Re: Viper Winches...Update
Directions said it would take 3 hours. It only took me 2....DAYS! First off, I'm not that mechanically inclined. Secondly, I don't have a sweet set of tools, third, the directions were <u>very </u> basic! To start off, I removed the bumper and mounted the winch plate as directed. It came with 4 U bolts and nylon lined nuts. I didn't have any deep well sockets. All I had was a box wrench. So, after tightening everything up (took about an hour with that little wrench and limited space to turn it), I tried to mount the winch but it wouldn't fit in through the alotted space. No matter how I turned and twisted it, it would not fit! I had to loosen everything back up again!. I got the winch in there and decided to heck with this, and ran into town and bought a ratcheting box wrench. With the winch in there, there was no room for a deep well socket. So, I get everything mounted and tightened up. I start to run the wires and found a good way to do that. When I went to connect the wire to the top post of the winch, I found due to the tube frame of the Mule, I could loosen the nut all the way but there wasn't enough room to take it off the post! So, I cut a notch in the lead with a pair of side cutters and slid it on the post. By this time I was about 4 hrs in to it and it started to thunder and lightning. I got everything picked up in the yard and called it quits for the night. The next day I was ready to tackle the wiring aspect of it. I positioned the contactor panel under the seat where it would stay dry. I then looked at the directions and saw I needed to wire the rocker switch and cable remote plug to the ignition wire. Hoo, boy! About all I know about electric is, if you do it wrong, it hurts! After stabbing myself in the thumb three times I found the ignition wire. I decided to remove the front trunk of the mule (They are kind of like the old VW Bugs, trunk in the front) 15 screws and its off. It was at that time I discovered had I done that in the first place, mounting everything would have been so much easier. After removing the trunk, it went pretty quickly. I mounted the rocker switch right on the steering column. Its set up to mount on a set of handle bars so it fit on the solid shaft perfectly. The cable remote plug was mounted in the glove box. I got everything hooked up and put back together. I relined the spool under tension like directed and did so by pulling the mule up about a 30 deg slope. It pulled it up with no problem. I even got to play around with it and winched some 6' logs up over a hill for a buddy. All in all I had about 8 hrs into it. A friend of mine has a mule 610 as well and I told her if she bought a winch, I bet I could mount that one in about 3 hours, knowing what I know now. Here she sits, all mounted and put back together.
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