I have had my wheeler and plow for 4 years now. And it works ok. I have replaced the winch twice so far and all i use it for it plowing. I originally got the moose winch(made by warn) w the plow. That lasted about 1.5 years, then i replaced it w a warn winch. That made it another 1.5 years. Last year i replaced that w a Gorilla winch i got of e-bay(cheap). Well today while plowing that one is taking a crap. The gears in these things must be made of plastic. What winch are all you using for lifting the plow? Is there some type of manual lift for the moose plow, the winch is kinda slow

thanks, Brad

 

Gorilla 3ooo#. No problems at all.

 

Really? thats what i got now and it toast already, w/ only 5-6 storms under its belt

 

I also have a Gorilla #3000 lb winch 2 years and i use it for both plowing and getting my *** out of mud. No problems at all..

 

I have a superwinch 2300 on it's third year. It is noisy as crap but it has always been. So far it has worked great.

 

You don't say what size winch. I have three 2500# Warns, two are only used for plowing, and have never had a problem with any of them. If you are using the Warn 1500# I know the screws will come loose so you need to lock tite them in place. Also the planetary housing will crack plus they are slower than the 2500.

In the past I have used several Superwinches. Wore two out and the third cracked the magnets in the motor. Plus they were too slow but they were the 1000# and 1500# winches.

 

That's a lot of winches to burn through. I had a warn 2500 that I used with a Moose plow for 7 years and never had a problem with it other than the wire rope breaking a few times. You might need to look at the how you are using it to see if there is something you are doing that is causing the early failures. What size plow are you pushing? Do you use the plow to move dirt and rocks around in the off season? I always put my machine in reverse and backed away from the snow pile before lifting the plow. Are you lifting your plow loaded down with wet heavy snow?

 

Another thing that might be causing failures is if you are "winching in" too far when you're lifting the plow...When I plow I only raise mine enough to get it off the ground when backing up....Just an idea...

John

 

I agree w/ the last few posts. I used to plow commercially with my AC 500i and had Warn 2500 and never had any problems with the winch. The cable had a small fray after 3 years but that was it. Also used it a lot when I was more into mudding. The ATV was a piece of s--t after 2 years but the winch was great.

 

I use a warn 2500ci winch and had to clean it out twice since 2003. Regreased gears and sprayed the motor magnets with pb spray to keep it from seizing up-the winch is not sealed. So far the winch has lasted through 7 years of plowing in Northern VT and lots of deep water and mudding.