Runva winches first came on my radar when we were looking at new winch options for the old mans 79 series. It was this epic post on winch warranty’s that made me pay it even more attention. I spoke in detail about my first experience (both good and bad), and it helped thousands and thousands of people decide if a Runva winch was right for them.

Since that review, Runva has come a long way. I’ve purchased a few more of their winches for a couple of other 4x4s, had a few of conversations with Michael the general manager of Runva Australia and based on all this, I wanted to expand on my initial review.

Runva’s range of winches.

Let’s start with their range, the standout aspect for me is their decision to think less about profit, more about value for us as offroaders – a seriously RARE thing in our world.

They offer among other things a ‘bare’ winch. It comes with only with motor spool and gearbox. No rope, no solenoid, or control box.

Given all these 12 volt winches pretty much work the same, significant components are often interchangeable. When your motor lets go, the manufacturers often make you buy a whole new unit (or price a replacement motor at the same amount as a new unit). Runva don’t do that, they allow but just the motor/spool, enabling you to re-use some of the working parts (rope/solenoid/controls). I have a particular approach to how to install a 4×4 winch, so this is valuable.

As for the lineup, some of the different options that actually find a little confusing

The 11XP and13XP are available in premium and standard. The premium versions are a little more expensive but offer a better warranty. Cool makes sense, but it’s the ‘EW’ models that just confuse me. Comparable capacities to the XP, seem to be cheaper, yet this range goes to a monster 20,000lbs and also has a premium version. In my discussions with Runva, it seems their XP range is the one for us, and I like to keep it simple, so I’ve just stuck with XP and XP premiums in my purchases.

So if it’s an XP then which one? 11, 13 or the premium. Let me simplify it further… there’s $150 between the 11xp and 13xp premium – a tank of fuel. Unless there’s a size problem, buy the more substantial premium. We originally purchased the 11xp standard, and it is stronger than we’ll ever need, fast enough, doesn’t overheat. Why you want the premium, and why I’ve purchased two of them, is because water is the curse of all functioning winches and the premium comes with better waterproofing. In my mind, it’s worth the tank of fuel.

Let’s talk about price — in the real world.

So, I’m saying spend $1K. This is, of course, a lot more, and a lot less than you can spend on a winch. As I’ve said many times, most of these winches function in the same way, so why pay $1K. My logic is when they are all the same, quality is the only real trade-off. And with a winch, quality does matter. It will live 99.9% of its life as a brick in the front of your 4×4. Soaking up all that dust, mud and water as you roam around this land of oz. But that 0.01% when you need to use it, you need it to work.

Going cheap

You could, of course, go the 4WD supercentre option, and pick something up for under $400. If that’s your plan, my advice would be to buy two and carry one unopened in the back of your rig as a spare. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of instances where these 4wd supercentre winches have lived a long and hard life, but, it’s simple math.

They don’t sell enough of these to get 3x production efficiency to sell the same thing at a lower price. So their alternative is to sacrifice on the quality of components and manufacturing. So, it would be a reasonable assumption to make that you will have a higher likelihood of failure with a cheap winch.

Going expensive

Then we can go the other way to WARN level winches where you double that $1K to $2K (or more). Warn had this free run of being pretty much the only decent winch you’d buy for a long time. With a WARN, you’ll get the oohhh big spender response from your mates, but I’m not sure you get 2X or 3X the winch. While brands like 4WD supercentre showed us how cheap it is actually to make a winch, and made WARN look pretty bad. Runva has taught us how much it costs to build a better quality winch, backed by a customer service focus, and a decent warranty. For me, it’s the perfect middle ground.

My personal experience with the 13XP Premium:

So a couple months out of warranty the TJM on the 105 series crapped out. An autopsy showed water got in through the terminals and fried the motor. I contacted TJM about a replacement motor, and they tried to sell me a new winch, bah. At around the same time, my good mate picked up a new 200 series Landcruiser and was decking it out (ironically with TJM bar work and suspension). Given how happy Dad was with his 11xp, I decided to keep the Runva run going and purchase two 13XP Premiums. One for the 105, the other for the 200.

When the delivery arrived, the unboxing was pretty similar to previous experiences. The leading difference of the premium over standard is water protection — and that’s hard to “see”. I did however very much like the black fairlead. Practically not necessary, but something refreshingly different. The second surprise at the time was no hook, but a ‘u’ shaped end that allowed you to connect a shackle. I really liked that sat flat on the fairlead and forced you to use a shackle to connect it to anchor points – stopping you from not using a tree protector and lazily just wrapping it back on itself around a tree.

Apparently – it’s called a ‘thimble’

They do the thimble on the 11xp not the 13 — I’m not sure why. It was a little weird, to begin with, but when I wrapped my head around why, it was actually ingenious. But I also do have a thing about shackles. Expect a nice big red hook in your xp13 order —  a decent one though.

They also seemed to have fixed the badge issue, and the Chinglish instructions which were good to see. (detailed in initial review).

What was in the box

My personal winch setup needs longer leads to get the control box out of the weather and a bit of other trickery, so I never use everything the kit contains. But like every other winch out there, it has everything you need for a basic setup. Runva’s winches still seem to be the most comprehensive.

The install is pretty much the same as my original review and re-tensioning the rope, and other tests were all as to be expected. More pull than I would ever need, fast enough. That said, speed and lbs numbers don’t interest me that much, reliability does.

So where are we now?

I like that I can share and update these reviews over time. We are two and a half years in on the 11xp — still going strong, one year in on the pair of 13xp premiums — still going strong, and I expect way more than that. They seem to be aging well and confident of a substantial lifespan. I’ll as always keep you informed if that changes.

Where to buy one?

There is a heap of options, but I have three.

  • Runva direct: You can buy the full lineup from Runva direct (or straight to the XP13 premium) and close to lowest prices. That’s where we ordered the premiums from. While Runva has one of the best warranties going around, I feel you’re going to be better served to order direct.
  • Spares box: I haven’t ordered a winch from them, but I have a bunch of other service parts (brake pads/ discs), etc. Ordering is easy and delivery is reliable and fast. They stock Runvas including the XP13 premium. And the naked units. Good if you need to order more than just a winch.
  • The 4WD shed on eBay: I bought a lot of small stuff from this crew in the past. Always delivered quickly and as described. They stock Runvas, and because it’s through eBay, you get eBay’s purchase protections as well.

I doubt you’ll have trouble from any of these. I’m sure at any given time you might be able to save a little more, but these are options I can speak personally too. Note: I do get a little kickback from eBay if you buy through them. Not much, but helps with the site.

Runva is my winch of choice at the moment. I’m about to order another for the Hilux we picked up late last year. A dependable winch that I’ve not been able to fault, all my dealings with them have been great, and they genuinely seem to be interested in serving us well as offroaders rather than extract as much cash as they can.

Initial review of the 11XP Runva Winch

Why the Runva and not the TJM?

At the end of our search for a new winch for the 79 series, we were down to two options. The Runva and the TJM I have in my 105 series. At the end of the day, we decided on the Runva really to experience what this new brand has to offer.

Can it live up to it’s good reputation

First impressions:

Before I even opened the box, there was a little WTF moment. The picture featured a winch with a steel cable. I had actually assumed I was getting the rope and didn’t double check. I thought for a moment I was going to have to spend more cash on a rope.

runvawinchbox

Then I noticed that on the box was a printed ‘synthetic rope’ label. With a little relief, I did think that if you are going to the trouble of making a unique box with the label ‘rope’ on it, why wouldn’t you put a picture of the winch with some actual rope on it. It’s not that much more effort.

Then I opened the box and started to pull out all the goodies. There were a good things and bad.

runvawinchunboxing

The good: The kit is comprehensive. Not only was there the winch, control box, and cables. It includes a fairlead, a bunch of control box mounting brackets, wireless controller. Basically all the options you would want.

The not so good: It had some similarities to when I was unboxing the tigerz11 roof rack. There were clear signs that whilst there was some unique branding, there were some links to import no-name winches all over the internet.

  • Sign # 1: The Chinglish in the instructions. Easy to miss, even easier to get right

runvachinglish

  • Sign # 2: The same wireless remote that you can buy on its own from a ton of suppliers on Alibaba or eBay.
  • Sign # 3: Some dodgy packaging and attention the final details.
  • Sign # 4: The Runva badge on the control box disintegrated.

runvabadge

… and I don’t even want to know what’s on this terminal cover.

cablecover

In all fairness:

None of these actually affect the performance of the winch, but it’s a reminder that you’ve taken the cheaper option. It does make you start to wonder what they may have sacrificed on the inside. TJM and Warn would never let that happen (even if they still are Chinese imports).

If the winch is everything it promises to be, I really hope they take the time to get that right, so they can be a product in their own right not just a meh brand off a random Chinese winch assembly line.

Time to install…

We had to adjust the gearbox, which was easy to do following the instructions on the Runva website, and also gave me a little peek inside… everything looked well greased and good to go.

runvagears

The front ARB bar on the 79 was recent so the bolts came out pretty easy and the front bar was out in a flash. Then came the old Supawinch and in went the Runva. The clutch lever was pretty close to the top of the bar. We’ll probably have to trim the bar to make sure it’s engaged fully. Otherwise, everything else lined up perfectly.

The 79 also needed an offset fairlead, so whilst I was impressed the Runva included a fairlead, it was the wrong one so a little pointless.

The install was easy. The Supawinch already had the cables run to an under bonnet solenoid, so we kept those in place and replaced the solenoid for the new one in the Runva.

runvasoleniod

We also took the time to run a winch power switch into the dash to make sure the winch couldn’t be started easily by someone who couldn’t access the cab. I always buy these switches of eBay. They are factory fit on the Landcruiser and work with your dash lights making them easier to find in the night.

winchswitch

They’re about double the other factory fit switches on eBay, but I think it’s worth it.

winchswitch79series

Time to test

With everything connected, it was time to give it a test. We first tried the manual controls and they worked perfectly. It was then time to try out the wireless controls. As I mentioned earlier, these controls are the cheap ones all over the web, and I’d never used them before.

As soon as I did, I said NO WAY and immediately ripped it out. It has a delay that you need to hold the button and wait a second then it starts, then you let go of the button and there is a delay before it stops.

A winch is a serious device and this delayed feedback on the control is dangerous. I think these things should be banned.

wirelessconroller

I’m not sure if the brand name versions are the same, but I’m mounting in cab controls to the 79 series and the 100 series now, instead of going for wireless controllers. If anyone knows of a wireless controller that doesn’t have that delay let me know.

With the controllers tested it was time to check everything was tight before we spooled out all the rope and wound it back in under load (something you should do with all new winches). I have a paddock I can do this with, but most people I know find a nice skip bin in an industrial estate on a weekend to do the same thing.

Thoughts on the Runva so far.

Whilst there a few loose edges with the Runva, I can’t forget that I paid less than half the amount I did for the TJM. And the TJM didn’t even come with the rope or a bunch of other things the Runva did. With a warranty they are willing to actually stand by, it also gives me hope that it will stand the test of time.

The winch will be used, so it’s going to be tested and of course, I’ll share the result here on 4X4 Fever. But fingers crossed that we have a new winch strapped to the front of the 79 series that will be there for some time.

If you have any questions on the install feel free to hit me up on Facebook or comment below.

… and if you have any personal experiences with the Runva feel free to contribute in the comments.

Ready to buy one?

Ready to buy one?

There those three options again…

  • Runva direct: You can buy the full lineup from Runva direct (or straight to the XP13 premium) and close to lowest prices. That’s where we ordered the premiums from. While Runva has one of the best warranties going around, I feel you’re going to be better served to order direct.
  • Spares box: I haven’t ordered a winch from them, but I have a bunch of other service parts (brake pads/ discs), etc. Ordering is easy and delivery is reliable and fast. They stock Runvas including the XP13 premium. And the naked units. Good if you need to order more than just a winch.
  • The 4WD shed on eBay: I bought a lot of small stuff from this crew in the past. Always delivered quickly and as described. They stock Runvas, and because it’s through eBay, you get eBay’s purchase protections as well.

Runva Winch

9

Price

10.0/10

Quality

8.5/10

Service

8.5/10

Pros

  • Price is awesome
  • Complete package
  • Warranty solid

Cons

  • Wirless controller a waste
  • Instructions could be better
  • Few packaging problems