Kawasaki Mule and WARN Winch

[gotcha]

I have a 3000 lb. WARN winch on the front of my Rhino that I can use on the front and back. It also has a 10' remote control cable so that you can stand near the rope and watch the retrieval of the rope. I myself some times take a long stick and stick one end into the ground and use it as a guide for stacking the rope. You now can purchase a nylon style strap in the place of the wire rope, but I believe it is good for only 1500 lbs. Always remember when pulling heavy loads that really tightens the rope to throw something over the cable to stop any possible whip back if the rope should break.
The Gotcha Man

 

[weldingisfun]

Still no pics.
There was no roller fairlead but there is a hawse.
Lots of good tips from everyone. Thanks.
Now if I can find parts, I may be able to put it back together again.
Tractors4u, it is a 3010 Trans 4X4.
I'll try to post the pics today.
For sure I need to replace the cable and the nylon bushing on the winch motor side.

 

[tharmas]

I am attaching a 48 inch Kimpex snow blower to my newly aquired 2010 610 Kawasaki mule .The winch has been installed, but the installer attached the hook to the snowblower directly instead of using a strop to make a 2 to1 advantage system .The blower slowly drops and comes up too quickly and hits the headlight .I had a seatbelt strop on my Big Bear SE. ATV attached to the rack.My problem now is how to attach a strop to the Mule {where is it ok to fix it strength wise } The winch is roughly level with the blower attachment, but the strop attachment point should be either above or below this level according to the Kimpex installation instructions Will the strop work if I attach it to the attachment point of the winch,which I assume is strong enough and bring it out thru the space in the cover ,or where else ? I am sure someone has sorted this lot out .would appreciate any help or advice .
Geoffrey

 

[nickel plate]

Has anyone mounted a WARN winch on your Kawasaki Mule? I did and found out that I made a big mistake. A costly $339 mistake.
The first time I used the winch, a practice run, the wire rope did not wind evenly, had to pull it back out and do it again. Learned that I had damaged the wire rope in a couple of places too.
Second time, I winched a cedar tree that I had cut for a fence post out of the tree line so I could trim it up. The winch had no trouble pulling out the tree, but this time the wire rope managed to slip up and over the flange on the motor side of the winch and bound it up completly. Had to remove and disassemble the winch to get the wire rope free.
Contacted WARN about the situation and was advised that I was to follow the procedures in the manual since there is no level wind on the winch. The procedures call for you to guide the wire rope on to the winch by hand.
If you have a winch mounted on a Mule you know that isn't possible, or is it?
I've decided that having the winch on the Mule is a bad idea and will not remount it.
Repairing it will require a new nylon bushing and a new 50' wire rope.
Anyone had a similar experience and what did you do?

Are you saying "Don't mount a Warn winch, select another brand" or "Don't mount any winch in the factory provided winch area on a Mule"? I do get what you are saying about the too small of a mounting cavity for any winch on the 3010 Mule, especially the diesel models with the larger radiators that protrude down further into the winch mount area. Very poor engineered design.
I hope my winch plate setup works better than that as it gives full working exposure to the Warn RT40. In the photos, the winch and fairlead are bolted in place but with no wiring, etc.
Can you tell me where your remote control plug-in is mounted (I have a couple of areas on the winch plate to do this but none are drilled and will require a 3/4" hole-thinking maybe some other place on the body?), where your contactor is mounted and how did you route the whole wiring harness?

 

[firemech]

Nickle Plate,
We are a Kawasaki dealer; on the 3010 we mount the contactor under the seat near the battery and route the wiring along the centre of the unit. There is a checkerplate plate that can be easily removed from the floor of the unit to route the wire (we run it from the winch to the contactor in plastic loom) Kawasaki offers a bracket to mount the toggle switch on the steering colum and we like to mount the recepticle for the remote control in the left "Glove box". We put the remote control in the glovebox and yes you may have to remove something from the glove box to use the remote but we find most of our customers use the toggle more than the remote and this puts the plug out of the weather and mud. Hope it helps.
firemech

 

[Ivan49]

Nickle Plate,
We are a Kawasaki dealer; on the 3010 we mount the contactor under the seat near the battery and route the wiring along the centre of the unit. There is a checkerplate plate that can be easily removed from the floor of the unit to route the wire (we run it from the winch to the contactor in plastic loom) Kawasaki offers a bracket to mount the toggle switch on the steering colum and we like to mount the recepticle for the remote control in the left "Glove box". We put the remote control in the glovebox and yes you may have to remove something from the glove box to use the remote but we find most of our customers use the toggle more than the remote and this puts the plug out of the weather and mud. Hope it helps.
firemech

What weight wire do you run from the battery to the winch? Thanks

 

[nickel plate]

Nickle Plate,
We are a Kawasaki dealer; on the 3010 we mount the contactor under the seat near the battery and route the wiring along the centre of the unit. There is a checkerplate plate that can be easily removed from the floor of the unit to route the wire (we run it from the winch to the contactor in plastic loom) Kawasaki offers a bracket to mount the toggle switch on the steering colum and we like to mount the recepticle for the remote control in the left "Glove box". We put the remote control in the glovebox and yes you may have to remove something from the glove box to use the remote but we find most of our customers use the toggle more than the remote and this puts the plug out of the weather and mud. Hope it helps.
firemech

Very good information. Can you please post some photos of your suggestions as they will help me pinpoint the placements.

 

[rdbrumfield]

Don't care much for these newer style winches. Yes the fairleads are a must, but they still will let the cable pile up on one side if you are winching at angle. The worst of it is piling up under the cross bolts that hold the winch together. winches used to be built with open spools with higher sides. Thing is you lose pulling power the farther away from the axle of the winch you get, so they make them wide and slim to hold the same amount of line.

At any rate, you need to keep an eye on the spooling to keep your line from fouling.