New, Used, or Rebuilt Overdrive?

Ill be looking for an overdrive soon, and wanted to know what you guys think. Obviously the new ones are expensive. Are they good quality? Would a rebuilt original warn be better? Or worse? What about used? If I buy new, should it be from Advance Adaptors or Herm?

Thanks, Mike

 

I have bought a few used overdrives and all of them needed totally rebuilt anyways so my vote is to be a refurbished unit from Herm

 

Be very careful buying a used overdrive. The parts that are worn out generally are hidden and can't be seen. Advanced adapters is all the way down to $940 for a new unit. I find a lot of overdrives and almost always have Herm rebuild them before I sell them. It is still pretty easy to get $750 for a rebuilt Warn unit. Prices in your area may vary.

 

Somebody had a thread on here recently about poor quality shift forks on the new Saturn units.

 

I bought a rebuilt unit from Herm and had the bull gear separate from the planetary after a few months use. After tear down and looking it over it was obviously a poor rebuild. The gear had been incompletely and poorly welded. I only received a small percentage of what I paid for it when the unit was returned. Very bad experience for an expensive investment. I have since purchased a new unit from AA and have a couple of years of trouble free use in it. Go with new and save the possible heartache.

 

My vote would also be a rebuilt Warn. Removing and replacing the shifter fork on the AA's would be enough reason for me not to purchase one of those. While not a huge task, still a completely unnecessary task and a known, uncorrected design problem. One that you will likely get to fix more than once.

No experience with Herm's new ATV units. I have been using the Warns, both 26 and 29 tooth versions, for 40 some years without any problems and only a couple rebuilds when they were out for other work. Never have destroyed one. No rocket science involved to rebuild one.