MrTommy you sure are lucky to have a supportive wife too! It is great when you can share the fun of riding ATV's together.

Back to the winch, I have put a new engine in my 1977 F-150, but I didn't even want to try to install that winch. I knew it wouldn't work for me, thats just my luck...

AlaskaBoy, I do know John O'connor! We go to the same church, he is a great guy. Let me know when you come down this way and maybe we could hook up for some ATVing or hunting or something!

Take care guys, Gabe

 

Catterman, I thought you would, John and his family are well known out there as they are good folks. I do not have any idea when I will be out there again, the last time I was there was over 4 years ago. Thanks for the offer. AlaskaBoy.

 

I just bought my first ATV the other day, an AC 500 standard. Paid $5850. Like others, the dealer wouldn't honor the $69 winch deal, said he discounted the ATV too much. I took the 4.9% financing and bought the winch outright for $350. It is a Warn 2500 and came with the mounting plate and roller fairleed. I was very impressed by the install- there was no cutting, drilling, or splicing. Holes were already drilled by AC and an outlet was already in the wiring harness. It took me about an hour and a half to install, which I am glad I did, for I know it was done right. So far, I am very pleased with everything, although the AC only has 9 hours and I used the winch once.

 

Erikr, when you installed the winch did you respool it before you used it? This is very important as it is not wound tight enough and when you use it with out repooling it will cause the cable to get sucked down into it's self and is a bugger to get unwound again.AlaskaBoy.

 

Alaska Boy: Thanks for the heads up. After install, I unwound the whole spool, attached it to a tree and pulled the machine up hill through about 14" of snow. I made sure the cable sat nice and even under pressure.

I found this site about three months ago and have been following faithfully. There are a lot of good people with good advice such as yourself out here which helped me choose the machine I did.

Thank you all.

 

No problem, Erikr. I have seen this happen and you should see the cuss words fly when they think that thier brand new winch is broke after the first time using it. I have to agree with you about finding out good info on this site, I was on another site and all they did was bad talk each other. I have met some nice guys on here and found ways on how to make my quad better and also what to look for in the future and how to deal with it. AlaskaBoy.

 

These winches have almost too much cable in them. If you don't get the cable nice and even it will bunch up between the winch's little cross bars. You would hate to cut off any cable cuz someday you might need it.

 

A good dealer will install the winch as part of the deal, if he wants your business, no matter how much he has discounted your quad. Sounds like a lot of dealers are screwing you over. Shop around play one against the other, if not just walk out the door and down the road to the next dealer. I work hard for my money and want my money to work hard for me.

 

Try a different dealer when shoping for mine i ran into the same prolem at a few dealers. Your dealer is right they pay 185.00 for the winch from their supplyer. I bet 100 dollars they get a rebate from AC after they sell the machine. call around and see what other dealers say.

 

I just got mine and it cost $69 installed! sounds like your dealer is either lazy or crooked!! just my opinion.......[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]