I have seen many comments regarding Gorilla winches and am looking at getting one of them. Has anyone tried one from Harbor Freight? $100.00 list. I know you get what you pay for, but I'm not looking to haul my SUV out of a ditch or yank any trees down. I want it for when I manage to get myself stuck. New rider, kind of daring (probably more than I will be willing to admit!) Pretty much more of an ornament I guess. I just figure an ATV should have one.

Any one got any general guidelines on what one could expect from a winch with a 2000lb capacity versus 3000lb capacity etc. I'm a little unsure what the lb. rating translates to when the winch is attatched to a 500 or 600lb ATV.

 

About any cheaper winch will work as good as a warn or ramsey. I have a Venom2500XT and it performs VERY well. I have a 700+ lb ATV also, so im sure a 2500 would be plenty for you.

 

Some winches have thiner winch cable and the mounting and structure may differ. From what I have seen the gorilla and venom winches are built just about the same as a warn and come with the roller fairlead and mounting plate specific for your ATV. Check to see if the harbor freight winch comes with the fairlead and mount. If its only a 2000 lb and it dosnt, I'd go with a venom or gorilla that does. Fairlead and mount could cost as much as 60-80 dollars.

 

HArbour freight has a 1500lbs winch for about $50. I had one for 2 yrs on my Polaris and it worked awsome. It was a little loud and somewhat slow but it worked everytime i needed it. It is very simple and waterproof. Just the winch needed for emergencies. I used it alot and was able to pull sportsmans out from deep mud and it has never failed. If it were to be used for alot of play I would suggest one better but in a pinch they work great. If you get a gorilla then make sure its the new waterproof ones. The venom winches are also good.

 

The ones from harbor freight do not have a contactor and is bad for your battery..

 

How many people know that a winch is rated with one spool of cable on the drum, and as you wind more cable on the less amount of pull it has. So that mean if you have 2000lb winch at one wrap of cable on it. Then when you have 2 wraps on it it's 1500lbs and so on.

Easiest way to get more power out of a winch is to run the cable through a ****** block, that will double it's pulling power.

 

I'm looking at the Gorilla 2000lb. waterproof winch. Looks decent I guess. I am also look at the ****** block, but that will cut my usable cable length in half, right? Maybe I should consider a bigger winch because they have longer cables.

 

thefist,

A 2000lbs will be more than enough for you. Most get a 2500-3000 for full size utes with all the gear and they work fine.

 

for a few more dollars go w/ a bigger reated wich like the 2500,or even the 3000 if have a heavy wheeler. you can never have enough power. what are you going to do if stuck in a hole and the 2000 lb was quote: enough wich for ya, but all if a sudden it reaches its max pulling power and stops pulling. yes it can happen.