Test your winch!!

[MattyzST]

Just wanted to let everyone that has a winch that you guys need to run it out more than you think.
I recently took my family to the snow for the day and on our return trip home i came across an accident on the snowy road. A young couple had slid of the road and down an embankment writing off her Holden Cruz.
The car was positioned in a way that it could be winched back up to the road quite safely and easily so as i was only second on the scene i offered to retreive her car from the ditch and at least have it on the road for the tow truck as it was indrivable due to damage.
Now i have a brand new WARN XP9.5 that came with the vehicle and it had never been wound off the drum. It is 2 1/2 yrs old though, but never used.
Anyway after positioning myself safely to pull her car out i free spooled approx 18m of wire out and then returned to my car engaged the winch and took the tension up on the wire. I turned to tell my wife to step away incase some thing went wrong and proceeded to winch but nothing only clicking! I tried to tap numerous items of the winch, solenoid box, motor, to no avail. By this stage there was a line of traffic banked up and time had lapsed.
With my tail between my legs I had to tell the poor girl i could do nothing for her but offer her a lift to the next town to wait for the tow truck and lift home.
I tested the solenoids the following day along with the motor following the instructions on the WARN website and found the motor to be knackered. After taking it out and to the local Auto Elec i was told it was full of water and looks like it had been from day one. The seals were just not sealing.
Now i havent been through any rivers, but i cant say if the previous owner did although the condition of the car tells me he looked after it very well and i dont think it was ever off road to be honest.
The Auto elec told me that you need to run these things every couple of months to keep the motor free and in working order.
I will run mine now every service if its not used in between. You only have to run it out 8 - 10 feet then back.
Just wanted to share my story so no one else gets caught out, luckily i wasnt stuck when i found out.
After returning to work the next week and talking about it with my work collegues one of whom used his XP9.5 the following week and guess what??................It failed with the same symptoms.
WARN were happy to help in fixing the issue but the cost of it to be rebuilt wasnt high and i wasnt the original purchaser so i didnt pursure it. Also if you Google it there are alot of stories of this happening all over the world with the XP9.5 being a repeat offender.

Anyway ramble over hope i can help at least one person from falling victim to the same problem i had.

 

[RustyNav09]

this is very good info for those with winches. i would have expected the warn to prove itself a bit better then that even though it was 2.5yrs old. its just shows that you can splurge on the better now products but never get the $$$ value out of it. yes it was good having there just incase but the situation could have been worse. it could have been you stuck in a sticky situation rather then you being the loyal guy passsing by trying ot lend a hand.

good effort for trying to help someone out. its rare these days.

Rusty

 

[MattyzST]

Thanks Rusty,
Yeah its def not good enough on WARN's part. Expensive bits of gear like that should last a long time!!

 

[Jason]

Good tip mate, I will be running my Tigerz11 out when I get a chance now.

 

[mgermasi]

If i can add my 50c

When you run the winch OUT as part of maintenance DO NOT free spool it out but use the motor.

The brake on the winch is always ON on the way OUT so by forcing the motor to run against the brake you generate more heat

Hope it helps

 

[04SilverSTR]

yeah the experts say the best maintenence for a winch is to use it or run it out and in once a month!

cheers
bryan

 

[Old.Tony]

I've been using mine to pull out tree stumps. It's an Aldi winch, I waited for it to drop from $399 to $299 and so I've basically stolen it. Goes great. The steel wire's a bit knackered since I've now used it in a couple of vehicle recoveries and quite a few tree removals (using a tree trunk protector of course) but it's still more than capable of skull-dragging my car on bitumen with all 4 wheels locked (one of the stumps in my front yard was particularly sturdy).

For those that need to pull stumps and want to know what works, I use 4.75T bow shackles and a 5m long 12T tree protector. Attach, put the car in neutral, foot on the foot brake (handbrake released) and let it rip with the engine idling.

 

[sparra04]

You would expect more from a 'premium product'
I firmly believe sometimes the cheaper option IS better, all my winches have been cheepies , I class them as a throwaway item
cheers

 

[Chris C]

Such a common story with WARN, they leak, lots, I have never seen one that wasn't full of water and mud.

I bought a 13,000lb Ebay job, $279 delivered, with wired and remote controls, it pulls like a freight train, not super fast on spool out, but is super strong with low amp draw.

It will also skull drag my ute, loaded, wheels locked on coarse chip bitumen with ease.

It fitted staight into my ARB delux winch bar, very happy.

 

[happy john]

That's one huge paragraph Matty but good advice, moisture is the biggest culprit in a winch they all need regular servicing.

 

[sparra04]

Such a common story with WARN, they leak, lots, I have never seen one that wasn't full of water and mud.

I bought a 13,000lb Ebay job, $279 delivered, with wired and remote controls, it pulls like a freight train, not super fast on spool out, but is super strong with low amp draw.

It will also skull drag my ute, loaded, wheels locked on coarse chip bitumen with ease.

It fitted staight into my ARB delux winch bar, very happy.

and if it shits its self tomorrow who cares, get another at that price