I just returned from my cabin in eastern Washington.The dirt road was washed out by run off and there where large rocks(300-400 lbs) blocking the way. sooooo this was my chance to try out my new warn winch(A2000).I used a nylon strap wrapped around the rocks and hooked cable to strap. After bring up the slack, I was able to drag the large rocks out of the way. I blocked the front wheels with smaller rocks and had front & back brakes on.
When pulling this way with a lot of resistance should I have it in Park(which I did as well). or is this hard on the drive train/Trany. any tips will help....

 

I came across a log down over the trail about 2 days ago. There was a dirt bank, brush and trees on both sides. The log fell across the trail about 3-3 1/2' above the ground. I couldn't lift the log out of the way because it was too long. I couldn't drive under the log. I couldn't find a way around because of the thick trees and brush. So I decided to try to pull the log down and over so I could drive over it. I hooked up the winch and started to pull. I didn't have anything to put in front of the wheels. So as it started to pull the tree, it also started pulling the quad and me towards the tree. The tree was hung up on a stump. So I ended up pushing the tree straight down but it was still about 2' above the ground. This is where a small and narrow quad is nice. I drove up on the edge of the bank of dirt and got the Recon to hop over the tree. I think that a larger quad would have gotten hung up on the log.
There really wasn't much room on the edge of the bank because of the trees and brush.

TeddyTwoFire- It shouldn't do anything to your Trany. It seems like the rocks would give before your trany.or it might just pull the tires over the rocks. Things do happen though.

 

Has anyone had the winch break loose where it's mounted on the quad or would the winch stall? Any info will help. It's good to hear storys on how to get unstuck, Thanks Men !!

 

this isnt a stuck story but i had to winch a banshee 35ft. up a steep mountain side. he was going ***** to the wall and went over a 2ft whoopty-woo and didnt have a tight enough grip on the handle bars. the banshee went off the side of the mountain and hit a large tree about 6ft up the trunk. me and 2 friends had to winch him up the mountain. suprisingly after 5 kicks it fired up and didnt seem to worse for wear

 

Ive beat the crap out of my poor ole cat and warn 2k, never had it break away from the bumper. its pretty tuff. ive pulled lots with it, large downed trees, rocks, logs, cars etc.

 

I think the motor on the winch will overheat before it starts breaking loose from your quad. I once tried to ride along the edge of truck mudbog pit and got sucked in, First tried winching to another quad with him pulling, I just about pulled him in. I then used a ****** pulley (very recommended) and spooled out to a tree and worked that winch to death. Another time I was pulling a quad out the guy hooked on to his front end plate and I started winching and going in reverse and tore his front plate off, oops, his fault for riding a Kaw (just kidding). Anyway, long story short, the motor/solenoid will give before the mtg brackets do. Have fun.

 

Yesterday I decided to dig out the old maple stump (4 ft dia.) out of the back yard. I first dug around it with a shovel and a pry bar, sprayed roots with garden hose. Then chain sawed what I could get at. Repeated this 5 or 6 times until I had most of the stump exposed. Then cut the stump in to four large pieces (6 hours later). Lastly, I hooked the winch up and gave it hell. I nearly stalled the winch out a couple of times. It took bit of repositioning the quad to get where I could get the pieces of stump to break. I was a little nervous about having some thing break or the cable come off and hit me in the chops. I thought the winch would preform better than it did but with tires skidding on the grass and winch maxed out I barely got all four piece out(8 hours/4 beers/lots of sweat/ a little cursing/1 very dull chainsaw). I'm sure just pulling the quad out of a ditch with the winch would preform just fine.

 

I haven’t used an ATV winch but I have used the larger truck mounted ones and I found when you are doing very heavy winching it is best to winch in several short sessions instead one long one to keep the winch form getting too hot. A ****** block can really help. We always used a very heavy piece of carpet or sand filled sack that we placed over the winch cable. This would lessen the chances of injury if the cable snapped. I have seen two instances of winch cables snapping and both of them could have been fatal if they had hit humans. One snapped and shattered the windshield and rear window of a pick-up. If anyone would have been in the cab of the truck they could have easily been seriously injured or killed. The other time when the cable broke it snapped back and put a serious dent in the hood of the truck which was raised to prevent the cable hitting the windshield of the truck if the worst happened –which it did.

While I don’t think an ATV winch is exerting the forces that a larger winch would, it would be a good idea to be careful and maybe place something over the winch cable when doing any really heavy winching.

 

Indeed I agree with your safety precautions. Hearing your experences with cable snap will make me use a dampener over the cable. Being totally exposed (sitting on the quad) one would be at great risk in a cable snap situation.

 

I guess there is a way to increrase your 2000lb winch to a 2500 by putting a different celenoid and larger cables on your winch ( cables not winch line) I know you guys are smarter than that but sometimes you just never know. Do a search in this forum on how to increas the power it should help you out and be an interesting read as well