Top Winch Makers: Who Is the Best?

Winches are essential for off-roading. And with the massive popularity of off-roading adventures the market for winches also grew massively. So, it is no surprise if you are looking for a justification on who the top winch makers are.

Luckily, there are some common names or companies who have continued producing successful and reliable products, which earned them the total trust of the people. It is always safe to trust a company that has been around for ages, but having a clearer understanding of them and their products is safer.

So, we offer you some of the best manufacturers and companies in the business and why they deserve the spot they earned.

Top 6 Winch Makers

Below we discussed the history of the companies briefly and their line of products they have to offer, including ones that gave them success. The companies we included are:

Smittybilt Winches

Smittybilt is one of the leading suppliers for winches around the globe. It offers over 2000 different winches and products for the SUV and international truck markets.

The “company” started off with Basil Smith’s small garage shop for machines named Rock-ett Products. He was an original four-wheel-drive enthusiast and showed interest in developing four-wheel-drive equipment for Jeeps or small SUVs and trucks.

Later his son Tom started working there and renamed the workshop over his father’s nickname Smitty that was "Smittybilt." By his father's influence growing up, he found innovative and new product ideas catered towards the off-road aftermarket industry.

Still to this day, the company successfully manages to offer innovative and trendy products relating to off-roading. They have delivered some of the best winches for off-roading the industry has to offer.

Featured Product: Smittybilt 98510 X20 COMP

Superwinch Winches

Superwinch is widely reputable for being the largest designer, marketer, and manufacturer for winch systems, accessories, and more in the world. They offer winches for off-roading, boating, and recovery winches.

Their experience in manufacturing and the industry is almost 50 years long. And with that, the number of different winches they have, their load capacity ranges from 1000 to 30,000 pounds.

What started off as a small project for the Ford Motor Company soon became a passion project for their founder Frank Tolsdorf. They first dedicated their time to creating a winch line for the boating market. But with that, they became the pioneer of the popular synthetic rope winches.

Now, the company has over 4 million products in the production facilities around four continents! They are still keeping their spot on the top and truly earned their reputable title.

Featured Product: Superwinch 1511200 Tiger Shark 11.5

WARN Winches

This award-winning company never fails to deliver an innovative design and the most premium quality products in the market. They have winches for all types of vehicles, including jeeps, cars, trucks, ATVs, and more.

Their founder, Arthur Warn, started the company in 1948 with the idea of turning all the thousands of surplus World War II Jeeps into vehicles useful for on-roading. This led them to manufacture their first winch in 1959, which eventually led to their massive success.

The company later expanded on adding more different winches in the 1980s. Now, their line of winches and winch-related products include electric winches, hydraulic winches, winch mounting systems, winch accessories, four-wheel-drive hubs, hydraulic hoists, skid plates, electric hoists, and much more.

Plus, in the year 2014, with their launch of the ZEON Platinum winch line, which is the most technically advanced winch you will ever find, they have changed the game for winches. But other than that, all their other lines offer only the highest quality and durability.

Featured Product: WARN 26502 M8000

Mile Marker Winches

With a certification from the ISO 9001:2015 and approved by TACOM, Mile Marker provides military-grade products. And if one thing people can trust the quality on, it is if they are used by the military.

Not only do their winches go through rigorous military testing, but also they are the only company producing winches that have the U.S Military’s HMMWV (Humvee)’s approval! This makes them excellent for off-roading.

Throughout their 30 years of experience in the business, they have created a lot of high-quality hydraulic winches, which they are most popular for. But they have a line of electronic winches, utility, industrial, and ATV winches as well.

Besides that, they also offer rigging ropes, mounting systems, recovery kits, shackles, tow, and other necessary winching accessories.

Featured Product: Mile Marker 70-52000 H Series

X-Bull Winches 

Based in Australia, it is a relevantly new company with only just about eight years of experience. However, their high-quality products and affordable price earned them a huge reputation in the industry so early on.

Not much can be said given their short history and that they are still a growing company. But one thing we can certainly say is that their products are powerful, tough with providing a reliable performance that you need while going off-road.

Their line of winches is limited, but all of them are of great quality, which makes it easy to choose from their products. They have both electric and traditional winches, and most of them offer a synthetic rope.

Featured Product: X-BULL 12V Synthetic Rope Winch

Ramsey Winches

Ramsey Winches, with their highly trained engineers, premium-grade materials, advanced manufacturing process, etc., have become the leading manufacturer of planetary gear winches, planetary hoists, worm gear, hydraulic and electric winches, and more.

Their products show dependability, quality, and endurance, all of the very important features you can wish for in a winch. They have a line of off-road winches, winch parts, mounting kits, ATV winches, ATV winch parts, ATV mounting kits, and other accessory kits. Plus, they even sell industrial parts.

The company was formed in 1944 by two brothers Rayburn and Claude Ramsey. Their business took off in 1945 when Claude Ramsey designed a new winch specifically for pickup cars and passenger cars. It was successful to the point that it turned into the mainstay of the recovery and towing industry!

This led to more and more demands, and so they settled their company name to Ramsey Brothers Winch Company. They are still thriving as one of the industry's leading companies and continue to live up to their standards of delivering a premium product.

Featured Product: Ramsey 111036 Winch

Other Honorable Mentions

The market for winches is larger than ever, and so is the number of companies. It is impossible to mention all of the great and newly aspiring companies showing up all the time. But we have tried our best to gather some other winch maker companies that deserve a spotlight.

Final Words

Now, you not only know who the top winch makers are but also their history and product line. We hope this helped you have a clear understanding of the company you decided to purchase from and give your trust.