Before I post again , I'd like to make it clear to efremtags , that I am not here to kick him in the teeth , I've been married about 20 yrs , so I know just where to find a fight when I want one.I just hoping to save you time/trouble/money next time.
But even under a load or tension , the spool has to be watched , that is the nature of the beast , regardless of what should or should not happen.
If you keep a winch cover on it while riding , best to remove that when using the winch , the winch on my current atv has been there since about 2000 ,but if I walk out back and hit the button she works , it's not a more expensive winch , nor is it better desigened , and I am certainly not the luckyest person on the planet , but I do pay attention to it under load or not.
I believe the manufactors make these as flimsy as they can get away with 1st of all.
As to the warranty , warn kept their deal with YOU , right? Sure it would be nice if they went above and beyond , but all they are obligated for is the deal they had with you.
I have been told by a plumber and the people who sell them that the only difference between alot of water heaters that are the same but have different warranties are the price you pay for it , could this be the case with the other warn winches you have seen?? I don't know , perhaps they changed something , again , I do not know.
Let's reverse things for a moment tho , lets pretend last week warn sold a winch to your buddy down the street "Joe" for 20 dollars more than you paid , and now they walk up to your house and claim they just sold a winch for 20 dollars more to Joe so they think you should cough up the extra 20 you never paid. I believe you would inform them to hop on their winch and ride it straight to hell , so to expect them to offer you their latest deal or a deal they offer to someone else is a bit much to expect , if they do , then great for you , but if they don't , hey , that wasn't the deal you struck when you paid your $$$
It's my opinion , that you learned an expensive mistake , hopefully learned anyhow , there have been many that went before you and many will come after you , bitter pill to swallow for sure , but I fail to see what warn did wrong , YOUR warranty expired , not Joe's , Tom's or whoever , but yours. Now if they didn't honor their warranty with you , that'd be different.
And you need to watch that spool , loaded , unloaded , regardless who made it or what they even tell you , watch that spool , it might save you some $$$ , spool slop happens despite their efforts to try and help reduce it and the cable needs to be spooled properly which is why we keep an eye on these things , winches are far from indestructible , no doubt about it
And equally important , that maybe you missed is when paying OUT cable , keep it under some tension , tension in , tension out , or the cable underneath can get loosened up , not good
