I'm trying to tidy up and minimize the straps inside my enclosed trailer. I have a Polaris 570 Sportsman and my moto bike in a 6X12 trailer. I run the ATV all the way forward and off to one side, then the bike at an angle in the back. It all fits very well but there are straps going in all directions and that takes up valuable space for camp gear.

My thought is to use a single point front and rear on the ATV, center down to a solid anchor. Is there any issue using the winch to anchor the front of the ATV? I plan on using a mini load binder for the rear to a single center anchor.

Thoughts?

 

I've always read and understood it is bad to use a winch as a tie-down. I thought I read this by Warn in their manual but I don't have that handy. Just seems like a winch is a valuable tool to have working when you need it so if it were me, I wouldn't chance it but have nothing else to go on other than what I heard and thought I have read.

To alleviate some of your tie-down strap issues, why not go with something like these the Erickson Wheel Chock Tie-Down Kit. I use these on my ATV open trailer and they are very nice, zero concerns about my ATV coming loose and they are very quick to secure. I saw an ad recently where Cabelas is selling an identical kit but for two tires instead of four like in the kit I linked. You wouldn't have ATV tie-down straps all over the place with this kit.

There are also standard E-Tracks available which serve the same purpose.

That would work for your ATV, but not for the motoX.

 

That's a great idea. I wonder if one front and one rear would be OK. The only reason is when loaded up getting to the left front is very difficult.

Here is the trailer loaded up for the road.

 

I know someone who trailers with a front and rear connected with those Erickson chocks and he says it is fine. I use them on all fours but I go over some very bumpy access "roads" here in the CO mountains. Although notice you're in CO as well.

 

Cabela's Tire Tite System Same thing as the Erickson's. It is weird though as I bought my Ericksons only a few months ago and they were a lot cheaper then, around the price of the ones at Cabelas. I'm sure the Cabelas ones are just rebranded Ericksons as they look identical.

 

Thanks for doing all the leg work, I'm all over those.

As for the roads yep I get out on some bumpy stuff. We just got back from Utah and all our camping is as far away from blacktop as we can get.

 

NP, just sitting here watching the Preds/Blues game, since the AVS SUCKED so bad this year.

In my first post I eluded to the Ericksons being for 4 wheels but that is not the case. What threw me was the price. When I bought mine in Feb, I paid $35.xx (amazon) per set which is for two wheels. Shocked to see the price go up like that but they are getting really good reviews. I'm betting the Cablelas version will probably start going up in price at some point too.

 

It doesn't matter what you use to tie down the ATV as long as it's not your winch. It can strip the gears inside when you hit bumps. Some people have gotten away with it but a lot of other people haven't.

 

I think I destroyed the Viper winch in my Grizzly using it to tiedown on a few trips. At the time, I didn't realize how hard that was on a winch.

 

It sucks that you had to learn the hard way Greg. Winches are built to handle a steady load and not a jerking type of movement. You shouldn't use it as a recovery rope to ****** out another quad either. One jerk may be all it takes to break your winch.