Hey longtime lurker, first time member. Has anyone installed one of these winches and did you find a good place to mount the contactor/relay. I just picked up a 2006 350 4 X4 Bruin and thought I'd save some money with one of these Chinese Winches. Thanks in advance for your time.

 

hey well your in luck..lol I have a 06 bruin 350 4x4...and the venom 2500xt winch. I have only used it afew times and seems to work fine. I mounted the relay underneath the seat. a few inches from the bottom. It is actually mounted at a downward angle because of the angle I had to drill into the plastic (there was no way to get to the bottom mounting holes). And I didnt want to put the screw holes directly on the bottom. I bought a long drill bit (of course I couldnt find one) and just used 2 out of the 4 mounting holes to secure it to the plastic. Then I put a bunch of silicone caulk all around the relay and on the side where the screw holes came out. Just make sure you drill the hole low enough so that where your manual is the plastic doesnt get in the way. You will have to notch out some plastic on the quad and on the seat where the wires run. There is a rather smooth bump on the atv plastic that I notched out and on the seat it was a straight piece of plastic. If your not sure where to notch out just secure all the wires together with electrical tape and zip ties, basically making a harness. Put the seat on and you will see where the wires will be pinched. Any other help you may need I will try to help. as everyone here has helped me greatly.
Good Luck.

 

I have a 2500xt also, and i love it! It works very well, but there is one problem. They used a cheap grease, and it WILL fail and dry out, and it wont take very long. The grease they used doesnt have a good washout ability against water, so it rinses out quickly if you get it wet. Its very simple to take the two bolts off the winch cover, and carefull lift the cover off, and pack some good quality grease into it. (I reccomend amsoil synthetic grease) You will have to take the winch off the quad to do it, but its alot cheaper than replacing the winch!

 

so you dont have to mess w/ the spool just the screws at the end? Since I ride through alot of mud and water and plan on using this to plow I should do that. I suppose pack it with as much grease as you can right?

 

Just pack the grease around the whole cylinder, and try to avoid getting alot of grease on the face of the cylider where the contacts make contact with it. Its not bad if you do, but when you put it back together, and run it for a minute, it will bog down and sound funny for a second until it clears the grease from the contacts, so dont be alarmed.

 

Thanks for the tip, could I bug you for what wire you spliced into so as the winch will only be live with the key on. thanks again.

 

I took off the ignition (remove plastic nut and plastic cover)and found one of the plug in type connections, used a wire tester and found one that was only live w/ the key on. Spliced into that, put some dielectic grease on it, and taped the **** out of it.