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4.5
Another novel idea! Like the garage door "Genie" with a screw drive,... requires less power to achieve same results and quieter however that's about where this mirage ends.. One would think if Warn was going to bring to market an alternative lift,... they might make it faster than winch operation as a much needed goal. Winching is tediously slow and this product is actually even slower. It is quieter than a winch but not faster or blusters more muscle/power/range of motion... sadly not a faster stronger alternative & definitely slower than cable/rope snapping/tangling & slider wearing warn winch systems...It seems to me that I have had maintenance and repair bills that far exceed all of this from being a cost efficient method of snow removal, (although admittedly - way more fun)! My 600 dollar snow blower held up a ton better than my warn plow system costing in excess of 1000 bucks new in addition to quad purchase and keeps adding up to more every single year. Has eaten 2 warn winches in 4 yrs costing near 500 bucks each, gobbles synthetic rope (70 bucks per 50 ft is a good deal), countless plow parts designed to fail, ie... slider wear & bent quick-release pin syndrome etc. My last hope is this very slow and shallow range warn lift (maybe 5 inches of operation) will at least be more resilient than warn winch and not leave me freezing in winter performing repairs.The strap-on method of attachment,... either to bumper, rack or the optional expense of the extension bracket add-on accessory leaves much to be desired... (I reviewed the ext bracket as well), as it leaves the lift flapping loosely upon lowering the plow and could've easily been corrected with a little savvy engineering ie,... a solid connection to ext bracket would allow "some" minor downward pressure for back-dragging snow and scraping down to black-top etc. which this would be welcome by anyone that's ever plowed with a quad b-4 (attention "WARN"). The spring provided to keep the lift from rubbing and smacking the front of your machine is kind of a rube-Goldberg deal and feels like 3rd grade design.Wiring Harness Blues/Woes... lolAs I am unsure to exactly what breed(s) of "most vehicles" ATV the instruction manual references:"Note: The wire harness length has been designed to fit most vehicles. Additional wire may be required on some vehicles. Use 12 gauge multi-strand copper wire with quality"...Plan on needing more wire to add to the main battery power leads of the harness (at least 18 inches) to ensure you can place the relays near the front of the 4-wheeler/atv as you will need the remaining length of factory harness to reach the lift unit mounted to your plow frame. At 1st glance,... the harness will appear plenty long enough until you realize all the extra length you see is actually just for the handlebar mounted switch (wired remote) which makes very little sense considering the location of a "handlebar" mounted switch... and so I wound up about 4 feet of this wire and stored it in the front waterproof compartment so-as to NOT cut n splice the harness on the control end of things. I'd also point out to "Warn Engineering" I belong to an ATV club - and at a gathering I asked a dozen different ATV owners to remove their seats and we held the harness to the different quads and stretched out to "See" possible locations and scenarios for ourselves... I felt much better afterward as the harness made very little sense as a common design for any flavor in our club and we deemed most all would need to be lengthened at the main battery power leads. I found a good cure was to solder on a "quick connector" that fits my trickle charger (Battery Tender Jr.) (don't forget to solder the pos & neg leads backwards) and then I was able to just reach back and plug/unplug the plow lift system from the trickle charger lead I had mounted to the battery prior for maintaining full battery charge and ensuring needed plow ability in a storm. I did this because I find that too much garbage attached to the battery full time can lead to issues and also creates a pile-up of wires on top of the battery. (just an extra precaution from experience)Ultimately - I still enjoy Winters even though it gets tougher to deal with as I age no doubt. My suggestion to anyone with thought's of out-fitting their quad to plow snow is to lower your expectations and hopes for an easier, faster method of snow removal and plan on replacing parts regularly in the freezing cold. If you're not a DIY and maintenance kind of person, then save your money to pay for snow removal because nothing related to Winter snow removal is EZ or without its own headaches of some sort I guarantee... in my 40+ yrs of dealing with NE Winters, best bet is to prep a decent snow-blower for reliability and little expense -or- pay someone else to deal with it!UPDATE 11/19/2015:Just for grins n giggles I went out in the yard to have a run - thru to see how ell this lift worked. Decided to tackle moving some large piles of leaves out back to the woods behind my house. On the 3rd drop of the plow the lift just stopped working! Awesome! What a total piece of garbage... I think I'll be chewing some butt from warn starting tomorrow and every day till they refund every penny on this crap!I have had surgery on both shoulders so a manual lift was never a consideration. I bought the lift to prevent burning out my more expensive Warn winch motor ($400) from overheating caused by repeated short up/down use and ruining the winch cable ($50) from repeated tension/slack cycles.I left the plow/lift assembly in the back yard over the summer under some trees and the motor "flooded" and was shorted out from rain water! WARNING: The seal from the aluminum shaft to the black lift casing is NOT water tight! In my case, the rain drops that landed on the aluminum lift shaft ran down the piston to the black lift housing and seeped through the seal and into the motor. When I hooked the plow onto the quad in November I pressed the "raise" button and nothing happened. I removed the lift motor from the plow and when I turned it upside down, rusty water came trickling out the seal. When the unit fried, it also blew the in-line tube fuse.Fortunately, it was still under warranty. I had to pack it up and paid about $25 to ship it to the Warn Warranty Department for inspection. Approximately (12) days later they shipped me a new lift motor. I am very happy with their Warranty. This year when I remove the plow I will also remove the lift motor and store it on a garage shelf to prevent repeating the issue. Otherwise, just make sure it is covered with a waterproof barrier to prevent shorting out the motor.On a separate note: The switch was wired "backwards"; so when pressing the switch, "DOWN" actually moves the lift piston down which in turn raises the plow and "UP" actually extends the lift piston which in turn lowers the plow. I have verified the wiring was installed exactly as stated in the instructions. It's a nuisance, but it's currently not worth the time investment to remove the ATV body panels and swap the wiring to reverse the switch. I will eventually rewire when I have nothing better to do with my time.It wore out after 4 uses. Hopefully there is some kind of warranty, one doesn't spend this kind of money to only use for 3 snow falls to watch it fail.Installation of the wiring was a bit of a problem as I installed the Plow Lift on a 2up ATV. Once the install was completed the lift worked as advertised. The problem now is after I installed the Plow Lift we didn't get enough snow to try it actually plowing snow. The Plow Lift doesn't raise the plow as high or as fast as the winch did, but on the other hand it doesn't drop it as fast either. One thing that I think would make this a little bit better is if they could speed up the lifting speed. As I was not able to use the lift to plow snow I can't really tell how well it will hold up for a snow season.This item works as expected, however after 3 snow storms it completely stopped working, it would go down but not up. Once it was all the way down it never came back up. It decided to die in the back of my truck where it was not easy to remove the plow before backing the atv off the bed. At least Amazon has a 30 day return policy, new one is already in the mail. I just hope this does not happen again.Update: After receiving the new one, the old one decided it wanted to work again. I believe it shorted out from water getting inside, somehow it might be seeping down the piston into the contacts causing it to not work correctly until it dries out. However I will return it as that seems like a defective product, hopefully the new one will not do this. I might try to mount the new one upside down as it seems like that would be more resistant to water getting in it.I've had this lift on my atv for 2.5 winters always kept indoors and removed during summer storage worked very reliable for the 2 winters but now on my 3rd winter it's been intermittently stopping and going and finally it quit on me. I liked it when it was working better than using a winch now im trying to justify the cost of a new one :sVery quiet. Decent speed, but won't keep the plow elevated. Slowly falls down when traveling. Will have to keep bumping it up.For me and I do have the pro advantages plow system tried 2 of them and they both creep down within 5’ of backing up same forward so I was disappointed because the concept is awesome.Now hook up to winchWorks alright, stroke is too short & creeps down on its own quite fast.Produit conforme à la description avec tout ses accessoires
