Got my used 2000 pound Warn winch wired on the prarie tonight. Works fine using the giant switch, which I mounted on the left side, on the back of my Kawasaki front storage box, perfect, as I can use it on or off the machine.
My question is, what maintenance does a winch need? fluids? lubrications? this thing is kind of loud and really gearie sounding. Might be normal but I dont know where this thing has been or what its tried to pull. Maybe something I can spray the cable with to keep it from rusting? thanks for the help!

 

The cable is (or should be) galvinized. After you are mudding with it you should spool it out and clean it inside and the cable ( thats what I was told by Ramsey) and just let it pull itself to spool that will also help dry the inside out and get any water out of the unit.

 

I don't think there's any maintenance to the winch itself. As monteSS states though, try to take care of the cable. I would like to add that when your reeling in the cable try to keep tension on it, I had a couple of times where the cable was too slack and bound up on the drum, this kinked it and it's never worked the same.

 

If you want to replace the cable the best price is Norhtern tool it is cheaper a foot than standard 810 lbs cable at Lowe's it is aircraft cable with the rating of 4200 lbs for 9 buck for 50' or 17 bucks for a 100' then you could carry a little extra cable.

 

Thanks for the info, looks like a good deal. Been thinking of moving up to a 3000 lb. winch. Either a warn or the ramsey, how do you like yours.

 

I really like it. The warrenty is unbeatable. They draw less current than Warn and have a faster no load spool speed and here is what is best about the warranty LIFETIME WARRANTY I just sent them my old one because I burned it up tring to get out of a snow, it was sunk up to the fenders in a blown over gulley. The took it apart and found the gears where gone what was left of them they said it didn't look like I abused it so the sent me a BRAND new one. They have exelent customer service! They are the only one I plan on going with from now on!!!!!

 

Where's the cheapest place to order a Ramsey 3000 w/wireless remote? The common price I see around is $400.... Anyone find it for less?

 

That is what I got mine for with free shipping.

 

Thanks, my cable was brand new and never used before I got it, but it has a tad bit of rust on it now. It was also kinked on the spool. I will unspool and clean it.
Just be cautious, if you are testing your winch, dont hook it to the carport support pole, it sure looked tough. I wont do that anymore. No harm done....

 

This is interesting, because I just got done tearing my 2500 down. It's sitting in pieces in my garage right at the moment.

I did this because mine was so packed with mud, water and dirt that I couldn't get it to unspool let alone operate normally. After removing the winch from the quad and mounting it in my tabletop vice, I was able to apply enough pulling force to start it freespooling-out. As I freed the cable, dirt was flying everywhere! I cleaned all the dirt from the drum and cable, and then respooled the cable by attaching a portable car-jumper to the battery terminals.

I then removed the gear cover and left the water pour out. Next, I pulled out the gear assembly and cleaned out the dirt that wasn't mixed into the greese. After this came the removal of the actual motor - I cleaned the dirt out of there as well. It also was filled with a bit of water, but much less than the gear assembly housing.

I'm planning on soaking the gear assembly in brake cleaner in order to remove all the old dirt-packed greese. I'll then repack the gears and reassemble the whole thing. I just got done installing the Montana Jacks Accessory Receiver System, so I shouldn't have it this bad again. The MJ system keeps the winch high and dry (hopefully). Given the low position of the Kawi 650's stock mounting plate, I can understand how the winch got this bad.

I would definately recommend that you do some preventive maintenance on your winch in order to keep it running right. At a minimum, after each ride you should unspool all of the cable and re-wrap it while sitting in front of the machine, keeping tension on the cable as it sucks it back in. Carefully wrap the cable from side to side, being sure to minimize the number of times that you bind the cable on itself. This will increase the service life of your cable and will lesson the chances of having a snapped cable during your winching operations (very dangerous). Personally, I plan on replacing my winch cable with Plasma Cable (since I've got the thing completely disassembled anyhow. I've seen this stuff in action and it's much superior to steel cable (at least the stuff that comes stock on the Warn 2500).

Hope this helps.