I've had my new Sportsman a couple of weeks just riding around my own place.
Now I want to set it up for work and play. Play will probably be easy trail riding.
I won't be looking for the deepest, badest mudhole or anything like that.
Work will be pulling a brush cutting mower and plowing my driveway, which is
about 1/3 mile long and gravel. Also interested in the bucket made by Swisher.
My question is do I need a 2500 lb. winch for this? Wouldn't a 1500 lb. unit be
enough even if it did have to pull me out of an occassional mudhole?
Thanks for your opinions and experience!
Gordon

 

I'm not sure with the bucket. I have the 1500lb winch for my moose plow, and it works great! The 1500lb is a very strong winch. It will easily pick the sportsman up! Well. Good luck!

 

gordongl,

I have a #3000 Warn winch on a '04 Grizzly with a Swisher dump bucket. With a full load of "slag sand" (that's paver base) I have stalled the winch out. If you plan to use it with a Swisher bucket I would plan to buy the largest winch that will fit (most likely a #3K model). Also if you run a dump bucket you will need to get a winch with a mechanical brake (in a Warn winch, that would would be the CE model over the typical ci model). The dynamic brake normally found on the base model winches is not up to task of holding a full bucket.

Don

 

Thanks for the info, hadn't thought about how much a bucket full of gravel could weigh!
I want to maintain (move/spread gravel & plow snow) my driveway, about 1/3 mile of gravel.
Can that Swisher bucket lift up high enough to empty itself out? I should probably get the
Swisher plow too since I'll have their mounting system.

 

gordongl,

To answer your question, yes the bucket does raise high enough to empty itself. However, this is only true for the first load on level ground. What I mean is, when emptying the first load all the material will come out. But, if you try to place a second load on top of the first the dropping bucket will catch on the first load. So, a second load will not really empty completely on top a previous load without getting off the atv and shaking the material out. This is not as bad as it sounds. I helped my neighbor move ~5 cubic yards of mulch around his yard in about 2 hours, that included getting off the atv to clear the bucket on more than half the loads. It wasn't really a problem. On the other hand, if you have enough room to spread out your material, you shouldn't have to get off the atv at all. Either way it is a heck of a lot faster than doing it by hand! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

One other thing regarding capacity of the winch. The bucket itself weights well over 100# by itself and holds just under 1 cubic foot of material, which for sand, gravel or top soil is several hundred pounds more (in fact for carrying sand I had to add four cider blocks to the back rack of my grizzly as ballast to keep the rear end from lifting off the ground, that's in addition to me riding the atv and I weigh ~#230). I remembered reading on another thread that winches only pull their max rating when the line is mostly out. Check out the Warn website for pulling capacity vs layers of cable on winch drum.

With the bucket on, the winch cable will be almost completely wound onto the drum, thereby giving you the lowest rated pull for whatever winch you have mounted.

Finally, I can also recommend the Swisher plow. I have it too, and it is very well built. If fact, it may even weigh more than the dump bucket. At least, it is harder to drag around the garage. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img] The rear of the universal mount is bolted to the trailer hitch with a 3/4" bolt, so easy removal is not really possible. The front part of the universal mount does detach with just two mounting pins. So, I agree also getting the plow is the way to go. That's it for now. Please let me know if you have any other question.

Don

 

I would go with a 2500 LBS winch minimum. The Warn 3000 is the finest one out there. It has excellent waterproof ability. I've also used the Rule 3300, which is on the Rubi. I'm not happy with its durability....already stripped out every gear in it during normal use. The mechanical brake option is a must. The Warn 3000 usually doesn't have one but you can buy a kit with it. One other thing, do not drop the bucket from a raised position. Make sure it's on the ground. I dropped mine suspended a lot when I first had it and it ruined the drop lever. I have since released the bucket with it resting on solid ground and it has done fine. Other than that the Swisher bucket is a great accessory although it's a little bit of a pain to install the mounting kit.

 

You can get by with a small winch if you use a ****** block....it makes a 1,500 lb winch pull like a 3,000 lb winch.