Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Utv Winches
I spent the last few weeks looking for a winch and was real close to buying one from our local Harbor Frieght. After looking at HF's winch, I decided to wait and do some research, the seals around electrics weren't tight enough to keep bugs out let alone moisture and some of the plastics had cracks or pieces missing. Either really poor job putting out on display or packaging to store was grossly inadequate.
On to the superwinch....I researched google, many many atv parts and add on sellers, Ebay, and of course amazon. This winch was by far the best value in a name brand winch (you get a generic mount plate, remote (corded) switch, handlebar mount, relay, overload and all wiring necessary to mount the winch, and the more user friendly mechanical brake (units with these tend to cost more as well . On top of that most name brand winches were selling for similar money for their 2000 lb winch and this Superwinch is 3000lb. My only disappointment was....Made in China, though a producers that has higher product appearance requirements for products they're assembling for Superwinch. All in all very happy! Made in USA would have been better. Superwinch 1130220 LT3000 ATV Winch
This winch is one of the most quiet winches that I've ever heard. The supplied instructions are generic in the sense that it only shows you a diagram of how the parts are hooked together.
I mounted this winch on a 2006 Arctic Cat 650 H1. All total it took me roughly 3 1/2hrs to get everything mounted, wires ran, and everything hooked up. I bought a winch mount for my Arctic Cat 650 H1 off of Amazon.
The winch mount has the middle portion raised to compensate for the front tow hook welds. The middle portion of the winch mount is raised up roughly about 3/4in. The supplied winch mount for this winch doesn't exactly fit as described in the instructions. I turned the plate backwards on the winch because of the supplied winch plate design. If you put the plate the way the instructions dictate, the cable will rub the supplied winch mount when mounted on a Arctic Cat 650 H1.
I ended up having to go to Lowes and buy 4 8x1.25mm bolts to make the SuperWinch bolt up using the Arctic Cat winch mount. The supplied bolts (Arctic Cat winch mount) are about 1in too short.
Despite having to go buy new bolts (that fits), the hardest part was just running the wires for the SuperWinch. I have the solenoid for the winch mounted on the inside of the left side panel (right beside left knee). The wires running from the winch itself I ran up through the steering column area and around the airbox. The breaker box (about 2inches long) I was able to fit underneath the seat near the rear brake reservoir. The handle switch is mounted on the right side handle bar below the front brake reservoir. The remote control switch hookup is mounted on the left side of the ATV right below the left handle bar, 1/2in above the "Arctic Cat" sticker logo. The rest of the wire hook ups were fairly simple (just a matter of plugging them in).
Once everything was hooked up, it worked like a charm. After the initial test, I performed a strength test by running the winch cable over a huge oak tree limb and winching the 720lb Arctic Cat 20ft up into the tree. Strange sight it was, but the SuperWinch LT series 3000lb winch put my 4wheeler in the tree quite easily.
I needed a winch for my snowplow and perhaps occassionally to get me out of a tight spot in the woods and this winch seems to fit the bill perfectly. Great price from Amazon with free shipping; can't beat that. It installed easily and quickly on my Yamaha Grizzly and performs just as advertised and expected.
I purchased this winch mostly because of the price. Having burned out two Warns I thought I would give this super-winch a try. As I started to install it, I realized the winch plate that came with it(the plate that holds the rollers) did not match up with the mounting holes on the winch itself.
Also one of the internal mounting nuts was striped. I have to tap new threads. I was disappointed also with the circuit breaker part of the power lead. It has bolts that need to be covered so they don't come in contact with metal body parts from the quad. With space at a minimum this will be difficult.
I would assume the parts that shipped with this product would fit. They did not
I installed this winch on my new Kawasaki Brute Force 650. The mounting plate that came with it is worthless. I ordered one specifically for my bike, and it all went in perfect. I had no problems with the mounting hardware at all. The wirirng was a pain, only because of how little space there is. Took about 9 hrs to install completely. I took my time, so it would only have to be done once. Everything works great, and looks sweet. For the price it can't be beat.
The winch was an excellent buy. The mounting instructions were easy to follow, I had no problems. The price is unbeatable. Thanks Amazon .I Would recommend this to
anyone looking for a good winch at a reasonable price.
I'm deleting my previous review of praise because this winch has two major flaws.
The mounting hardware on mine was soft, and the nuts, integrated into the housing of the winch had trouble threading. One of them stripped and they were all hard to get started. There is no way to get at these and replace them with proper nuts.
Also, upon respooling I had the cable get outside of the reel. It damaged the cable and jammed the winch. The spool sides are too shallow, and the whole spool may have even shifted to allow a cable to fall into this area. Poor design if you ask me, and I've never had this problem with other winches.
Returning to amazon.'
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