It was just one week before I would leave for Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the ONLY available unit of COMEUP’s 2nd Generation Seal 9.5rsi winch. From my view-point as an avid four-wheel adventurist and a retailer of off-road accessories and supplies, a winch has to be dependable and built to last. It does one thing; to get me out of trouble when needed. Other than that there is not much to get excited over a winch. However, this time was different. Upon opening the generic heavy duty shipping box I immediately noticed the update dexterior finishes of the winch. It was covered in a high quality matte/satin black powder coated finish which at this point is begging me to take it out of the box. It was placed on the workbench, and if by some unexplained attraction, work was stopped for everyone in the office and we all just stood there admiring its rugged exterior design.

It was time to snap back to reality and check out the rest of the box’s contents after a few pleasing minutes of starring as it was a well-designed work-of-art. The Gen2 SEAL 9.5rsi comes with 3/8”x100’ synthetic winch rope pre-loaded onto the drum, standard size hawse fairlead, a wireless remote with lanyard, wired remote and of course a hook painted with signature COMEUP red. Addition to the standard contents from the packaging, COMEUP USA has also provides a pair of recovery gloves, decal stickers, and a logo safari shirt which was a nice touch.

Inside of the COMEUP SEAL 9.5 winch comes equipped with 159.1:1 gear ratio on 3-stage planetary gear train, rotating ring gear clutch when free spooling, a center drum which is the most common configuration on recovery winches for off road & recreational vehicle bumpers we see these days. It has line pull rated at 9.5000 lbs. that is plenty for vehicles weight in less than 6,333 lbs. In addition, the SEAL 9.5rsi comes equipped with few other unexpected beauties built within such as temperature sensor, wireless remote receiver, overheating warning alarm as well as a battery meter in order for you to monitor your battery level on the outside, and not to mention it is well sealed for water resistance on the motor & gear box housing joints.

On the outside, the COMEUP SEAL 9.5 comes with Matt Black powered coating on its aluminum covers, effortless & adjustable position T-handle to positively engages the clutch, a winch on/off cutout switch and LED indicators for wireless signal, temperature warning icon, vehicle battery meter, and animated line in/out indicatorright under its nicely back-lit COMEUP WINCH logo.

comeupusa.com/2016/10/seal-gen2-9-5rsi-reveiw-by-alpha-expedition/ 3/6
On the outside, the COMEUP SEAL 9.5 comes with Matt Black powered coating on itsaluminum covers, effortless & adjustable position T-handle to positively engages theclutch, a winch on/off cutout switch and LED indicators for wireless signal,temperature warning icon, vehicle battery meter, and animated line in/out indicatorright under its nicely back-lit COMEUP WINCH logo.

The installation of the winch was very straight forward on to my Jeep JK Wrangler Unlimited with ARB Deluxe Bull Bar Winch Bumper (like all other winches) however I did find the bolts supplied was just a bit short and doesn’t quite reach in the square winch mounting nut, which was a easy fix after stopped at local hardware store for 4 longer grade 5 bolts. *The supplied bolts were the same length as ones supplied by Warn on my 9.5Ti so I am suspecting the footing on the SEAL9.5rsi might be 1/8” thicker than the Warn 9.5Ti ( need to measure still ).

Operating the SEAl 9.5rsi is a bit different than conventional winches I have experienced prior since there is a cutout switch on the side of the winch, which must be pressed to turn “ON”. Once the button is pushed the SEAL 9.5rsi will energize the COMEUP Winch logo, wireless receiver and battery meter will be lit along with audio alarm (beeping sound) to remind you to turn on your wireless remote in order to sync. If wireless remote syncing operation is ignored, then the alarm will be continuing for exact one minute before becomes silence. The wireless remote is responsive with very minimal delay. There is line in/out indicator located right underneath the logo.. Free spooling the winch line out was smooth with minimal effort. The winch operated strong and smoothly when testing pulling another Jeep JK Wrangler on the trail, the motor noise level is common with other popular winches on the market from Warn, Superwinch, Mile Maker and etc.

Fortunately we did not have to perform any serious recovery during 6 days of trail riding, although somewhat unfortunate we did not get a chance to fully test the 9.5rsi under more extreme condition. I do have full confidence it will perform well; and this is one winch that is going to be bolted on my bumper for quite some time.

I’ve used many well known quality winches in the last 15+ years, from Warn M8000 & 9.5Ti, Superwinch EP9 & EPi9 to cheaply made low quality re-brand winches and I can honestly suggest anyone who is serious about safety, performance and dependability NOT to skimp on price. A $300 dollar winch does NOT have the same quality component as the winches in $700-1300 range. Remember COMEUP is a brand definitely worth of looking into.

Check full review here http://www.alphaexpedition.com/blog/comeup-winch-seal-gen2-95rsi/