I have a 2500 lb Viper winch with 12 ft. of synthetic line mounted and waiting for it to snow. When I removed the 50 of line that came with the winch I was surprised at the effort it took to unspool it. I'm not necessarily a wimp but I had to really lean into it to get it to move. I mean a very hard pull. Is this normal? I have to wrap it around my hand and I can get about 3 or 4 feet at a time. Thank you for taking time to answer.
Stan

 

i dont have a viper but when i free wheel mine it gos a fast as can be....have ya tried it again is it any better now...my winch sugested that you unspool it all and winch it all back in but thats for cable sorry i'm not being of much help here..

 

DavidXP
Sorry it took so long to get back. Yes I've tried it again. In fact I measured the effort necessary to get it to freespool. Using a Hanson spring scale it takes 55 lbs of force before it begins to freespool. There is no way I could just grab the end and easily hike out to an anchor point to tie off for winching. After 3 e-mails to Moto Alliance and an E-mail to their Tech I phoned the Tech and received an " I don't know, give it some time" answer. Then I received an E-mail from Moto Alliance saying "I don't know, contact our Tech.". and that was eight days after the first E-mail I sent. It raises and lowers the plow just fine but it will be a pain in the butt when I have to use it for something else. I see there has been a handful of problems with viper freespools on the various forums but they are not the only ones. Warn, Gorilla and others have exhibited the same weakness. At this point in time there doesn't appear to be a solution. Maybe it will loosen up with time and use.
Stan