I have had my winch from Harbour Freight for aover a year now. It works great. Pulls just as much as the name brands but not as fast. Alot of my friends have Sportsmans and we do alot of mudding. Knowing that I only have 2 wheel drive I am the recovery guy and I pull them out every time. I also bought a heavy duty winch switch from Lowes and ditched the handheld remote. You can see it in my pics. I also use it to raise and lower my plow all winter. You can say you get what you pay for but this is the best $40 bucks I have spent.

 

how many amps does that switch handle? i have the controller on a disconnect system but it is a pain sometimes, also my winch as worked flawless for the last year or so, been through everything, mud water, snow anything annd everything works flawless, just make sure to run them every once and while

 

Well, I am sure that the quality may not be as good as some of the brand names, but there are definetly situations where a cheap winch would be acceptable. Like for raising and lowering a plow, or for someone who always rides with others, they could have the HF winch as a convenience rather than a necessity. If I had a little more faith in them I'd order one for the back of my sportsman, but I dont think it would last very long. When I get stuck in the snow, the only way out is the way I came, hard with just 1 winch. I found the easiest way was to winch the quad off the ground and try to spin it and get some wood under it - trying to winch it forward or backward just buries it and stalls my 3000# winch.

I have heard good things about these winches, but I would not want to have to rely on one. Kinda like the donut-spares in small cars, it'll probably get you out of whatever situation your in, but dont put much faith in it.

 

does it come with the mounting plates or could you use warn mounting plates or tusk?....i prob will buy one of these since everyones comments are pretty good about this winch

 

No it does not come with a plate. It will mount on just about any mount. You can go to big buckatv.com and they have mounts for all atv's.

 

so i could use a warn mounting plate?

 

Pretty good deal on an ATV winch at Cummins Tools too!
http://www.cumminstools.com/browse.cfm/4,1361.html
Right around a $100 with free shipping

 

how many amps does that switch handle? i have the controller on a disconnect system but it is a pain sometimes, also my winch as worked flawless for the last year or so, been through everything, mud water, snow anything annd everything works flawless, just make sure to run them every once and while[/quote]


on my 400 i have a warn twist switch off the old 2000lb and just cut the wires from the stock hand held off and it works good .i might change the one on my 500 to this style as i can get bigger wire to power the winch which could be my problem