i bought my warn 9.5 xp in october of 2004 from winch depot. at that time i paid $803 and got free shipping, a pretty good deal. other than running the winch to put synthetic line on it, it has been used a total of twice. once on a short, one minute pull to get my ass out of some deep mud last year. and the second time this past weekend at rausch creek when i tried to help a broken down bko ii which was being towed by superjunk clear a slight obstacle right at a turn.

the winch line was then disconnected and being powered back in when it slowly started to die. we got about 3 feet of line left to go when it just stopped altogether. the motor was not even hot.

i contacted warn today and after running thru a series of tests with one of their techs, determined that unfortunately the motor has gone bad.

the motor is considered part of the electrical system of the winch, which has only a one year warranty on it. so i am SOL in that respect. a new motor costs $257. however, i am going to send it back to warn in oregon and they are going to "diagnose" the motor and see what happened to it. if they feel it is my fault, ie that i did something wrong to burn out the motor, they are not going to warranty it. i am confident i did nothing wrong, but we all know that life does not work that way. in the event they find the motor itself was somehow defective, then i may get a new motor.

interestingly, i took a look at the warn manual and it says not to submerge the winch or even run it thru car washes which may use high pressure, as water can penetrate the seals and corrode the motor. the whole damn reason i bought this particular winch was because warn billed it as one of their premium, heavy duty winches, i even remember an ad for this winch showing mud, rain, snow, etc. and warn saying it was meant to be used "over and over and over and over." heavy duty use would not affect it. it also had perhaps the fastest line speed of any warn winch. one would not imagine that a little car wash or maybe even mudhole would do damage to a winch which had warn's heavy duty label on it...

i'm removing the winch tonite. my game plan is, if warn doesn't warranty it, i will pay for the new motor, so it will be in working condition, then sell it and get a different brand of winch. if they do fix it, i'll continue to use it and praise their customer service. either way, good or bad, i will tell everyone i know about my warn experience. it's that simple.

i contacted warn today and after running thru a series of tests with one of their techs, determined that unfortunately the motor has gone bad.


That sucks dave. My 9000 was OK, but never thought it was spectacular. I had it on the multi-mount, so it never got submerged. I did stall it out several times and then after that used a snatch block religiously. Still workin as it;s the one on the mogster.

My 12k pulls like a MOFO, but I did break a planetary in it. I'm told from getting water in it mutiple times and the brake siezed up after stting for a while. Then when I powered out (not even under load) and it broke something inside. This was after several years of abuse and submersion though.

I think you just got a bad one. I thought warn winches were lifetime warantee, has that changed or is it only on certain components?

mechanical parts are lifetime. motor is considered electrical, which is only one year...:doh0715:

mechanical parts are lifetime. motor is considered electrical, which is only one year...:doh0715:

That sucks. They don't advertise it as 1 year warranty. They advertise it as lifetime. If they don't warranty it you should post on every board out there.

Well, posting it here is a good start; we are, after all, the number one 4x4 site on the web. Warn should take that into consideration. :deal

I'm sure they don't want everyone to start seeing :iiss WARN all over the place.

Few things.

Dont let them know you were using synthetic line, unless its Warn Synthetic line. I used to sell Warn winches and they are highly against synthetic line, and some of their own reps are against the stuff they even sell.

Synthetic line doesnt cool as well as steel line does during spool up.
Synthetic line actually creates MORE heat the heavier the load, and the longer the pull. This heat is directly generated to the drum of the winch, and heat eventually kills it.

However you said the winch wasnt even hot, so that rules that out, but still dont tell Warn that because they wont believe that it didnt get hot.

Two: If it was hot enough in the previous pull to melt the waterproof coating off of the electrical components inside, then you eventually got it wet, then applied electrical current to it, thats an obvious lead to motor failure.

I have seen first hand both experiences, and have been told by both Mile Marker and Warn these things are two leading causes to premature winch failure.

Whatever route you go in the future I would recommend this.

As big of a PITA as it is, remove the winch and keep it in your garage when your not going wheeling, or whatever (Unless this isnt your DD).
Keep it clean, and dry. I would even recommend applying a good quality silicone spray occasionlly to the steel line to keep it beading water.

AND last but not least, keep and use the steel line.


I wish you the best of luck.

That sucks. They don't advertise it as 1 year warranty. They advertise it as lifetime. If they don't warranty it you should post on every board out there.

Yeah, I did not know that either. Will take that into act for my next purchase though. :popc1:

jer - thank you for the advice. all very good information.:thumbup

i built a mini pallet which will fit right inside the box. the legs are zip tied to the bottom. i don't want it getting damaged in shipment, although now that i think about it, if i insured it and it got lost or damaged, that might not be such a bad thing...;)

you can see some surface rust on the drum, but it flakes right off.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/jackhart/jeep/winch%20repair/warn3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/jackhart/jeep/winch%20repair/warn2.jpg

bye bye baby, have a nice trip to oregon. come back soon all better!

Good work. Most of the ones tht got shipped back to me were in a wet cardboard box. LOL.

The rust on the drum is from residual moiture, no big deal that happens to every winch that has ever been used outdoors.

Since you took the time to package it well, clean it up, and you also took the time to unspool all the "steel wire" *wink wink*, that will definitly help the technician in favoring your way.

The guy fixing your winch saves a lot of time if he doesnt have to unwind all your cable, and rewind it all back on when it comes time to ship it back to you with a new motor in it (if you know what I mean).

Good on ya Jackhart. :thumb

This is crazyness because we use the same milemarker winchs on our Humvees in the Marine Corps that have been on the Humvees since 1986, oldest humvee we have and it has been to Iraq for Gulf and Iraqi Freedom. Those winches are supposed to be PM, preventive maintence, monthly but that never happens and they still pull like a champ! I will go MM when its time for me to buy a winch, oh and they are cheaper too. Maybe upgrading the PS pump and get a hydraulic one

This is crazyness because we use the same milemarker winchs on our Humvees in the Marine Corps that have been on the Humvees since 1986, oldest humvee we have and it has been to Iraq for Gulf and Iraqi Freedom. Those winches are supposed to be PM, preventive maintence, monthly but that never happens and they still pull like a champ! I will go MM when its time for me to buy a winch, oh and they are cheaper too. Maybe upgrading the PS pump and get a hydraulic one

Electric or hydraulic?

thought i killed my winch this weekend for about an hour... messed with it and ended up having a weak ground... would let it pull a little then would get weak.... glad i figured it out... was sitting in a trench with my front left bead blown

i had my motor ground going to the chassis. warn told me it should be going to the negative terminal of the battery. i had a good ground, so i don't think it made a difference, but they were telling me to send it to the battery...

double post.

i had my motor ground going to the chassis. warn told me it should be going to the negative terminal of the battery. i had a good ground, so i don't think it made a difference, but they were telling me to send it to the battery...

yea, the 2ga + and - go directly to the battery. There is one small ground wire on mine that was a feed from my solenoid box (9k warn, not the integrated solenoid) to the motor.

yea, the 2ga + and - go directly to the battery. There is one small ground wire on mine that was a feed from my solenoid box (9k warn, not the integrated solenoid) to the motor.

same here...it goes to the ground post coming out of the motor

Electric or hydraulic?


the way they have been forever, hydros. I'm running an ex military 10.5k on mine, and set it up for multi mount. I love the damn thing but everyone knows each style winch has its drawbacks from the other hundred threads that have been created on them.

Any update Jackhart? Honestly if you get a good tech i think they would warranty it by seeing the condition your winch is in and looking at the internals they should be able to tell how it was worked according to your story. Hopefully it goes good.

my tracking number says it is not there yet, due to arrive tomorrow. had to go cross country (ny to oregon).

UPDATE

Ron at Warn emailed me today. my motor is corroded. reason? there are 4 drain holes in the motor that are sealed with silicone when it is shipped from the factory. depending on which way you mount the winch (feet down or feet first), you are supposed to remove silicone from 2 of the holes so the motor can drain condensation and water if the winch gets submerged. if you don't, condensation and small amounts of water which do manage to get in can build up and not drain, corroding the motor. this is apparently covered in the installation instructions (:doh0715: ), however, enough people have missed/complained about this that they sent out a bulletin on it (see below) and are covering the repair under warranty. wewt! :rockon :beer

Ron said he could tell from the condition of my winch that the motor had barely even been used, and that the overall condition of the winch indicated that i took care of it. he said most of the winches sent back to him were covered in mud, and in an overall condition which indicated that they were not taken care of very well. he was not very inclined to warranty winches sent back to him like that. (thanks jer, you were right on the money).

he suggested that if i cover the winch when not in use it would also help. so i'll definitely be buying a cover. hopefully with 2 drain holes now functioning properly, it won't let me down!

so there you have it. Warn stands behind their product. i did something wrong and they are still warrantying it. you can't ask for better than that. Warn rocks!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Good day International Distributors.

I have had complaints of motor failures on the 9.5 XP winch caused by silicone in the motor drain holes.

The XP motor drum support has two drain slots. When the winch is mounted feet down, the upper drain slot is sealed with silicone, the lower drain slot is left open. We do this to create an air pocket in the motor that will only allow a minimal amount of water to enter if the winch is submerged.

If the 9.5 XP winch is mounted in a feet forward configuration the silicone sealant will need to be removed from the drain slot at the lower position, sealant should then be added to the drain slot in the upper position. If this procedure is not followed the motor will fill with water if submerged and water will not be allowed to drain properly causing motor failure.

The 9.5 XP winch operators manual explains these procedures in the section labeled Winch Mounting, please see the attached document.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Best regards,

Steve Schoenfelder
Warn Industries
503-722-3009"

glad that worked out for ya, jack. good to see they stood behind it