Winch Maintenance

[bowhunter]

What upkeep if any does everyone do to their winches? The shop i take mine to for repair (third time now ) tell me to disassemble and clean out all old grease and repack with new grease two times a year.

 

[bubs]

I just pulled mine apart a couple weeks ago...WOW the amount of sheet in there was scary. I will be doing mine at least once a year from now on, if not for the sake of the winch at least for me...the unlock so you can just pull it off the spool actually works now. Awesome. It only took about an hour even with all the crud in there.

 

[goodngrubby]

Me too. After a summer of mud, muskeg, and water, the inside of a winch gets kinda nasty. Princess Auto has a 3.5 gallon parts washer on sale for $99, it works awesome for cleaning out a winch. I cleaned mine up a couple weeks ago, only took about an hour start to finish.

 

[bspot]

Winches are not water tight, anytime they are below the water line they will get water in them. I pull mine apart once a year and there is always skeg in it. The new warn I bought says its water tight??? I have yet to pull it apart to see if that is true.

 

[OnlyPolaris]

i also pull mine apart once a year, clean it out and regrease. i have yet to pull one of these new sealed units apart. but from what i have heard they are sealed pretty good.

 

[bowhunter]

what kind of grease are you supposed to fill them back up with then?

 

[goodngrubby]

I use Molykote 33 low temp. It's expensive, but works great.

 

[4byrookie]

Mine was clean 2 years ago when I bought the quad. Have never had any problems with it not working and have done nothing but put it through abuse.

 

[atver]

It's the same as anything else, a little maintaince goes a long way !!!