I had a Polaris Sportsman 500 4x4 with a swisher dump bucket and plow and a Superwinch. In Sep upgraded to a Polaris Ranger 700 twin. Got the Swisher mount setup and a new larger plow. Kept the dump bucket, I also got A Gorilla 3000 lb winch on Ebay.

I used it to move around some gravel and road rocks, within a month the winch failed. The supplier sent a replacement quickly. Mounted this and used it to move more road rock and some snow plowing. This one has failed also (right in the middle of plowing a 10 inch snowfall). Who can give me advice on what went wrong. A bucket of road rock shouldn't weight more than 500 pounds(???). I took both winches apart the first one had striped gears. The second one, the gears appeared to be completely shattered. They are both within the warranty period. I don't want to give Gorilla a bad rap but they have not responded to any of my emails.

 

buy a warn or ramsey quit wasteing your money on those winchs

 

I have a Polaris ATP 330 and a swisher bucket. I have a Harbor Freight $49 2000# winch that I have been using for a couple of years now. The winch lifts the bucket pretty easily. Mike

 

it could be that the winch is designed to pull and not pick up even though it shouldnt make any differnce. i dont think super winches are very good, their not very strong as 2 differnt frinds have broken thiers.

 

Get a Warn 3.0. Lifetime warranty.. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I also have a Swisher bucket and blade and have used both extensively. Sounds like you have a winch problem as I have a little 2000 lb winch from Cabela's and have had no problems. I did mount a block on the bucket and plow to slow the lift and drop which also halves the load on the winch.

 

Here is the story to date with Gorilla winch and their organization:

I got a Gorilla 3000 lb winch for my Ranger. What a peice of junk. Got it last Sept. 06 used it a few times with a Swisher dump setup. Lasted about 8 trips hauling a load of road rock around the building. The gears were completely stripped. This was early Oct, notified them it failed they sent a replacement unit. Installed it hauled a few more loads of rock, a few days later had a good snowfall, 4 inches of fluff. Put the plow on and proceeded to clean up the drive. Got about half way done and the unit locked up. Took it apart and the planetary gears were shattered. Contacted them again, no response. Tried numerous times they just ignored me. Even tried to BUY the replacement parts, no response. It is now March 07, they won't honor their warranty they don't have or won't offer parts.

Crappy outfit to do business with.

 

What could have happened is if you move your load of rock over rough terrain the constant bouncing could have stripped the gears???

 

Thanks for posting your experiences with the folks at Gorilla. I'll keep it in mind the next time I need a winch.

Don't know how you have you winch cable hooked to the bucket and plow but you should have the lift point as close to the bucket and plow as possible. As I mentioned in an earlier post I added a pulley on the unit to slow the lift and drop speed. This cuts the effective load on the winch by half which may be the reason my inexpensive winch has not failed. I found the speed to fast to control easily when back filling behind a pipe trencher. My reaction time is such that I could not get a reasonably smooth finish.

Zitterich246 mentions the possibility of impact damage to the winch gears. This is a real possibility and adding the pulley to the system would also reduce this problem.

Hope you are able to solve the winch problem, I have used the heck out of my Swisher equipment and have had no failures. Once you get your winch working right you will have a heck of a machine.

 

I have contacted you numerous times and have not gotten responses to my emails or postings through eBay.