2500# Harbor Freight winch install
 

Here are a few pictures of 2500# Harbor Freight winch installed on my daughter's Cazador 180xl Saturday. I had to extend the bumper out a few inches. The install went pretty smooth.
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year

Looks good .

Thanks

That turned out pretty nice. Does it have more than just two bolts holding it on to the mount? It might just be the picture, but that is what it looks like. I would be worried about it snapping the bolts under torsion if the winch isn't straight on.

That base of the winch only has two mounting holes so I welded it on too.

Wow, what a terrible design. I guess since it is such a light weight winch they figured it was all it needed, but sheesh.

You would of thought the would of had at least 4 bolts. But for $50 It didn't surprise me. It is a pretty good winch for the price. We tested it out it will drag the UTV sideways with very little effort. I'm going to wire in a manual switch too just in case the remote battery ever failed.

I got up early this morning and fabricated a land anchor out of flat bar and angle iron. I made it so it will fold up and fit in the ammo can. Places like the spillway doesn't have many trees to hook to so most will either carry pipe or rods they can drive in the ground or use a land anchor. The ground is soft and the anchor will dig it self deeper as you pull on it. After that I mounted an ammo can to store the anchor, tow strap and shackles.

Hopefully you have a line dampener in that box too?

Yes sir.

:tup:

I have already had the pleasure of witnessing a snapped winch line injure somebody. I am very safety minded because of it. I made one out of two pairs of tube socks and some rocks before for a friend on the trail once, just because he didn't know any better. Stripes and all lol.

Update.. Saturday morning I wired in a momentary toggle switch and mounted it on the dash. The remote is a nice feature if you want to operate it from a distance but sort of a pain in the butt that you have to either dig it out your pocket or accidently leave it at home or dead remote battery. This mod makes it more convenient to operate from the seat or just reaching over and flipping the switch. It was an easy mod (wish I would of taken pictures) All it takes is three wires and a three pole momentary switch. One wire from the Positive post in the control box and one wire each from in in and out post in the box. I got the information from this youtube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaEEc00c9SA&t=919s

Does the switched power pass through either relays or solenoids?

It triggers the solenoid in the control box. You connect the wires to the same wires that the remote receiver is connected to. The remote will still operate as it did before.

I gutted the Bluetooth to stop the power draw on my grandfathers.