RZR Winch Installation

[caglezxj]

I figure most people can do this without a write up but this is how I did mine.

Remove the front cover to access the winch mounting area. There will be a fairlead plate that comes with the kit. It is a u-shaped piece. The flat portion of the plate goes to the top and there is only one way it will fit. Note it is installed in this picture.





Note the 2 black angle brackets under the winch. These are the other two pieces of the kit. One end of the bracket will have a bolt hole and it will go towards the front of the rzr.

[caglezxj]

In the last picture you see I have the winch already installed. I left it loose on the brackets and then tightened the brackets up. This way the winch will be aligned to the mounting holesof the brackets.



Note the radiator hoses are on top of the winch. I will be getting some exhaust pipe wrap today to wrap the hoses in. It probably wouldn't hurt the winch but I would rather it stay cool.

This is a picture from the driver side.

[caglezxj]

I mounted the aluminum fairlead that came with the winch and pulled enough cable through it to attach the hook.



Next I took the long cables that will run from the battery to the contactor and wire tied them together. You don't have to do this but it makes a clean install.



I removed both seats and the center console.

[caglezxj]

I decided to mount my conatactor in the dry storage under the hood. It doesn't take up much room and it isn't that dry under there anyway.



Follow wiring instructions cause it could change from the way mine was wired.



Now for the red wire that comes from the rocker switch. This wire is for a 12v connection with the ignition turned on. I attached mine to the 12v cigarette light. I used a volt meter and found the red wire to have 12v when the ignition was turned on.

[caglezxj]

Now doesn't this look awesome!

[caglezxj]

My RZR!

[GRAZOR]

Nice write up Josh.

My RZR is a first generation one so I don't have the removable tray under my hood like yours. I mounted the contactor switch on the inside firewall, passengers side and pretty high up.

You should have the skid templates any day now so go get your UHMW. I was riding with a guy who bought a full set of aluminum skids last week. They look great and do the job of protecting his machine but he hates them because they stick on every rock instead of slide like the UHMW. He saw how my RZR just slid right over everything and now wants to change at least the center plate.

You will also want to do something with that punny battery the RZR comes with. Remember there is no pull cord and very few of us would be able to hand start an RZR anyway. Add a winch, radio, some lights and a GPS and next thing is the battery will go dead out on the trails. My garden tractor comes with a better battery!
I now have a car battery strapped into the bed and a set of shorty jumper cables until I decide which battery to go with between all the possibilities. Optima and Oddysee both have their good and bad points and I am not sold that either is any better then others that will fit at half their price.

I don't like the Polaris rear Lock & Ride bed box because it is so expensive and gives so little real storage area.
Be careful what box you do go with because if it is too high it makes backing up pretty tough.

Your wheels and tires look great.

Gary

[heath_jhns]

Hey josh what kind of tires are those? HEATH

[Rotorpaul]

Nice installation indeed.
In response to Grazor's comment about his lawn tractor's battery being larger than the RZR's. I went to NAPA and got a Lawn & Garden tractor battery, dropped it into the under-seat storage area and connected it to the factory battery. It's wired directly to the factory battery ( = to = and + to +) without any isolators or selector switch, but it seems to work well. Both batteries stay charged via the engine charging system. I feel I've at least tripled my battery capacity. I did however lose virtually all of the storage area in that underseat compartment. Now I put more junk in the small childs backpack (not official Polaris equipment) that I attached between the seats, to the horizontal bar on the roll cage.
Paul

[caglezxj]

Originally Posted by HF

Hey josh what kind of tires are those? HEATH

They are 27" swamp lites on 14" ITP SS112