I bought some synthetic rope to replace the wire cable on my Polaris winch off an Ebay link I saw on here a week or so ago and it came with a Hawse fairlead I want to swap out for the roller unit included on my machine. However, and maybe I am just not looking at this right, it seems impossible to install the Hawse to the winch bracket due to clearance issues on the back side of the bracket. The Hawse comes with big allen screws and nuts for the backside, but there is no way to fit the nuts or even the full length of the screws back there. The original roller had carriage bolts on the backside with nuts on the front. I could try and use these carriage bolts, but since the holes for the allen screws on the Hawse are recessed there would be no way to get a wrench on the nuts unless I enlarge the holes to fit a socket around the nuts.

Any thoughts from someone who has done this?

Thanks.

 

I'm not sure of the setup on the Polaris winch. However, when I put the Hawse on my Warn winch for the synthetic rope, I simply reversed the Nylock nuts. That left enough room on the nuts to get a wrench on to get them tight. I check them once in a while to see if they are holding... so far, so good.

Might work for you.

 

I bought the same set up. I have not tried to install it yet though. I am hoping to on sunday. Please keep us up to date how the install goes.

 

Well I tried every combination I had and could not get it to mount up. Only option would have been to widen out the holes in the fairlead so I could get a wrench onto the nuts. The holes that were there are just barely big enough for the nuts, the one would not even fit in the hole at all. I just put the roller fairlead back on for now.

 

I went with a replacement kit from cseoffroad.com. The fairleed did not come with any hardware. I used a dremel to cut the bolts out of the cage because there was not enough room to get them out without taking the winch out of the cage. I replaced the nuts/bolt with parts from home depot. Personally I think it looks great, just make sure you get the back washers if you choose this route. I can send you a pick of the finished result if you would like.

 

that rope is the **** boys.. im the one that got you all the link.. i pulled a chunk of tree that was at least a 1000 pounds... and used it about 20 times pulling myself and others outta the mud... it worked great...

i would make sure you change that out tho.. you dont want that rope getting ripped up in the rollers...also think about getting that big rubber stopper deal.. im tryin to find one

about the hawse thing.. i have a bumper on mine and didnt have the rite wrench so for now its only as tight as i could get it holding my fingers...

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: ncitro

Well I tried every combination I had and could not get it to mount up. Only option would have been to widen out the holes in the fairlead so I could get a wrench onto the nuts. The holes that were there are just barely big enough for the nuts, the one would not even fit in the hole at all. I just put the roller fairlead back on for now.</end quote></div>

i did have to make the holes just a hair bigger... i just took my BFscrewdriver and rounded it out more...my bumber is cheap alum so it was able to get bigger without much hassle... just be very very careful you dont chew the rope up with the roller