New Quad need winch suggestions

Hey everyone, I got a new quad a couple of weeks ago my first one a 07' King Quad 450. I have used winches before on my work trucks but actually never bought one let alone for an ATV.

The dealer gave me a winch plate in the deal, it's a Warn 70326 now I need a winch for it. Are the mounting holes the same for all ATV size winches ? What is the best deal out there? I guess the 2 games in town are Warn and SuperWinch. The Suzuki catalog shows the Warn 2.5ci as the "suggested" accessory but can I go larger (or how much smaller)and still have clearance ?

Wiring should not be a problem, I used to build police cars, ambulances and fire trucks and this is a piece of cake. BUT when it comes to the Suzuki and it's frame have any owners out there have installed it themselves and have any suggestions ?

http://www.mudbog.net/forum/t1565/

Fedmedic brought this winch to everyone's attention a while back. So far, he has had very good luck with it judging from his posts, and it was much less expensive than others.

I don't know if it will mount to the Warn plate or not, but given the rather high cost of a Warn winch, you might be able to fairly easily adapt that plate to make it work.

just a quick question, do I have to have a mounting plate for a winch or will the holes in the front where it is supposed to be mounted at do the job. I have a 07 grzzly 450. I found a cheaper winch at Atwoods but don't know if I need a plate to mount it on.

A bit of the blind leading the blind here since I only have 2-3 hours on my 450 but I believe the answer is yes. I looked underneath and I see the mounting holes on the frame but those should be the holes for the plate. By the way the plate for the 450-700 King Quad are the same since the frames are the same.

I have seen plates sell between $35 and $75, of course the one I have is a Warn so it's more expensive but heck, the dealer threw it in probably cost him $40 I don't care I got a plate out of it.

Don't know yet if I am going name brand or not. I don't plan on using it a lot but I do want to have it there since most of my riding on the property will be alone, I don't have another ATV or buddy and my personal truck is not 4x4 not that I would be able to get it back there anyway. It will be good security but I am thinking higher end maybe since when I buy something I keep it forever, I do not upgrade or sell my stuff used very often if at all. Only time I get something new is once I drive something so far into the ground it's next trip is the junk yard. Last car I bought was my wife's truck in 98' did not need 4x4 in Florida and we have over 200K miles on it. I expect to get at least another 50-100K miles before we need something new!

I my opinion you should not need to get any larger than a 2500 lb winch. I have a WARN on my bike but I got it as a promotional deal for 49.99. Only because I bought 2 bikes at the same time. But I did have to install mine myself. It came with the plates to mount it but there was also a seperate kit for the winch that in my mind mounted better to the bike. I also had no trouble wiring the thing my self. It only took me 3-4 hours to put winches on both of my bikes.

I just purchased one of the new Warn RT 2500lb winches for my bike. Honestly it wasn't cheap. I can tell you how well pleased I am with it and the flawless operation that I gotten out of it so far. The 1st time I used it I had to pull a 660 Grizzly out of the creek. His CVT belt got wet and was slipping. Had to tow his bike over a log though to get out of the water. Winch never let up. I was happy with my purchase from then on, regardless of it's extra cost. Warn Industries - The NEW WARN XT and RT Winch Series If you want more info, check out the website. The only differance between the RT and the XT is that the XT has synthetic wire rope.

Oh, my buddy raves about the Mile Marker winches. I haven't looked into them much, but I trust his opinion. You can check them out also. However just my line of thinking here; if you already have a Warn winch plate, go with a Warn.

Oh and remember cheaper isn't always a better deal. I've learned this the hard way buying cheap tools to work on my truck. Being a winch is a tool, the same thing applies. Whatever decision you make, make sure you're happy with it now. If you're not, you probably won't ever be. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

WARN (in my opinion) makes the best winch on the market... for ATV's or otherwise.

I currently have three.... and have seen them do some amazing things.

I highly recommend the WARN 2.5CE, and any other winch they produce.

Good luck and let us know what you decide!

Ride Safe,

Chuck

I have a Warn 2.5 on my bike and have no problems with it. It spent the first year of it's life in Alaska where it spent time getting dunked underwater then outside in the low double digits. It worked flawlessly, after I powered out on the winch to loosen up all the ice. If it can pull out my fat ass bike, it can pull out yours.
I would suggest Warn to anybody.

Like Mike said, I have the Xtremewinch. I have used it numerous times and never had any problems with it. Pulling myself out as well as other riders, even pulling my truck across the back yard. I actually had to go pull a buddy out one night. He called and said he had gotten his ATV stuck and had to walk out 1-2 miles. I went and pulled him out with my winch. The funny part was he had a WARN 2.5 on the front of his ATV that wouldn't pull him out. Mine was an xtremewinch 3000. He stripped something inside of his winch. WARN did replace the part since it was less than a year old and had hardly been used. So the point being you can get expensive winches or you can get cheaper winches, either may work or either may fail. But I can buy 5 xtremewinches for the price of 1 WARN winch. Right now the waterproof xtremewinch 3000 kit which contains the winch, mounting plate and everything else needed to install sells for 105.99 and 30.00 S/H. I don't even have the waterproof one and mine has never failed me and I stay submerged in the water and mud, I guess I probably need to disassemble it and clean it one day. IMHO

From what I've read and researched, I believe that Warn makes the winch plates ATV specific, so I don't believe the holes would be the same for other winches, however, I'm not 100% sure without actually comparing them.

Found these articles regarding the Mile Marker winches and thought they were interesting. Seems like they got pretty good reviews

4X4REVIEW.COM - ATV's: Mile Marker PE3500 Utility ATV Winch
AND
Mile Marker Winches: The choice for U.S. Army's 2-Speed Hydraulic Winch System!

Good Luck and let us know what you decide

I just purchased an Extreme 3000 pound winch. I have not used it on any real tough pulls yet but so far I love it. For the money I just do not think I could beat it. I purchased it on ebay for $140 shipping included. Easy mount and wiring. It came with the specific plate for my rancher. Worth looking at. I have a Ramsey on my truck that is twenty-one years old and has not faild me yet. I have used it to pull stumps over that required four snatchblocks to increase the leverage.

Extreame and warn have the same mounting holes.

Well I rolled the dice and lost. Last weekend I sunk that puppy almost to the pipe. My dozer guy broke a track while clearing some land at the build site. He broke it when he was just about done and had pulled a few HUGE stumps out and was moving them and grading. I did not get a picture of it but the weekend before I SWEAR that hole was not there! He pulled a stump and did not get to back fill it and it rained a bit. What I thought was a puddle was a hole that just reached by knee cap!

I off cantered into the hole and had to put my foot down to keep from tipping over. I got the quad stable with a few more inches but also very stuck. No tree in the area to pull from either. I ended up very lucky with enough clevis pins and hooks to link a tow strap, a 25ft piece of bull chain and a come along that I had in the container (thank God for that!). I was lucky on the chain, it was at the front fence to block access and I sent the wife and kid 900ft each way to drag it back, it must weigh at least 50lbs. With that I was able to reach a tree and it was a snap after that.

Well I got the ATV back today to the house and am removing a few tons of clay from it now. I'll order a winch in the morning and try to get it installed by next weekend.

SCRich....have you decided which winch you are going to get?

No not yet, I am going to price out the Warn, Extreme, and Super Winch hopefully by the afternoon and place an order by the end of the day. I got a price on the RT25 from the local dealer at $365 but I want to check all of my options out. I know the local dealer charges $80 for the mounting plate (which I got in the deal when I bought the quad) while most others claim about $45 so I got to tread slowly before I just blindly buy it from them.

Money is tight now but it would be foolish for me not to get it. I have the tractor now if I need to get pulled out but there are a LOT of places where I need to go that are not ready for the tractor to get in and out of just yet.

I have the RT25 from Warn and I am very well pleased with it. Hope that helps. Good luck at any rate and keep us posted.

Today was busy at work since the boss was with us all day but I did get a few moments to surf the web at lunch. A search for the Extreme Winch line on the web has mixed reviews, seems 50/50 some people claim they are just as good as Warn while others claim that they are a POS and some have not even worked the first time out. REAL confusing. I am not a "name brand" person but it's been difficult to either go Warn or Extreme due to the mixed reviews.

Some things in life are worth paying for. Toilet paper, ice cream and winches. Warn is a little pricey. I'll give you that. However buying a winch that either doesn't perform or dissapoints you and then having to buy a 2nd winch to replace the 1st one is even more costly. Warn for me. That's my opinion.

I have to agree with the others, Warn is the way to go, I have had a Warn 2.5 on my Kodiak 400 for 3 and a half years now and have not had a single problem with it, and never lack pulling power.

Well it's a done deal now a Venom 4000x. I appreciate all the input from everyone on this list and others. Many people state that Warn is the best and it may be but there are a lot of owners out there of Extreme and Venom winches that are very happy also.

There are several people out there that have both and side by side they seem to be either the same or at least made in the same factory. So I had to roll the dice since the price difference is way too large to at least try out. Out of the 2-3 forums where there has been discussion on 2-3 brands that seem to be Warn clones I have only seen 1 unhappy customer. I have seen a lot of brand bashing but those bashing have not offered any reason whatsoever. Lot's of brand loyalty as has been seen here and that's OK and I respect that too.

We will see how it works out, the ATV is only used around the homestead and in many areas I can get the tractor in if needed. Based on the owner reports I have seen so far though I don't expect to have any major issues.

Rich

Great! Congrats on the new Venom 4000x

Let us know when you get a chance to use it and tell us what you think about it
Looking forward to your review

Please keep us posted on how it works for you.

Ordered it at about 6pm last night and it was shipped this AM. So far very responsive.

The BBT arrived this afternoon, right on schedule as promised. I opened the box but that is about it, I'll look over everything tonight and install it tomorow afternoon.

Always a good sign to be on time Hope the winch turns out to be as good as the service so far. Fingers crossed for ya! Sounds like you may have gotten a really good deal. Keep us posted

Well any udates as of yet? Just curious.

No as you can see I am up at 01:30, been working some odd hours and headed for bed.

It has also been raining most evenings and right now the only room I have to work with is out on the patio. I really hope it will be dry when I get home this afternoon and I'll give it a shot. I am keeping the ATV here and the wife want's me to get the job done by the weekend so we can trailer it to the property. She hates having to drag the trailer back and fourth every time we head out there.

I was going to give you the information on my old boss but then I realized you were asking about a wiNch....nevermind

Well I just completed the install at 9pm IN THE DARK!

MudTramp I am going to e-mail you about it. I took lot's of pictures and have lots of thoughts for an install review. BUT due to the pictures and such I don't know if I can do it in one message and may want to do it as a sticky since it's really the same for everything.

I may not be a ATV guru but I built Emergency Vehicles for several years at a Motorola shop and did some technical documentation. Maybe I can give back to the group with a detailed install review and Winch How-to.