well i think most of you guys know how i use my bike now. i pull a load with it almost non-stop. my bike is hooked to a trailer pulling 1400+lbs of weight behind it at all times.
here is a picture of my large 110 gallon rig i use when spraying golf courses. this rig when full of water tops almost 2,000 lbs
and a picture of my smaller 60 gallon rig (the workhorse) this rig has a solid frame, 3,000lb hubs and a solid stock 2 1/2" axle i machined the spindles and all on. this rig is as solid as they come, i built it myself as with all my other rigs to be as sturdy and durable as possible. this rig has been flipped down to the bottom of quite a few levees and never even hurts it. i built it to take a roll without harm. so the frame and motor and pump is heavy. with the 60 gallons of water this rig tops out at almost 1400 lbs.
well i say all that to say this: i use my bike for work, and it has been an awesome bike. however there are plenty of times where the bike just isn't man enough to overcome some of the treacherous terrain i encounter and in many instances i am left depending on my winch to get me to the top of a levee, or across an impassible ditch such as this.
i got my bike new, with the arctic cat factory offered winch already installed. it is a warn 2500lb winch. i can tell you i dont use my winch every day by any means, but when i do use it, its gonna get a workout pulling my bike across or up something that it does not want to do. my warn winch has always left me out in the cold. sometimes the freewheel mechanism would not lock back so i could not power the winch in, and when you are in a bind and need the winch to get you out, that leaves you in a world of hurt and madder than your ole lady if you told her she needed to lose a few pounds. needless to say my warn continually gave me problems. 4 out of the 5 times i would use it, it would fail, break, or not work. every now and then it worked and got me out of a jam but it was continually in the shop getting parts replaced or diagnosed. half the time the mechanic would say "nothing is wrong with it" and i would always get even madder cause i would say "i wouldn't have brought the sum bish in if it was working!" one day i was winching up the side of a levee about 40 feet high and at about a 55-60 degree grade. once i get on top of the levee i can spray down to the bottom from the top i just gotta get on top first. i do this particular levee twice a year and i have a steak driven in the levee at this end where i always winch up. i pulled up to the base of this levee, pulled my rope to the steak, looped it around like always and start driving up as far as i can go under my own power and then let the winch help pull me up the rest of the way, and on this particular day my warn was working for a change and i was actually happy with it, untill SNAP!!! and i went freewheeling down the levee and flipped my bike over on myself. i was madder than all get-out and what was worse is when i normally flip over i use the winch to upright myself. so not only was i stuck at the base of the levee upside down but i had a useless winch again. come to find out, the shaft that runs thru the winch from the motor to the freewheel mechanism has a PLASTIC gear on the end of the shaft and the PLASTIC gear stripped out which sent me flying down the levee flipping me when the bike and rig jackknifed. that was the last straw i was fed up with that hunk of junk. i went searching for somthing a bit better, i ended up in touch with the head guy at promark and asked him a few questions about their winches. i told him i needed a winch that was indestructible, was fully sealed, and had no plastic gears. i also thru in the stipulation that i needed more than a normal 50ft or rope. i built radiused spacer sleeves for my warn that allowed me to run almost 80ft of rope and sometimes i needed every inch of it. when you are WAY out in the wilderness or in a bind and nothing is around, sometimes you gotta have more than 50ft of rope. he told me that their Promark 3500 outback series winch was what i needed, indestructible, geared super low to pull anything, fully watertight, and no plastic internals, AND could fit more than 50ft of rope. i told him to get one coming, got it in and oohh'd and ahhh'd at it. its built like a german tank. i put it on and have been running it since. this winch came with all sorts of goodies like a handheld remote and a handlebar rocker switch. the fully sealed solenoid has two inputs for the wired 20ft remote or the optional wireless remote. i dont normally put my winch under water, but i do wash it religiously every day. i wash my bike at the end of every day, so the bike definitely sees it fair share of water. i recall taking my warn apart before to do regular maintenance and had rusted gears and a case full of water. as far as i can tell after a month and a half of having this Promark, no issues from water yet. i have used it quite a few times and never had a problem. it has not failed me, it has not let me down. it has pulled me and my rig perfectly fine up hills, and across ditches, and kept me from flipping over on a dirt wash out. times like these are when you need a winch, and having one that works will put a smile on your face. being able to trust and rely on your equipment is the only way to have a safe outting everytime you go out. working off my bike like i do, and having equipment that you know is going to work and you can trust gives you an assurance that you can do whatever you set out to do. i feel certain that this winch, and all the others they make will do their job. as long as you get the right winch for your application, i am sure you will have safe and happy outtings. i know when i go on big rides and you come to a mudhole and there is one guy burried up to his racks in mud and 50 people standing around looking and everybody hollers out "who's gotta winch" and you look around and 80% of the bikes have a winch and 90% of them are warn but everybody claims theirs is broken, well i too was one of those guys once and was always without a winch or was always scared it was going to break. now i dont have to worry about that. hopefully this winch will continue to preform as well as it has so far. it will take many more outtings to determine if there are any weaknesses, i have seen one such issue that may become a problem over time. i dont know if it is the way this winch is designed, or just how it is, but when you freewheel the winch and pull out your cable, and then lock the winch back, the winch does not immediately lock. you will have to pull the line out a little before the drum locks back into its locking position. i believe that this winch must have a keyed locking mechanism and have to turn untill the keyway lines up. not something bad per say just something i am not used to yet. i am hoping i dont have any issues with it down the road but only time will tell. for the price, and the performance so far, this winch is holding up 1000times better than my warn.