The great LOFRANS TIGRES bait and switch

[GreenHeaven]

Sorry to have to report that the great LOFRANS Tigres that so many have had great experience with, is being made in two flavors without any distinguishing designation for the buyer.
The new version being sold for a great price by your favorite online stores does not have the same motor, shaft size or power as the tried and trusted version that established this brand.
The motor has a label with the same number on it (1500w) but it has a different part number, sells for half the price, anecdotally, burns out with in days and is probably made in China.

No discussion of LOFRANS products would be complete without a mention of the "tech support" person in Italy who annually wins the award for the most combative, hostile and inflammatory personality of the year.
Even vendors complain about this chump, and my experience certainly supports that.

In short, buyer beware. A LOFRANS TIGRES is not always a LOFRANS TIRGRES.

[John Marine]

I am a big fan of the Lofrans' Tigres windlass and have run maintenance on several boats of charter companies, who call it “the unbreakable” windlass.

What better proof than the fact that it has zero plastic parts on it?

As far as I know, there is indeed a change in shaft diameter made in 2006 by Lofrans', since the motors in the market with the previous (bigger) shaft size are motors over 2500W!

Despite this change, I have never seen a broken gear.

Regarding the motor change I assume Lofrans' had to find alternative suppliers due to supply chain problems during the COVID period to support their high availability and service.

There are 2 different EUROPEAN manufacturers of the same quality supplying the 1500W motors. I have serviced both versions and they look perfect to me and not at all Chinese.

Regarding the technical support, it is obvious that you have not contacted Lofrans' directly but a local service station, since Lofrans' has established a ticketing system where I register my warranties, and everything has been resolved in less than 2 days!

[GreenHeaven]

Originally Posted by John Marine

I am a big fan of the Lofrans' Tigres windlass and have run maintenance on several boats of charter companies, who call it “the unbreakable” windlass.

What better proof than the fact that it has zero plastic parts on it?

As far as I know, there is indeed a change in shaft diameter made in 2006 by Lofrans', since the motors in the market with the previous (bigger) shaft size are motors over 2500W!

Despite this change, I have never seen a broken gear.

Regarding the motor change I assume Lofrans' had to find alternative suppliers due to supply chain problems during the COVID period to support their high availability and service.

There are 2 different EUROPEAN manufacturers of the same quality supplying the 1500W motors. I have serviced both versions and they look perfect to me and not at all Chinese.

Regarding the technical support, it is obvious that you have not contacted Lofrans' directly but a local service station, since Lofrans' has established a ticketing system where I register my warranties, and everything has been resolved in less than 2 days!

Hmmm, I wondered about this post when I saw it. I believe I replied, whihc seems to have been deleted now

Your post count remains at 1. This one.
Im going to call foul here and suggest you are a vendor proxy.


To answer your assertions specifically, Lofrans has one "customer support" person who is confrontational at best. There are many other adjectives I could use for this guy, but I suspect you will complain to mods.
Your status a service business may get you a different response.
When an end user deals with them, I am informed they demand to know wire length and sizes, fuse sizes, switch ratings, battery info, andtake 3mo to "investigate" a problem that took me 5 mins to understand with a multimeter - dad short - the motor burned out.

As for shaft size, the 1500w (real) is bigger than the 1500w (claimed) motor I received from a well know german online vendor. The same winch model. The same rating sticker. Just different motor that bburnt out on first use lifting anchor 12ft.

Now why would a motor of the same size use a smaller shaft? Perhaps they switched to titanium instead of SS?
Or perhaps they reduced costs and didnt bother to tell anyone?

The lofrans tigres of old was a solid winch. imo they used that reputation to palm of a cheaper version that is utterly useless.