I bought an open box model of this and the cable was cross wound and had a flat spot, but have since used it many times with loads at or beyond it's capacity with no problems. One of the first times it actually overheated/overloaded and the thermal switch shut it down. I'm glad it has this feature otherwise it may have been ruined. It hasn't happened since as I pay attention to the light that comes on near overload conditions. After this happened, I was careful to follow the recommended practice of running it under load for a few minutes and then letting it cool for 30 minutes. But this of course just isn't practical and I soon was using it with only maybe 5 or 10 minute breaks to unspool and reset pulley system. I've used it by pulling and then unspooling under power and pulling again repeatedly with no problems, though the loads weren't at full capacity. You can tell when it is really straining and getting very hot. But it has adequate time to cool while you reset the cable in most instances. I used this to skid very large, very long, and very heavy logs up a steep slope, often with knobs plowing through the ground along the way, either directly or with a 5:1 pulley system. It handled it all, including pulling over a very large uprooted stump. Downside is that the length of the cable is relatively short, which means that when working alone, it requires you to manually unspool it often. The hassle of this is that it needs to unspool under tension, so that you have to hold the winch and press the button with one hand while holding the cable under tension with the other, and you can only unspool maybe 3 ft of cable before having to stop and reposition your hand to pull out another length of cable. This is tedious and gets tiring. Ideally, you could anchor the hook on the end of the cable and unspool under tension as you walk the winch away from the anchor, but this isn't always possible. As I said, I've used this under extreme loads several times. It's developed a good flat spot near the end of the cable attached to the winch as it crosses over itself, and a few wires sticking out, but that's about the extent of the damage to the cable, which isn't too bad considering. The flat spot seems to hold adequately and it's location doesn't put it under strain except in the first foot or so of the pull. As others note, this does pull fairly slowly, especially when I used a pulley system, but the slower speed lends itself to safety as you can't get in to big a hurry and it allows you to monitor your load better. Also the hook on the end of the cable needs to be checked to be sure it's seated properly on the loop in the cable before applying load. I found that it can get crooked and pull in a way it's not designed for. I also caution to keep an eye on the cable as it enters the winch when you get near the end of a pull. Twice I was watching the load instead and accidentally pulled the cable too far into the winch and messed up the rubber boot over the wire clamp that creates the loop connection to the hook. (easy to patch with duct tape, but it risks messing up the wire and clamped area.) It's easy to do if you don't pay attention. It seems all but impossible to keep the wire spooling onto the drum in a very neat and tight manner, especially when its spooled all the way out and for the first couple feet of pull. After it cross wraps a couple times, you're able to get it to wind more neatly back and forth. It may be more difficult in my case because the winch came with the cable cross wrapped likely from previous use. Overall it's a very handy and indispensable tool for pulling heavy loads. I haven't used it for lifting, and I don't think it's intended for that purpose. I'm sure there are many other uses beyond just pulling heavy loads, such as tensioning fence, pulling vehicles onto trailers, etc. I am considering using it with a pulley system to help pull a tree down against the lean as well, though its slow speed might make that a bit difficult. But I can certainly put a big load on the tree to get it started in the right direction. The only limitation of this winch is finding available anchors. I'm limited to a couple stumps and a couple trees that are somewhat in line with where I need to haul the logs. I looked into some sort of anchors that you could position and drive into the ground, but think any that could withstand the large load would likely be too expensive. I think this would pull any but the largest auger type anchors out of normal ground. Go slow when first using this, and get to know it with smaller loads first.
