Hey guys - I use my ATV to plow - 2004 Bombardier Outlander. I put the plow on about 4-5 years ago. When the shop mounted the plow, they told me the winch magnets wouldn't hold the plow up and suggested I should replace the original winch. Did so with new Warn winch. About 2-3 years ago, winch started making a loud high pitch grinding noise when I would lower the plow - still does so - not always but often. Last winter, at end of winter (last plow thank goodness) the winch stopped winding in completely. I replaced the contactor this September before winter. The power leads were reversed - so now out is in and in is out, but I didn't care enough to worry about fixing that. Seemed to work okay for a bit, but now the when I hit the switch to unwind the cable, it is intermittent and today, after trying a few times to let the winch down - I smelled a burning electronic smell. So......I'm thinking I need to replace the switch now - hopefully I didn't foul the new contactor. Seems interesting that the problem initially was not winding in, and now that the switch/contactor is reversed, the problem is unwinding - I'm hoping this means bad switch. Still have the winch grinding noise to figure out. Part of me is thinking about just getting a new winch, contactor and switch - since I depend on the ATV to clear a big area of snow and, of course, there isn't a lot of time to goof around with trying one part at a time to see what solves the issue - I need it to work and work pretty much now. Any thoughts on problem would be greatly appreciated - hope to get working on it tomorrow and see if I can tell where it is getting hot. Cheers!
Very possible that the motor brushes are part of your problem , causing an over draw of current which then fries the switch/contactor assembly. A really bad brush can cause intermittent run problem. Screaming noise- Bearing or possible the brushes- the brass holder for the carbon brush contacting the armature and of course that doesn't do the armature a whole lotta good either. Water/mosture in the gear case can cause a host of noises also. Lead reversal shouldn't affect anything other than as noted. Brushes are cheap in the scheme of things.
Thank you for your thoughts - I may run to Harbor Freight tomorrow and pick up their Badlands 3500lb winch - on sale for $140 and have 20% coupon - this is the only thing I use the winch for, so don't really want to spend a lot of cash on a high end winch. I'd look into rebuilding the winch if I had time, snow won't wait. I'll see about rebuilding the Warn once it is off and if it is fixable, I'll have a back-up ready to go if (when!) the harbor freight winch fails. Cheers!
Harbor Freight winches seem to be pretty decent. My brother used their 12,000 lb one for about 6 years before he finally killed it.
More issues - got the winch off and noticed that I've managed to crack the flange on both sides of the aluminum front bumper which holds the plow mount - ugh. Disassembled and bringing to buddies fab shop now to see if he can work some magic - if you can all pray for now snow in NH for the next few days.....may help! Cheers!
Was the mount from bombardier? If you've got that problem, others may too. Will that HF winch mount up the same as the warn? My parents bought a HF one to put in place of the warn one on the sportsman when they had issues. It wasn't the winch, it was the contactor after 12 years. I told them I don't know if the new winch would simply bolt up.
Finished up the project a few hours before we had a snowfall three days ago. I few details and info for members: When I removed the warn winch, I found another major problem - the aluminum front bumper base which holds the bottom steel plow mount had cracked along the mount holes and welds - ugh! A buddy has a fab shop and told me to bring it down - tig welded the aluminum cracks and we added a section of 3/8 angle iron to the steel mounting bracket, drilled and bolted through the welded aluminum - should offer quite a bit of bracing to reduce stress on the new aluminum welds. Bought the HF 3500lb Badlands winch. Mounting pattern identical to Warn 2500lb winch it replaced (but, I looked at the HF 2500lb winch at the store and that pattern does NOT match at all). Since I had all the wiring in place, I only replaced the old switch with the new HF switch. Mounted the plow and all good. Second time plowing (yesterday), I raised the plow with the new switch and started in reverse - let go of the switch while looking back. The switch did not turn off!!!! I looked forward to see my plow fully raised and by the time I went for the switch........bang! luckily the winch cable snapped - some warping to the metal brush guard - but could have been much worse and glad it happened while plowing and not in another tricky situation. Returned the whole unit yesterday afternoon - installed new winch and switch and I'll be keeping a very close eye on it this time. We'll see how the HF winch holds up. After the 20% coupon, was a hair over $100 - worth a shot at that price. Cheers to all and Happy New Year!
