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After tossing up whether to buy a warn a good deal came up and for $600 I had a 9500lb ironman unit.
Judging by the number of 4x4 companies that seem to be using the exact same design/mould I though I couldn't go too far wrong - I was also told they had pretty good after sales service and parts availability.
Thankfully this is true becuase out of the box the winch needed some work. The clutch lever housing was loose, allowing the lever and housing to rotate 360 degrees. To take the clutch off you need to remove the grub screw ? this would be easy except the thread on the clutch lever housing was stripped.
On top of this when the lever housing was tightened into the gear box with vice grips the lever grub screw sat at about 130degrees to the front of the winch, making it impossible to properly engaged the gears.
I got on the phone to Ironman and no problem they replaced the clutch lever housing.
With the new clutch lever housing installed the grub screw ended up at about 320 degrees.... With a bit of pipe thread tape it now sits at 270 degrees and the lever moves from 0 to 180 counter-clockwise towards the spool instead of clockwise towards the end of the gear housing ? no big deal but I recon it?s a beacon of sh!t quality control in the manufacturing.
I took it apart to see what else may have been overlooked ? to my surprise the motor and gears were all ok. The only other potential problem was the gear box had been filled to capacity with grease. After a long soak in a bucket of petrol the grease was gone and the entire drive assembly was washed out and lightly re-greased with Inox high temp/pressure lithium ptfe grease (be sure to use a spray pack and pump pack).
Outcome: if you purchase one of these winches be sure you check the clutch lever before taking it out of the shop/box ? if it?s not tight (with the grub screw sitting at 90 degrees in line with the gearbox end cap) close the box and ask for a replacement winch that is properly assembled.
Fitting (arb bar)
Fitting the winch couldn?t have been any simpler. First of all you don?t need to remove the bar. I used two cam-action motorbike hold down straps (supercheap sell them) tied around the top tube of the bulbar dropping through the cut out. The winch will fit (without the control box ? attach it later) between the front cross-member and the bar if it is sitting right way up - just watch the clutch lever doesn?t catch on the cross-member. When attaching the straps to the winch attach them around the motor housing and gear housing ? just take the strap under and put the hook back on the strap, don?t tie them or go right around the housing again as you will need to rotate the winch on to it's side in the straps once you?ve lifted it up near the mounting points and this is easy if the straps are just looped around the winch.
There are four square head nuts that go into the feet of the winch and four bolts + washers to secure it to the bar. The two longer bolts go through the fairlead. The two shorter bolts for the upper holes aren?t long enough for both a washer and split washer. Either get a slightly longer bolt or use some Loctite instead of the split washer.
To install the control box on the back of the winch you?ll need to remove the lower chrome rail which is simple. Install it and replace the rail. Alternatively the wires are easy enough to replace with longer ones if you can find somewhere under the bonnet to mount it (?). You don?t need to connect all the wires before installing the winch (which would make it more difficult to lift and turn) as there?s enough room to get them all connected once the winch is in place.
Judging by the number of 4x4 companies that seem to be using the exact same design/mould I though I couldn't go too far wrong - I was also told they had pretty good after sales service and parts availability.
Thankfully this is true becuase out of the box the winch needed some work. The clutch lever housing was loose, allowing the lever and housing to rotate 360 degrees. To take the clutch off you need to remove the grub screw ? this would be easy except the thread on the clutch lever housing was stripped.
On top of this when the lever housing was tightened into the gear box with vice grips the lever grub screw sat at about 130degrees to the front of the winch, making it impossible to properly engaged the gears.
I got on the phone to Ironman and no problem they replaced the clutch lever housing.
With the new clutch lever housing installed the grub screw ended up at about 320 degrees.... With a bit of pipe thread tape it now sits at 270 degrees and the lever moves from 0 to 180 counter-clockwise towards the spool instead of clockwise towards the end of the gear housing ? no big deal but I recon it?s a beacon of sh!t quality control in the manufacturing.
I took it apart to see what else may have been overlooked ? to my surprise the motor and gears were all ok. The only other potential problem was the gear box had been filled to capacity with grease. After a long soak in a bucket of petrol the grease was gone and the entire drive assembly was washed out and lightly re-greased with Inox high temp/pressure lithium ptfe grease (be sure to use a spray pack and pump pack).
Outcome: if you purchase one of these winches be sure you check the clutch lever before taking it out of the shop/box ? if it?s not tight (with the grub screw sitting at 90 degrees in line with the gearbox end cap) close the box and ask for a replacement winch that is properly assembled.
Fitting (arb bar)
Fitting the winch couldn?t have been any simpler. First of all you don?t need to remove the bar. I used two cam-action motorbike hold down straps (supercheap sell them) tied around the top tube of the bulbar dropping through the cut out. The winch will fit (without the control box ? attach it later) between the front cross-member and the bar if it is sitting right way up - just watch the clutch lever doesn?t catch on the cross-member. When attaching the straps to the winch attach them around the motor housing and gear housing ? just take the strap under and put the hook back on the strap, don?t tie them or go right around the housing again as you will need to rotate the winch on to it's side in the straps once you?ve lifted it up near the mounting points and this is easy if the straps are just looped around the winch.
There are four square head nuts that go into the feet of the winch and four bolts + washers to secure it to the bar. The two longer bolts go through the fairlead. The two shorter bolts for the upper holes aren?t long enough for both a washer and split washer. Either get a slightly longer bolt or use some Loctite instead of the split washer.
To install the control box on the back of the winch you?ll need to remove the lower chrome rail which is simple. Install it and replace the rail. Alternatively the wires are easy enough to replace with longer ones if you can find somewhere under the bonnet to mount it (?). You don?t need to connect all the wires before installing the winch (which would make it more difficult to lift and turn) as there?s enough room to get them all connected once the winch is in place.
oops... 
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