You will like that bumper. I have a strongmade bumper on my sxs and it is nice. Their racks are sweet too.

Did you install yours?

Yes. Nothing to it.

Well I just ordered one, I'll post pics when I get it installed along with the winch ...

Paul we need to go ridin. I'm ready for some R&R. Look up Windrock park and tell me you don't want to go.

[quote=Reno]An under sized winch is like a 3" pecker.. good for around the house but i wouldnt work it down the road. A disadvantage to the synthetic cable is you cant snatch on it [/quote}

I assume your talking about running it to a snatch block and back to the 4 wheeler which doubles the pulling power? Not snatch as in jerk it with some body pulling you out.... If you were being snatched out by a vehicle etc you wouldn't want to use the winch cable for that.

Rocket thats a super nice winch but twice as big as you'll ever need.

Brock that place looks awesome, I'd love to hit it some time. My schedule is packed right now and it would be difficult to find time to go that far away, maybe we can do something closer soon?

Walker thats good to hear, I didn't pay much for it ... got it on sale for $100 off on a fluke with Cabelas. I'd have paid about the same amount for the 2500.

Got the bumper and winch mounted but it's not wired up. That promises to be a little bit of a challenge to me. Bumper and winch were a piece of cake

Strong battery and good connections are a must. Without them you just have a cool front end weight.

Are you planning on mounting a fairlead on your winch?

The wiring is a bit more challenging on an ATV then a UTV. There's just not as much space to mount the switch/relay and wires. There's a bunch of videos on you tube that will help. The switch relay setup is pretty much the same for all the winch kits. If you find a video for a different size or brand winch, it's going to be the same. The trick is to find power from the ignition to power the relay. Look for videos that deal with your ATV. Honda hasn't changed much (if anything) on the Rancher in the last 10+ years, so don't worry if the video pertains to an older model.

I've installed several, and the 1st time you do it is kind of stressfull. When you get done you'll laugh at how easy it really would be if you had to do it again.

I'm sure his winch came with it, but with a synthetic rope you cant use a roller fairlead, you have to use the Hawse fairlead.

The reason I asked is the pic he posted of the installation doesn't have one. Maybe he's saving it for later. I suppose you could operate without, but wouldn't think it would be the best plan.

I'm not in a hurry as I won't be using the bike for two weeks or more due to booked weekends. I'm doing a little bit at a time and stopping when I have an issue I need clarification on. There are several forums + YouTube I'm using to get info (this site too).

Mine came with a hawse fairlead so I'm good there. The problem with this is there isn't any place to mount it. Apparently there is another part to buy ... a mounting bracket for the fairlead, no? On the StrongMade website they show this pic with another model winch installed. The fairlead looks to be mounted on some sort of plate between the winch and the bumper.


I mounted the contactor in the rear storage compartment last night. Not an ideal place but so far I don't use that compartment. I've read where some folks have mounted it under the seat on the bar by the battery but I just don't see enough space there. I might move it if I find a better place ... some say it can be mounted next to the gas tank ... I'll check that tonight.

I tried to mount the switch on the handlebars but apparently there is a part missing. Below is all the switch mounting hardware that came with it plus the installation diagram. See the red lines? That's where the mounting bolts are supposed to go but there are no mounting holes on the switch. It looks like there is supposed to be some sort of mounting case that the switch goes in.


Maybe I need to call both StrongMade and Warn and see what's up here?

My warn came wih the plate to mount the fairlead.

Thanks for letting me know, I'm calling them now

Here is the plate you need to go between the bumper and winch, it has the bolt holes for your fairlead to mount to it.

http://www.harborfreight.com/atvutility-winch-mounting-plate-62445.html


You are missing the handlebar toggle switch, you have the bracket just not the switch.

No. The switch is that switch looking thing on the left side of his picture. It isn't the switch shown in the diagram though.

My warn has the exact same mounting hardware, and a swithc that looks like the one i. The diagram. Id ask warn about that while I had them on the phone.

Just got off the phone, these guys are great at customer support. They are sending me a fairlead mounting plate and the proper switch. No charge ... That switch costs about $50 retail ...

I bought the 4000-s which is intended for UTVs, not ATVs. The 3500 and below are intended for ATVs and ship with the rocker switch shown in the diagram.

ATVs have very small batteries. One thing I learned with pickup winches that the battery amps is very important. The bigger winches pull more amps. My old 8274 8,000 lb Warn pulled about 450 amps at full load but man that thing would pull. We got so stuck one night I could not budge my pickup. We took a fresh battery and jumped it to mine and it pulled us right out - just needed more juice.


So with an ATV the law of diminishing returns comes to play pretty fast with their small batteries. Bottom line is I seriously doubt you actually get 4000 lbs of pulling power. A 2000 is plenty for an ATV.

Agreed, I doubt that I'll need 4000 either but I got it for basically the same price as a 2500