installed a gorilla on my 04 kodiak (TIGHT FIT!!!!) indeed another 16th of and inch off it wouldnt fit. Come to find out, about 4 months ago while riding in my field, at night, i remember smacking a log at about 15mph. i beleve i bent the hell out of my front end, reason for the tight fit. Just saying check for any bending thats not normal

 

In the last year I've installed 2 Warn and 3 Gorilla winches (2 of the three were on Hondas, but not Rincons) The AC I have currently has a Warn 2.5 and the Can-Am has a 2.5 Gorilla. Both are used for trail clearing and emergency tows. All work fine. The first Gorilla I installed was on the Can-Am last May. I personally picked it up from the distributor in MSP. I asked him about fail rates. One to two percent (volume at the time was 3K/month) and 95% of the returns were not failure of the winch, but the contactor. I believe that to be true for Warn as well. I had no reason to believe the guy was blowing smoke, but even if his fail rate was twice what he noted, 2-4%, well, that's still pretty good. And too, several on this and other forums have had warranty issues and the Gorilla company in MSP has been great in taking care of their problems. - even when the unit was past its six month warranty.

Now, given your stated use, you can spend ~$450 for a Warn 2.5 or ~$150 for the Gorilla. That $150 includes the model specific mounting plate, which they also sell, and shipping. BTW, are you aware that Warn now sources some of its winches (I don't know which) from China. They also source some of the internal parts in their made in the U.S. winches from China.

If I have a complaint about the Gorilla winches, it's the connector ends to the electrical cables are too large for the posts and not substantial enough to suit me. I could change them and shorten the cable for a custom fit, but I haven't and probably won't. They work fine. You won't go wrong with either, but for me a Warn just isn't worth the extra money compared to the Gorilla.

 

The obove statement is true for Venom winches also. They are a fraction of the price of a warn, and work just as well. The one complaint about Venom, is they use a cheap grease internally, and should be regreased with a good quality grease.

 

I have the Gorilla Pro series 2000 and have used it several times. No problems. The only thing that seems a little cheap is the fair lead.
I'm not an ebay fan, so here is their link:

Gorilla Winches

 

anyone use the viper? iv been eye balling it.

 

I just found and bought a 2.5 Warn off e-bay for $250, which included a mount. Not a bad deal if you ask me. I was looking at the gorrillas, but for another $100, I decided to go for the name brand.

 

Say, check out Cabelas... They are "discounting" WARN 2.5's heavy... for like $259.00

my buddy just emailed it to me as he is looking... nice deal for sure...

 

I retract my original comment...

I bought and MV7 which has warn 2.5ci winches installed from the factory front and rear-- I've busted both of these winches in 6 months.. the rear winch stripped the sun gear in 5 pulls.. the front, closer to 30 pulls. I never had a problem with the warn on my sportsman 500.

BTW-- warn DENIED the warranty claim on the rear winch and charged me $80 to fix it. I didn't even bother sending the front winch in for repair. If they can't stand behind their overpriced winches, I'll try something else.

Has anyone used a milemarker?

 

It sure does with Jeep winches (9000 lbs), because Warn will stand behind their product, and Ramsey wont. I've owned probably a dozen winches in the last twenty years, and have had three of them fail. Warn always repaired their winch under warranty with no questioins asked, even though both times were technically my fault. The Ramsey winch failure was not my fault, and they still wouldn't cover it. You definitely get what you pay for with winches.

And just a tip to people that are using the handlebar mounted rocker switch for your winch. Be sure to mount the switch so that it is facing the back side of your handlebars, and not the top. That way when your wife rolls your quad, and you don't see it because you are ahead of her on the trail, you wont have a burned out winch motor before you get back to your wife, because the weight of the quad was continually holding the "in" button pressed, with the winch already fully spooled in. That was what took out one of our Warn winches. And the other one was when a painter removed a winch on a Jeep to paint the Jeep, but then re-wired it incorrectly when he put it back on. The Ramsey winch that failed simply broke in half. while winching a Jeep on the Rubicon Trail.

 

Hey Duffus...

If your WARN winch is less than a year old... They will warranty it... Just send it to the "factory" with a copy of your receipt and it will be done...

BTW, MM has a one year warranty, but you have to register the purchase, the WARN you dont...