Wow! This is a great site and while I've been reading for a little while now I have recently purchased a Sportman 500 with the free winch. Having had the tubular bumpers on my Xplorer 400, it was a natural decision to get them for my Sportman.

I have a really cool dealer who installed my bumpers for free, but wanted to charge for the winch installation which I decided to do myself. He gave me the winch kit designed for the SP500 RSE which includes the mount for the square/tubular front bumpers. I installed the winch and roller fairleed, but have a couple concerns that I couldn't find addressed in a search of this forum.

First, the cable slot in the roller-fairleed mount doesn't seem to properly align with the plate on the front bumper, the actual width of the slot for hte cable is about half of the opening through the fairleed. Is that normal? And also, is it normal for the cable to rest on the fairleed when not in use, because I don't see where else it would go.

Thanks much!

 

For the roller fairlead to be of any functional use, you must get rid of the hawse fairlead (the smoothed metal slot in the metal plate behind it), or hog out the hawse fairlead slot to equal or exceed the size of the cable clearance opening in the roller fairlead. (This sentence didn't make much sense when I read it back, but maybe you can make some sense of it.)

As to where to store your cable hook; you can leave it taut against the fairlead, or just hook it to a convenient bumper bar, rack rod, or frame member. In choosing your storage perch, you might want to consider putting it within easy reach, should you get REALLY bogged down; also, you want to snug it down somewhere it doesn't rattle.

Tree Farmer

 

I have the flat style heavy duty bumper from Polaris. My dealer knew that you could not install the tubular bumper without making modifications so he recommended the flat. My first choice was the tubular, manly because it was cheaper. The flat style fits great and is a straight bolt on, roller fairlead and all. It appears to be a tough unit as it dozes over trees quite well. The unit also has a handy hole in it to hook the cable too when not in use so that it isn't dangling from in front of the fairlead.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone! Something else did come to mind last night as I was working on it again, I'm getting a little concerned as to the amound of radiator real estate that is being blocked by the winch plate and bumper. It seems to be blocking almost half of the radiator. Has anyone experienced any overheating problems as a result of this setup? And also where did you locate your solenoid? I ended up tucking mine in next to the battery under the rear fender, I'm still concerned about moisture so I think I'll pack the boots with RTV.

 

I have the same setup on my 2000 polaris xpedition 425 cc 5-speed, and 1/2 of my rad. in front is blocked somewhat by the winch. When I first bought
my polaris, over a year ago. I bought the winch and 2 bar front bumper. They ended up mounting the winch and bumper for me as they realized to, what you said that it is not a standard fit. As I look at the job they did, I can see it was a tough job.

I have found, that as long as you keep your rad. very clean and the sensor that activates the backup fan keeps working. You will not over heat. Not to mention, keep the rad. fluid full and clean
it out once a year or so. -rangerchet

 

My selenoid is located next to the battery with no issues.
On one ride this summer while dozing through 40 miles of muskeg, riding two up, my rad was 2/3 plugged from the bottom up. Completely packed with muskeg. Had no overheating issues.
One interesting aspect of that trip was while my Sportsman made the trip on 12 litres of fuel, Honda 300,400, or 450's all ran out (reserve gone!!!) and believe me most of them were not carrying near the weight I was.

 

Good1 That makes me feel much better now as that's where my solenoid is.. Another concern that I've recently come up with is regarding the sturdyness of the whole winch/bumper mount. The whole assembly is held to the frame with 2 bolts and 3 screws on each side, which hardly seems like enough to support the load that will be placed on it. Has anyone done anything to beef that up?

 

Anybody have trouble mounting the control switch on the rack? My U-bolts are too short! Any other mounting ideas, or do I need to purchase longer ones?

 

My switch is on the rack and I just used long bolts to mount it. Looking back, I wish I would have installed it on the handlebars though...