated correctly. But after some effort went together very well. As well the wiring harness come out of wench in the correct direction toward battery. The relay box is kind of large I made a bracket and worked great.One of the best features is the remote control that you can also wire to winch or remote control and when wired it charges the remotes batteries.It looks durable and was a good price. The wrench is pretty heavy and look very durable.

This is a really good winch. Quality parts, very strong and easy to install. My only complaint is the hook that comes with it is too small to attach to very many items commonly used in winch applications. I snapped my rope this week and will be replacing it with a stronger rope and larger hook.

I just installed this and it seemed very straight forward, for me. I have installed a few of these over the years so it was fairly simple to install. The package came intact without any damage to the box or the internal items. All items were there and has a great booklet with decent instructions. I like the design and how it fit into the rig. I will be testing this out in the next few weeks and will come back and update my review.The only question/concern I have is that the wired/wireless controller is one in the same and seems to work great. They sent a battery that I assume is for the controller and the controller is already working wireless....the only question that I have yet to answer is "How do I charge the battery for the controller?". There is nothing in the documentation that speaks to it, if the extra battery is for the controller (logic says yes), how long the battery will last. The concern here is how does one keep the spare battery with you and not lose it and how long will the wireless last? Can you buy spare batteries for the controller? I will try and add some pics shortly.

I researched the 12,000 lb winches for completeness of configuration and comments from previous buyers with installation reviews.The winch seems sturdy and well built. The wiring color coated junction covers were a nice touch but i have a suggestion to the manufacturer. I could tell all the parts were there by virtue of taking inventory vs what was shown in the included operation manual but (like every other commenter) could have used some instruction pictures and a company video. The color coded wiring notations was very helpful for a mechanically minded person. If you don’t have a history with tinkering with things, making your own modifications for the lack of comprehensive instructions and no diagrams, plan on taking two hours to install the winch package. The winch could have (should have) been pre-assembled with the wires bolted in-place and the colored junction covers pulled over the wiring junctions. That would have saved an hour just making sure everything was laid out for assembly. It wouldn’t have taken the manufacturer any time to have all of that done.The winch went in easy enough but no way my wife could ever figured out how to assemble the items. Not that she is inept, but that the pieces take time to assemble so they are on the number with no loose or extra length of wires that might slap the grill or make noise on the highway.On another note, the winch hooks does not fit over my ‘U’ hooks on my bumper. Guess i need to buy a couple of 12,000 lb ‘S-hooks’ or a small tow strap with hooks to use a pulley on a tree and another short one to connect the winch hook to the bumper ‘U’s.None of this is a real deterrent but they would have easily gotten 5 stars with a few changes. Or let someone assemble the system and use it in a real situation to eliminate the missing set up add-on items. Now i have to think about how to rig the winch cable out in the woods and hope i bought all the small extras to be able to get my jeep pulled out of a ‘stuck’ saturation in the woods.

Winch mounted on truck pulled my 65 horsepower four wheel drive tractor stuck out of the mud with mud so wet and deep that even pushing with backhoe did not move tractor!

Not sure why the winch I got has all these blue logo stickers on it. I thought they were just a protective film but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s really kind of irritating they just throw colors on it that aren’t in any of the photos. Haven’t used the winch yet so can’t comment on functionality - a bit irritated at the moment.

Works as described

The big improvement is the different,improved operation of the fairlead lever to engage/disengage the winch drum.The downsides are : 1. No remote control supplied - just a (good)tethered one. Even the cheaper winches come with a remote so this is odd. 2. Despite what the many photos show, the Hawes does NOT bolt to the winch.It is NOT designed to be fitted that way. 3. The winch is slightly bulkier than most 13.500 lb. winches so it is really too large for most standard 13,500lb winch cradles. So get the Rugcel winch plate and weld on your own handles. Yes, you need handles if you are using a receiver ! 4. The cables for the control box are too short because of the way the lugs must be oriented to fit around adjacent protrusions without straining the terminals. 90 degree lugs may help. So why 1 Star ? After all my careful installation and problem solving the winch just clicks rapidly when I operate it.