Best Winch for Your 4WD

Best 4×4 Winches in Australia – Budget, Mid-Range and High-End

Update September 2025: We’re no longer recommending Ultra Winch, because of repeated reports of how poor their customer service is, and it only seems to be getting worse. I’m on the road at the moment with a tour, and will do a full revision when I get home.

We’ve written before about how winches can be some of the best, cheap insurance for anyone going on a remote 4WD trip.

Even if you’re not doing much technical off-roading or filming a video for Youtube where you bypass a perfectly good line and deliberately get stuck in a big mud puddle, it’s worth having a winch. A winch allows you more flexibility when travelling alone and a lot more flexibility when travelling in a group that all have winches.

If you just get stuck in some snotty clay that’s not treacherous, but would leave you with a very long walk, a winch is your best friend. You don’t need to go looking for trouble, it’s just that sometimes it pops up unexpectedly. Even if you tip your car or roll, what would have been a total showstopper can be rectified with a winch.

For most people, a winch will sit unused most of the time, but when it does become necessary, they’re worth their weight in gold. And they’re bloody heavy, so it’s saying something.

As we’ve discussed in our guide to using a winch, we don’t like winches that use steel cable. This comparison is going to look only at winches that use synthetic winch ropes.

Best Winches Under $500

1. Domin8r Xtreme

Update, May 2024: We recently had to tow a VW Amarok off the Canning Stock Route, due to a mechanical failure. The Amarok didn’t have recovery points and we had to rely upon the braking system of the Domin8r Xtreme winch that it had installed. We towed the Amarok over 28 sand dunes in the Little Sandy Desert and it worked a treat. .

Update, January 2025: When I got a 79 Series Landcruiser for running all my tours, it came with the stock bullbar that is technically winch compatible, but still requires a separate winch cradle or winch plate. We designed our own winch plate, which became the prototype for the winch plates that we now manufacture and sell for the 79 Series. Being in a rush to test that original prototype winch plate, I purchased another Domin8r Xtreme winch as I could get it quickly and cheaply. I wasn’t expecting to keep it as the winch for a “serious off-road company’s” lead tour vehicle, but it has just delivered time and time again. It has worked so well, that a year later, when I finally pulled the prototype plate off to powdercoat it (I thought it was going to need further modifications, so I was waiting), I decided to reinstall the Domin8r winch instead of going for something more expensive as originally intended.

The Domin8r Xtreme, despite having a stupidly spelled name, is our recommendation for the under $500 range. Even though this winch “retails” for $599, it comes on sale regularly as this is the 4WD Supacentre’s entire model, where they have an inflated retail price so that when they put it on special, they can claim a larger “you save this much” amount.

A few reasons why we think it’s the best in this range:

• 12,000lb capacity. Most budget winches achieve higher strengths through using smaller gearing in the gearbox. The trade-off here is that they become slower. This is a slow winch.
• Free-spool/clutch. The Domin8r Xtreme, as well as the X, both have free-spool ability so you don’t have to motor-out the winch rope which is excruciatingly slow. It is a manually activated free spool, so you do have to reach into the bulbar and twist a gear to do it. Even though there’s no remote free-spool activation like you see on more expensive winches, having this ability makes the winch so much more usable.

Here’s what we don’t like:

• Battery isolator is temperamental. The inline isolator is a twist type that doesn’t always behave properly and sometimes your winch will be connected when you want it isolated, or not connected when you go to use it. We recommend getting an isolator from a reputable 3^rd party brand and replacing it.
• It’s very slow, but nearly every winch you find under $1,000 will be quite slow.
• The wireless controllers stop working basically straight away. If you buy this winch, do it with the expectation that you’ll only ever be using the wired controller. My wired controller, which has seen a lot of mud and mistreatment has never skipped a beat.

2. Domin8r X

If you’re in a rush and want to buy a winch when the Domin8r Xtreme isn’t on sale, the Domin8r X is also a very good winch. It just has a slightly different gearbox design, cable mounting locations, no wireless controller (no loss there) and it doesn’t come with a Hawse Fairlead. You can get the Fairleads from Supacentre for about $30, so just factor that in.

In the Holland Track video we were running an Xtreme on the D22 Navara and an X on the Amarok. Both have performed equally.

Best 4×4 Winch Under $750

XTM 12,000lb Winch

I think this is one of the best value winches available in Australia, typically retailing at $699.

XTM’s 12,000lb/7.2hp winch is very similar to the Domin8r Xtreme in specifications and appearance, but is that level up in terms of quality and robustness.

While still a budget product, it seems that XTM focus less on gimmicks compared to the 4WD Supacentre, which is evident by the fact that it comes without a crappy wireless dongle but what it does come with seems to work better.

If you can’t afford the XTM, the Domin8r is still a good option, but if your budget can extend a bit further, this is a better winch.

What we like about the XTM winch:

• 12,000lb rated pulling power. Vehicle weight shouldn’t be a problem unless you’re in an actual truck.
• Free spool/clutch.

What we don’t like:

• No isolator. Make sure you buy one and add it close to the battery.
• No wireless control. This is not much of a big deal.

Best Winch Under $1,200

Is Runva the Best Winch Manufacturer?

If you’re familiar with most of the well-known 4WD Youtubers, you’re probably expecting to see Runva Winches on this list.

As mentioned in the XTM section above, I believe that the fact that All 4 Adventure use XTM, is an endorsement that means something. The fact that 4WD 24/7 use Runva, is in my opinion, far less valid an indicator of quality. They’re run by a marketing company and as far as I can tell, product endorsement is one of their biggest revenue sources.

You also see a lot of their sponsors change much faster than other channels, which gives me a sense that their recommendations change based on who has the best budget at the time. I’ve even seen their UHF recommendations change from video to video, depending on which presenter was in which car. For example, their “Off-Grid” series was using Uniden for product placement on Grahams Y62 Patrol at the same time that any content showing Shauno’s Dirty 30 or Sooty was pushing GME all while they were promoting Oricom for sale on their website. Do yourself a favour, use GME and avoid Oricom and Uniden.

Being that we don’t run on a sponsorship model the same way that a lot of these guys do, you’ll find that we recommend the brands that we like, not the brands that have the biggest sponsorship budget.

The Best Winch for 99% of Four Wheel Drivers: Ultra Winch PDX Mk 4

Beating out the Runva 11xp for title of best winch is the PDX Mk 4 from Ultra Winch.

When we say “best winch”, what we’re looking for is the best winch to suit most circumstances. We’re including 4WD touring, hard wheeling and showing off to your mates, but nothing specialised like winch truck racing.

Having played around with both the 11xp and the PDX, we prefer the PDX. They’re almost the same price and it’s just an added bonus that Runva is owned by the same multinational behind brands like Repco and Napa, while Ultra Winch is owned by Australians and that we get to support local. If it wasn’t the best winch though, we’d recommend the Runva regardless of ownership.

What we like about the Ultra Winch PDX Mk 4:

• It’s a sexy winch. There’s no denying that it’s a good looking winch.
• Battery isolator.
• True wireless control up to 50 metres. It doesn’t require an external dongle.
  • This also allows for the control box to be mounted in an out of the way location such as behind the bulbar.
• 50mm² wiring with protective sheathing. Allows enough current draw for optimal operation and enough mechanical protection.
• The Hawse Fairlead comes with multiple holes allowing for standard or offset.
• In-cab control. Operate it from a button in the dash instead of finding your remote.
• Simultaneous, multiple connectivity. You can use the wired controller, the in cab controller or the wireless controller.
• Free-spool.
• Adjustable clutch orientation. You can change the free-spool controller to be facing forwards, rear, down or up so that you have access no matter what model of car or bulbar you’re running.
• Lifetime warranty on mechanical, 7 years on electrical, 7 years on water ingress.

As you can see, there’s a lot to like about the PDX and so far there’s nothing that we’ve disliked.