I was just wondering how long the install takes. Is it a sit down with a case of MGD and a freind for a few hrs. Or is it pretty hard. Any help would be great, becasue the new AC Warn2500 should be in by the end of the week.
Thanks

 

E-mail Texascat and ask him. He installed a warn 2000 and it took him awhile. He might have some advice for you.

 

I installed my 2000 Warn when I bought the AC new. Dealer wanted like $80 to install the winch I paid $69 for. So I did it myself. Nothing is very hard about it, just time consuming. Routing the wires and figuring out where to mount the solenoid takes some time. I generally don't rush things like this, esp. when I haven't done them before; took like 3 1/2 to 4 hours. The single hardest part for me was splicing into the ignition wire under the fuse box. There isn't a lot of room to work in there. Takes some small hands and some patience. Good luck.

 

My dealer told me that installing the new 2500# Warn is much easier on the 2002 AC's than on the 2001's. Last year, it was a three hour job, so the whole thing would have cost about $160 (three hours labor and $69 for the winch). For the 2002, he said that only one hour is needed, so I could get the thing installed for $100. I figure it's worth it, since if I ever have any problems with it, he can't say I did something wrong. If your dealer says it takes more than 1-2 hours, I think he's sticking it to you.

Of course, the MGD sounds good too!

Good luck.

 

StitchZR2,
I put a Warn 2500 on my 2000 manual 500 a month or so ago. You have it exactly right in that it is a case of beer type of job. It took me all afternoon, but most of the time was spent figuring where to put stuff and not actually doing anything. A buddy will help, but you can do it alone very easily. Here's how I did it in step by step fashion. Please forgive me if I left something out, as this is just from memory.
1) Open cold beer, keep others handy.
2) Open winch and mounting hardware. Follow winch directions closely. They are not the best, most descriptive instructions in the world, but will help you out.
3) Mount the winch and the roller fairlead on the Arctic Cat mounting plate and mount the plate on the front of the Cat. The winch goes inboard and right in front of the radiator, where a metal screen is mounted from the factory. You'll remove the screen and bolt the mounting plate, with the winch on it, right back where the screen was. The winch will end up amazingly close to the radiator. I have asked experts about this and even though it looks too close, it is OK. This step is pretty easy.
3) Take of the right side (throttle side) body work. This step is easy.
4) Route the winch power wires from the winch to the back of the Cat. You should route the winch power wires against the frame and other solid points so that you can zip tie the wires later and they will be out of the way. This is pretty easy.
5) Using the instructions, attach all the wires to the solenoid, which you should have laying on the ground right by the rear hitch of the Cat. This step is easy.
6) Take the "glove box" (tool box or whatever it's called) off of the Cat. There are 4 clamps that need to be either removed or loosened. I left the one clamp near the exhaust pipe on, but loosened it to allow me to rotate the box and have access to the top.
7) Mark and drill your holes to mount the solenoid onto the top of the box. Mount the box so that the wires coming off of the solenoid point forward. Make sure you have all the wires mounted correctly and also turned correctly to allow the solenoid to fit into the rather small space above the glove box. This is important. I mounted and remounted the box about 5 times untill I got it right. I kept forgetting something and having to do it again and again. This step sounds easy, but I muffed it a bunch of times.
8) Remount the glove box with the solenoid on top and tighten the clamps up.
9) Route the battery power lines up to the battery. I had to drill two holes in the plastic in the bottom of the battery box area to feed the battery wires through. You can attach the wires now or wait untill the end of the installation. This is easy.
10) Route the switch wires from the solenoid up through the right side of the Cat, basically right were you ran the winch power wires in step #4. This is easy.
11) Using supplied template and the correctly sized drill bits and/or hole saw, make the holes for the switch plug on the right side of the Cat. I put mine on the front bodywork, sort of right by where my knee is when I'm riding. For reference, I put my switch plug on the right side in exactly the same spot as Arctic put the accessory plug on the left side of the Cat. Don't blast the holes through the body work and cut any wires or anything on the back side of the plastic. Take your time here. I used a dremel tool to do a little bit of final material removal to make the switch plug fit.
12) Mount the switch plug and the wires that lead to/from it. Using a "Scotch lock" tie into a switched power line just off of the fuse box. Use a probe tester to find the appropriate line to tie into. I forget which one I used. Just make sure it's switched. This is easy.
13) Zip tie all your wiring against solid mounting points to keep stuff from catching the wires and ripping them out. This is easy and important. Keep one thing in mind, zip ties are cheap, use them. This is easy.
14) Mount the switch to your handlebars wherever you want them. I put mine on the throttle side and routinely wrap the wires that leat to the switch plug around the switch and hold everything in with the rubber strap that comes with the switch.
15) You are done.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] It is a simple job, it took me about 1.5 hours. I have installed & removed several though, on the 01 & o2s you don't have to splice the wires. There is a 2 prong plug on the right side under the seat (orange wire I believe) to plug in instead of splicing. The hardest part is getting the wires on the selonoid looking neat and to where they don't rub. On the 2500 the selonoid isn't energized until you hit the button to spool out or in. I would recomend a 12 pack but if you have a bud help it may take a case. Good luck, it has good instructions with the kit if you need them.

 

Well its on. I took my time with it but it still only took 2 hrs. I thought it was fun doing it. I got ever thing up and it would not work. I was really puzzed, and then I saw that I put the ground to the screw that held on the air box and since that is ruberized it was not making a good ground. So I put the ground on the screw that holds the fuse box in place. The thing is very very cool and it should pull its money worth. Everone have a fun and safe weekend.
Thanks

 

Stitch-
Glad to hear you got the new Warn up and running! Now, if you haven't done so already, go get yourself a good ****** block rated for at least 5,000 lbs. It will significantly increase the useability of your winch, and allow you to pull larger loads-double your winch's rated capabilities in fact. I got mine through AW Direct for $29 I think, and is rated at 9,000 lbs., handles up to 7/16" wire rope, utilizes a 3" pulley, and is fairly compact, at about 9" long all together.

Best of Luck with that, enjoy the new setup!

Mike

 

I installed the Warn 2500 on my '02 400 4x4 last night, and as has been mentioned here, it's really rather easy to do. Took me about two hours total. The only funny thing I noticed is that in attaching the #1 and #2 wire as they specified, the winch worked backwards (out when "in" was pressed and vice versa). Reversing these wires on the solenoid fixed the problem.

Now I just need to find some mud to test it on!!

 

One quick word of caution to ALL new winch owners-be sure to spool the cable out ALL THE WAY (keeping maybe 4-5 single wraps on the drum anyway), and carefully re-spool the cable back on the drum under load (around 500 lbs. or more) after it has "stretched" good. This is very important in breaking in your new cable-the reason is sometimes the cable isn't always tight on the drum from the factory, and working the winch without stretching and respooling first can lead to premature cable wear, or kink and bind the cable several layers down, while the top seems tight. This is real easy to do, just spool it out all the way, hook onto something and keep it tight for a few minutes to "relax" a bit if it will, then start winching in, making sure to get nice, even wraps without binding the cable at all anywhere. After you've realed it in all the way, you're now ready for your first REAL useage!

Best of Luck, and HAPPY WINCHING!

Mike