Warn XT30 Synthetic, Wireless Remote Winch – Another in our Borneo Build Series

Shannon Bushman | November 18, 2009 | 0 Comments

WARN recommends the XT/RT30 winch for the Polaris RZR. They have enough experience to know what they are talking about too.

The XT30 is plenty of winch to yank a RZR around. In fact, I think I should mention that too much winch is not necessarily a good thing. I have seen plenty of rigs tweaked in not nice ways from the result a serious stuckage and too much winch. Sometimes it’s best to take a cue from a struggling winch and spend a bit of time digging rather than watching a big winch rip your rig in half, or bend the front end around. The XT30 is just right. Our rig weighed in at just under 2,000 lbs fully loaded and that included the crate it shipped to Borneo.

The XT30 winch we put on the WARN front bumper of the Expedition RZR came standard with a 50 foot of 3/16 synthetic rope and wireless controller. Synthetic rope is one of those things that people either love or hate. I think those that hate it are just not paying attention to the fact that it needs a little more care than wire rope. Synthetic rope is very strong but can suffer from abrasion which will prematurely weaken the rope. This can happen in two ways. One is from dragging the rope over the ground or rough obstacles. A rope protector should be used to prevent abrasion when reaching over a ledge or through large rocks. This same problem applies to wire rope to a lesser extent. It’s never a good idea to drag you rope over any rough surface under tension. It can be damaged, synthetic or steel. The second way synthetic rope can be abraded is by getting dirt and mud in the winch and letting it sit there. It gets into the fibers and acts like sand paper, slowly sanding away its strength. Keeping the rope clean by pulling it out and washing when you regularly wash your rig will keep it in great shape. A squirt with a hose goes a long way. We have really nice neoprene covers from WARN to cover the winch and keep much of this debris out of the rope. Best of all it’s completely sealed keeping the elements out of our motor and gears. Warn uses all metal planetary gears where a lot of competitors use plastic gears. The disk brake system is one of the better features; it keeps the rig in place even on the steepest hills. This not to be overlooked, a lot of winches do not have a braking system and will let the winch spool back out when you let off the winch motor. That can be a real PIA on a nasty spot.

One of the nice benefits of having the winch mounted up high on top of the bumper is easy access to the cable release. Spooling out the rope for a winch couldn’t be easier, a flick of the wrist and you are on your way.

The controller is made of a very solid plastic with large buttons that can easily be operated with gloved hands. The buttons travel far enough to let you know you have pressed them and have a heavy rubber cover. This is a rugged little unit that makes you confident that you won’t damage it on the trail. The single LED is dual color, green tells you it is on and when the winch begins moving it turns red. Blinking red means you need a new battery. It automatically powers itself off so you really can’t leave it on and run the battery dead. Its waterproof so no worries abut a little weather, it comes with a great mounting bracket that we mounted on the dash. The bracket has a solid clip to hold the remote securely. The winch also includes a separate but small wired controller that can be dash mounted.

While Warn recommends a minimum of a 12 amp hour battery we have dual 28 amp hour Odyssey 925s. That should hold us through some long winches.

Warn winches come with a limited lifetime warranty, that alone is worth makes WARN winches a great buy.

We’ll have both a synthetic and wired rope winch on the Expedition RZR, if one is better than the other in the jungle we’ll let you know.