How to Install a Badland Winch – Easy to Follow Guide (2022)

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Today’s article is a quick and easy-to-follow how to install a Badland winch guide.

If you love off-road adventures, then you’ve found yourself in some difficult situations more than once. You might have had to get your car up an overly steep slope or get it unstuck from snow or mud. Whichever the case, one thing rings true – the process of getting yourself out of the situation was difficult! But if you were armed with the correct tools, you’d have an easier time getting through the challenge.

One of the tools that’d have made your off-roading experience even easier includes a winch. With a winch, you don’t need to rely on passersby to get you out of sticky situations. Instead, with some quick winch setups, you’ll be back on the road in no time.

There’s a high demand for quality winches in the off-roading community. This demand has led to a spike in supply and stiff competition among winch brands. As such, picking the best is an uphill task. Luckily for you, we live and breathe off-road adventures and have a firm grasp of the best winches based on size, capacity, and other features.

Our years of experience reveal you cannot go wrong with the Harbor Freight Badland winches. The company has positioned itself as one of the best and backs its claims by producing efficient and reliable winches.

Can You Rely on Badland Winches?

Badland is a winch brand by Harbor Freight Tools (HFT) and is the leading winch brand in the industry. These winches are popular for their fair price, ease of maintenance, and durability. Most Harbor Freight Tools are manufactured in California. However, the Badland winches are put together in China. But this doesn’t mean that they are substandard products.

Last update on 2025-09-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Benefits of Badland Winches

Below are some benefits of using Badland winches.
Badland manufactures a variety of winches. Some are light-duty, others are heavy-duty. This way, they cater to all types of clients with different needs. Given the variety of winches they offer, expect the prices to differ as well.

Easy to Set Up

In most cases, setting up a winch is hard work, and beginners don’t always figure it out. However, Badland winches are designed to be easy to install. The process is relatively quick.

Warranty Easy to Maintain

Like any machine, Badland winches need regular maintenance. Badland makes their winches easy to maintain. Moreover, they provide a two-year warranty with every winch. If you ever have performance problems or winch malfunctions within this period, Badland will replace or fix it for you fast.

Safety

Before we even get to the installation bit, it’s crucial to prioritize your safety and those around you when using a winch. Remember, winches are designed to be powerful enough to tow thousands of pounds. As such, you should be careful when handling them. Below are some safety tips to follow when handling Badland winches.

• Avoid wearing loose clothing – you should never have loose clothing when operating a winch. Winches have many moving parts, and any loose or hanging clothing could easily get caught in these parts resulting in serious injuries.
• Clear the area – ensure the area you are working on is orderly and clean. This involves ensuring no electrical wires, gas tanks, or fuel lines are in the way of your winch.
• Have gloves – this is especially important when using steel cables with your winch. Without gloves, you risk getting metal splinters. We recommend using gloves to protect your hand throughout the installation process and use.
• Always ensure you use the right winch – if you have a heavy-duty winch, you should always get a heavy-duty winch as well. Using a lightweight winch to tow a heavy truck might cause it to snap, causing a serious accident. You’d better get a winch with a higher weight limit and never need to use its full capacity than need it and not have it.

How to Install a Badland Winch

Now that you’ve picked the best Badland winch and taken the required safety steps, you should be ready for installation. Below is a quick how-to install a winch guide.

Badland Winch Mounting Plate Instructions

• The Badlands winch mount plate you have should have the capacity to support the capacity of your winch.
• Align your winch at 90 degrees to your vehicle’s centerline at the location you need. Mark the points where the winch base holes will go.
• Before you drill the holes, ensure components like wires, wire rope, and structural parts aren’t in the way. If these are damaged, the mounting frame may get weak.
• Drill holes the mounting holes at the marked points
• Install the winch along with bolts and ensure you tighten them well

Electrical Wiring

• Refer to your Badlands winch wiring diagram
• Use only supplied power cords
• Connect your positive wire (often red) to the positive point on your winch
• Connect your negative wire to the ground point on your winch
• Move these wires from the winch to the engine
• Keep your wires away from any hot spots or spaces they can get rubbed or pinched
• Connect the wire coming from the winch to the positive point on the battery (alternatively to the battery cables). Some Badland winches have in-line fuses
• Connect the negative wire from your winch to the negative point on the car’s battery

Note: make sure you read through your winch’s instruction manual. As such, you should always refer to it.

Also to note: Badland winch wiring kit, as well as Badland wired remote control are available at HFT.

We are currently working on a) Badland 2000 lb winch wiring diagram as well as b) Badland 12000 winch wiring diagram. https://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/61000-61999/61840.pdf

Here are some other useful resources:

Badland 3500 winch wiring diagram
Badland ZXR 3500 winch wiring diagram
Badland ZXR 5000 wiring diagram

And there you have it, a quick how-to install a Badland winch guide. If you need help using your Badland winch, we have a guide on that as well. And if you need help choosing the best Badland winch, we’ve got you covered.

FAQ

Do You Need a Circuit Breaker Switch?

You don’t require a circuit breaker, switch, or fuse. If needed, Badland will include it in its winch. However, most winches don’t draw a lot of currents. As such, we don’t hear about fires related to winches.

How Many Amps Does a Winch Draw?

Winches start pulling under 100 amps. When towing 2000 lbs, it may get to 150 amps and increase as the power demands increase.

Will My Winch Drain My Battery?

When your Badland winch isn’t in use, it’ll not drain your car’s battery. However, we should point out that it has the potential to drain your battery if it draws a lot more amps than your battery is capable of handling. If you intend to use your winch often, you must install a second battery.

What Size Battery Do I Need to Run My Winch?

For an electric winch, 12-volt batteries with a 55 amp rating will work for most Badland winches. This means your car battery is more than enough to power your winch.

Wiring Badlands 12000 Winch

More info coming soon about Wiring Badlands 12000 Winch

Last update on 2025-10-10 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API