This is done and ready to be powdercoated! Did a test run on it in the 8" of snow in OP and it was fucking awesome. The foot activated release mechanism (which no other winch has) works really well (see below) and makes pulling the line out WAY easier.
There are some bad things, though:
I accidentally throttled up when I meant to throttle down and the winch handle got lodged in the fairlead. The sudden shock bent the pins on the release mechanism, so I need to beef that up, as this will probably happen again.
I didn’t put enough oil in it hen I ran it and blew up the first motor. I just bought a 6.5 HP motor from harbor freight and it seems to work well. Not as powerful, but if will work for snowboarding for sure.
I don’t have any pics of the full assembly, but here are some in process pics…
I did. the dipstick was a motorfucker to read, and I think must have made contact with oil on the sides of the tube, because there was definitely hardly any oil in it when I took it apart.
If you care enough about being honest, go ahead and suck it up.
If you return it, Northern Tool will just end up sending it back to the manufacturer who will then rebuild it and sell it back to Northern Tool as “factory reconditioned”, and in the end Northern Tool/Manufacturer will not lose out on all that much money.
These losses are built into their business plan. Nobody will lose their job, and you’re not gonna put Northern Tool or the Manufacturer out of business.
From what I hear, the 6.5 HP engines from china are Honda clones, and fairly good quality. That sucks you cooked the big Briggs.
Did it just seize, or somehow grenade? I seized a power washer before from running without oil, and it still runs years later after a little oil down the cyl and a top off. It idles like shit, however.
Business plan or not, I fucked it up, I’ll take responsibility. In the past I have done stuff like that and I don’t like the way I feel after cheating the system.
The bore is pretty trashed. I already tore it down:
It’s not even a sleeved aluminum bluck, it’s just raw uncoated aluminum. Weird. The only oversize piston is just +.020 I’m doubting that will take it off…
gimme what its worth in scrap and its yours
