Venom Wiches

[Steve Pennington]

I am wanting a winch for my Bruin.  Don't know how much I would use one but seems like it would be helpful in some circumstances.  I don't want to spend alot so I found these venom winches on ebay.  Does anyone own one and how satisfied are you with it?

[Bob_VT]

You have heard.... you get what you pay for.....  If you can not afford the "brand" name popular winches..... I would strongly suggest that you get a come a long ratchet and a tow strap.  They never need a battery and are more reliable than a venom.  I worked at a ATV Motorcycle dealership and it was common that people tried the venom from ebay...... many were let down when they needed it most.   I would go with a manual ratchet winch before I went with something that could let me down.  I have warn winches on my atv's and carry tow straps.  1 on our group of riders always has a come a long tucked away.

[Graybeard]

I know nothing of the Venom winches I bought the Warn 1500 for an extra $69 when I bought my 2005 Bruin 350 right after the new 2005 models hit the shops. So far it's been used a grand total of once when Matt decided to go riding in the bottom of my pond last year during the drought when the water was down so low. It worked fine to pull him out once he came back to the house and got his SUV and took it down to hook onto as an anchor to pull him out.

I do have some fence to put up now that warm weather is returning and am considering the use of it to stretch the wire taut so it should get a bit more use this year hopefully if my plan for it works.

[loknlod]

It has been a couple of weeks since you asked this question, but I'll throw in my .02 also.  From what I have read up on these winches, you shouldn't trust them as far as you can throw them.  There are a few good websites out there with a ton of information about these winches.  If you google (venom winch) you can find out for yourself, I personally do not own one and never will just because of my own research.  Good luck.  FWIW I just received my Warn XT25 but haven't installed it yet.  Time will tell if I made the right decision to pay a few extra $ for a Warn or if it was a mistake.

[DCRthe3rd]

When I bought my winch yamaha currently was not running the warn winch sale , but they often do/did , so anyways I bought a super winch ,have it for years and it was cheaper than the warn esp when the dealer gave me his price on it , it works my plow and I won't say i have used it to a great extent but I certainly have used it a bit and am happy with it.
2 friends bought some cheap winch from harbor freight , I think they paid somewhere around 49 bucks for them , one only has used it for his plow and the other guy broke his before he ever got to use it due to being not so smart.

[Steve Pennington]

Thanks for the advice guys, guess I'll go out of cheap skate mode and buy a Warn.  Don't want to find out I made a mistake just when I need to use the winch the most!

[DCRthe3rd]

Don't forget to either buy or make yourself a tree saver , that is not much more than a strap of strong webbing with an eye at each end that you wrap around the tree then attach the hook to the eyes, it "saves" the tree and more to the point means you don't have to hook the hook around the cable itself