So I purchased my Warn M12000 in 2000 and have never used it for self-extraction (not that I'm complaining). I have used it to pull out a small tree and a few shrubs in tight spots, but generally avoid this as I find the 80 can yank these things out just fine if there is room. I've used the winch a time or two to extract others, but again, avoid this. So in all, I may have used the winch 5-6 occassions and only short pulls and not for long. It is mounted in and ARB winch bar and is unprotected from the elements. There is slight surface rust on the drum, but that seems to be it.
Now, today I was out in the 'country' clearing trees from some new property in preparation for a bridge pour. In short, I can only access the property across a small creek and to get the trees out for the bridge I had to fall them and then drag them up the creek bed for cutting. I opted to use the winch as the creek bed is pretty steep. The largest tree was about 8-10 inch diamteter but a few were pretty tall. I can't imagine any of these things weighed more than 1,000 lbs. I had to drag most of them about 100 ft each (so I was using most of the winch line for each tree). After dropping them, I threw a chain around each and hooked up the winch and pulled them up - without ever a problem. But after dragging out 4 of them, the winch just stopped working. I checked for loose connection at the remote, but it would still spool out, just not in. I waited a few minutes and everything worked fine. Would this normally overheat given the light use? Should I be looking at maintenance in the near future? What is the maintenance (I will pull the manual out this weekend, I'm just curious if anyone has a quick answer)?
I did notice that the winch would stall for a second and click loudly at each rotation. I can't say if this is normal b/c I've rarely ever used the thing. I've never done any maintenance b/c . . . well . . . I've hardly ever used the thing. But now I'm wondering if maintenance SHOULD have been done simply b/c it is exposed to the weather. I noticed the area under/around the control box was a bit warm, but not really THAT hot.
Any thoughts? I'm leaving next week for a 2-month trek up through northern minnesota and canada in and around the boundry waters area, so I'd really like to know everything is working before I go. Also, I noticed that if I moved the clutch to 'free spool' to pull out the cable, it was REALLY hard to pull out. Even with my 250 lbs I had such a tough time that I ended up using the remote to spool out (maybe this added to the heat issue).
Thanks!
Now, today I was out in the 'country' clearing trees from some new property in preparation for a bridge pour. In short, I can only access the property across a small creek and to get the trees out for the bridge I had to fall them and then drag them up the creek bed for cutting. I opted to use the winch as the creek bed is pretty steep. The largest tree was about 8-10 inch diamteter but a few were pretty tall. I can't imagine any of these things weighed more than 1,000 lbs. I had to drag most of them about 100 ft each (so I was using most of the winch line for each tree). After dropping them, I threw a chain around each and hooked up the winch and pulled them up - without ever a problem. But after dragging out 4 of them, the winch just stopped working. I checked for loose connection at the remote, but it would still spool out, just not in. I waited a few minutes and everything worked fine. Would this normally overheat given the light use? Should I be looking at maintenance in the near future? What is the maintenance (I will pull the manual out this weekend, I'm just curious if anyone has a quick answer)?
I did notice that the winch would stall for a second and click loudly at each rotation. I can't say if this is normal b/c I've rarely ever used the thing. I've never done any maintenance b/c . . . well . . . I've hardly ever used the thing. But now I'm wondering if maintenance SHOULD have been done simply b/c it is exposed to the weather. I noticed the area under/around the control box was a bit warm, but not really THAT hot.
Any thoughts? I'm leaving next week for a 2-month trek up through northern minnesota and canada in and around the boundry waters area, so I'd really like to know everything is working before I go. Also, I noticed that if I moved the clutch to 'free spool' to pull out the cable, it was REALLY hard to pull out. Even with my 250 lbs I had such a tough time that I ended up using the remote to spool out (maybe this added to the heat issue).
Thanks!
