i just got acutally in the mail today.. a 3000lbs gorilla pro series winch..105$ after shippin and handling.. not bad at all... pretty sweet lookin hope it works good.. i'll keep you all posted

 

I bought a Warn #2500 for the peace of mind, just in case I might need to pull out our SP500s. Pulling my wife's ATV 50 feet out of and across a mix of mud and sand I never worried about the winch not making the pull. I have used it for tighting chain link fence and moving logs. I broke the steel cable pulling down a retaining wall but the motor never stalled or slipped.

 

I find it quite amusing how we hold up ownership of certain items or brands as some kind of status symbol!
This REALLY seems to be the case with Warn winches! I have seen and experienced several brands of winches fail, some because they were very simply abused, some because they just couldn't take the load, and in most of the cases, bad contactors/wiring.
Yes, I have witnessed more then one Warn squeal in pain and smoke like a chimney! I say this not to bash Warn, they make a good winch, but they are susceptible to failure just like all the rest, this is why I chose to try a Gorilla winch the last time and have been very impressed with the performance from it while keeping a pretty good chunk of change in my pocket to boot!

Note: the only popular winch brands I have not seen fail are Ramsey, (but then again I see 10 Warn/Gorilla winches for every 1 Ramsey so take that into consideration) and Viper/Venom winches since I have yet to see either in use, we just don't see them in this area much.

Second note: It is a fair statement that the single sided ( spool on the end) winches no matter what brand are not a good bargain and these are the source for the vast majority of cable jumping problems! I would suggest looking at the center spool, (motor-spool-gearbox), type winches no matter what you buy.

 

ok so i heard that after installing my winch i have to let all the line out and winch it in with tension? would like a tree and pulling myself in be good enough or would that be too much tension..

 

That's not too much tension. If someone else sits on the quad and winches it in for you that's even better. Then you could watch the spool the whole time to make sure the cable stacks up straight. Just wrap the cable around the spool 3-4 times before you put a lot of tension on, unless your owner's manual says something different. By wrapping some cable on first it puts pressure on the spool instead of the end of the cable. That's very important as it keeps the cable end from pulling out of the spool.