Carbon Winch 12K 12000LB Electric Winch with Synthetic Rope

Carbon 12k 12000lb electric winch review – Happy to support an Australian company and after checking out the website, reviews and videos, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the 12k winch. I have since been baffled with the apparent quality of the components and have made the following observations: -Cables: Ends have not been terminated properly. Copper strands have been crimped outside of the lug. The actual cable size is deceptive due to the double insulation and there are no markings nor cross sectional size written on the cable to gauge what current it is rated to.

-Wiring: Internal wiring (control box) has not been crimped properly. One wire simply fell out with a simple tug test.

-Protective boots: Cheap quality, thin silicone? I ended up buying proper boots.

-Solenoid: What is it rated to? What brand is it? The mounting points need to be stronger and the bracket has two small dots of plastic melted to hold it in place.

-Hook: Locking mechanism is poor and will fail. Low-quality bolt / spring / flimsy plate is what lets it down. The bolt will also snag on items as it is too long. There is also no marking to state the Working Load Limit of the hook itself.

-Wireless receiver: Not mounted inside the winch control box (floats around inside) so would not be too good for bouncing around off road or on corrugations. The actual receiver also rattles (components inside the box not secure?)

-Control box: Needs a better designed bracket to allow for multi position mounting. Mounting bolts are small and would be interesting to see how long they last when mounted elsewhere. The actual cover also could do with work as the four cover screws were a PITA to remove. They were all on different angles.

-Synthetic rope: Outer layers had rub marks from the packaging. Unknown if this will affect the rope in future.

-Fairlead plate: Needs to have a wider opening to match the drum. The opening restricts the laying of rope at each of the drum causing it to bunch up in the middle somewhat.

-Hand controller: Rubber handle has a one-inch split. I presume this was done when the switch and handle were being assembled?

The above was emailed to Carbon with a follow up email sent one week later. To date, a response has not been received.

To remedy some of the above, I spent over $250 on quality 2B&S cables, wiring and lugs / plugs. The control box wiring was fixed and mounted under bonnet with an Albright solenoid. Synthetic rope Rope has an extra length of protective sleeve added at both ends.

Paid $995 in November 2019 and was installed after extra items were purchased. Would be a great buy if the package had some strong quality assurance. The breather is also good to have to add another layer of protection against water ingress.