I move my Suzuki 450 around in a trailer.

The dealer advised me to put an eye bolt in the floor of the trailer and use the Winch (WARN 2.5) to hold the bike in place and compress the shocks.

OK - I did it and it works.

BUT... one of the fellows at work suggested that the constant bouncing as I travel would damage the winch...

What are your thoughts?

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It's time to Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

Can't imagine what the problem would be with just using some simple tiedowns?????

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Southern California Deserts and Mountains....

Desert: 450R, 400EX
Technical Trail: Rancher 420 and 350 4X4's
Kids: Two 250EX's and TRX90
Dual-Sport Bikes: KLX250S and XT225

Past rides: 300EX, 2wd Rancher 350, Recon, TRX90, Z400, LT160, LT80, Warrior, Blaster, CRF230F

On the trailer, I would just install some anchors that will correspond to points on the quad where you can attach tiedowns. Most folks seem to use the four corners of the racks, but you do have to be carefull that the tiedowns won't rub the plastic somewhere. When I can't find any place else, I find that the footpegs usually make good points to hook tiedowns.

Just seems to me a lot of inconvenience to mess with the winch, when it takes just a few seconds to use a tiedown. It is also nice to have multiple tiedowns, so if one works loose you have several more to still hold the bike.

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Southern California Deserts and Mountains....

Desert: 450R, 400EX
Technical Trail: Rancher 420 and 350 4X4's
Kids: Two 250EX's and TRX90
Dual-Sport Bikes: KLX250S and XT225

Past rides: 300EX, 2wd Rancher 350, Recon, TRX90, Z400, LT160, LT80, Warrior, Blaster, CRF230F

OK, the WARN Rep has the last word;

"If you look at the first few pages of the manual you will see that it specifically notes not to use the winch as a tie-down.

This can shock load the winch damaging the end housing and other components.

The other main cause of a shock load is hooking the cable to another rig and then backing the quad up instead of winching them out. Basically using the winch as a tow strap."

So for all those folks out there that were using their Winch incorrectly... STOP IT!

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It's time to Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

Very good to know,
I was going to buy a winch and use it like that on my trailer .

Friends have been doing that for yrs now.
I will tell them to stop, now if I come back all black and blue it was not from a ATV accident it would be from telling my friends to stop

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C Ya,
Craig, aka TimberedWolf