Did a lot of research for something that would hold up under water, in sand and in mud for ATV and ended up choosing this one.

This is my first time owning or even using a winch, but I made sure to follow instructions closely cause I knew they're easy to foul. The first thing I noticed was how hard it was to pull the wire line out without it looping back in on itself while letting the line out. It almost seemed like there was too much wire on the spool. The second time I used it, it did go back on itself, causing the line to fray while getting unfouled. I should have probably spent the extra $ has got the synthetic line instead.

I noticed that when I was pulling just about anything heavy, it would pull for about 5 seconds then stop. Then it would start again after 10-15 seconds. I'm assuming the thermal breaker was kicking in. But for an increased capacity unit, this really shouldn't be happening in my opinion. I'm pulling maybe 1,000lbs each time with some additional drag (stuck in mud, etc).

After trying to pull out a guy from the mud a few days ago, it just stopped working all together after pulling him half-way in. Now I need to diagnose what's going on and probably pull it out only after probably 5 uses over 6 months. Being this is my first winch, I really have nothing to compare this to, but seems like maybe a bad unit?

Looks like Superwinch was listening to the reviews because the winch now comes with a protective cover for the circuit breaker. The assembly went really smooth, only problem was the fairlead would not mount to my RZR (too wide). I drilled a couple new holes and made it work, and it looks great. To those that say there is not enough wire, just swap the yellow/blue and the red/black to make it reach the front of your machine. The colors don't matter as long as you hook them up correctly. My RZR 4 XP1000 had plenty of wire, I just had to switch the two sets. So far I'm really impressed with the quality for the price. Make sure to follow the instructions regarding which way to wind your rope, if you wind it the wrong direction, you will put stress on the mount/bolts and probably break the winch. One thing I do think they could improve on is putting a rocker switch in the package for UTVs. A 4500lb winch is probably going to be used on a UTV in most cases, not an ATV. Put the handlebar switch in with the 2500lb winches!

Hopefully I will never need to use it, but i'm pretty sure i'll be using it a lot.

First, buy the correct winch mount and a dash switch. Directions are not unit specific but do need to be somewhat followed.
#1. Remove the bumper, install the winch mount, winch and fairlead / hawse, hand start rope / cable per instructions before reinstalling the bumper.
#2. Remove upper dash panel, the lower center of dash has 3 punch marks for the wired remote, drill them out per instructions and install the plug. If you bought a dash switch, remove the center dash panel and install the switch. Cut the wires off the handlebar switch and use them for the dash switch. Run the wires through the firewall and connect the two red wires to the power post under the hood near where it says winch contactor.
#3. Remove passenger seat and storage box. Disconnect the battery, remove lower center floor cowl.
#4. Run wiring from dash, down and across cowl opening to the battery area. Connect the blue and yellow 6 gauge wires to winch per print and run them back to the battery area. Connect black 6 gauge wire to ground terminal on frame under storage box and longer red 6 gauge wire to battery side of starter relay.
#5. Drill a 3/4" or larger hole in bottom of center electrical compartment and run all wiring up through it.
#6. Mount winch contactor and circuit breaker in electrical compartment and hook up wiring according to print.
#7. Reassemble your Ranger, tie down wires, connect the battery, test winch and wind up rope / cable.
I hope this helps any Polaris ranger owner as this is a great winch. I just think Superwinch should post vehicle specific installation instructions online via their website.

I ordered this winch a few months ago and finally got around to using it. The problem I found was that I noticed some black "goo" coming from the sides of the spool and I could not free spool out the cable. I took out the three screws and removed the spool. I found that the o-rings on the sides of the spool were mashed into a sticky goop all over everything. I sent Superwinch an e-mail but I got no response so I went to their website to call them. I ended up chatting with someone on chat and they said that someone from customer support would call me soon. I never got that call either.
I got tired of waiting for nothing to happen so I broke out the Goo Gone and was able to clean up the mess. I measured the size o-ring I needed and ordered a oil and abrasive resistant ultra-strong o-rings from Mcmaster-Carr. I received the o-rings the next day and installed them with some new gear grease and it works better than new.

Update: I got a call back from Superwinch about a week after I talked to them and a follow up today but I already fixed it so I'm not sure what they could do for me anyway. I'll give it 3 stars for now until I give it some more testing and because I shouldn't have had this issue in the first place. With the new O-rings and grease it free spools nice now.
The winch itself is pretty good. After having it apart I kind of expected some better quality and the o-ring thing was fixable. What really turned me off was the customer service. Seems to be an ongoing thing that customer service is going down hill.

Purchased the Superwinch Terra 35 Synthetic from Amazon.Com. The box was surprisingly small, but I guess it's only a 3,500 lbs winch. I bought it for my Honda Pioneer 500. I purchased the KFI winch mount separately. Honda would have sold me a Warn winch for three times the price and charged me $300 to install. I figured I could install myself and get the Superwinch for 1/3 the Warn price. I've had several ATV Warn winches. They've never failed, but I've never been hard on them. I figured I won't be hard on the Superwinch, and it seems to be equal quality to a Warn. The KFI mount fit perfectly on the stock Honda front bumper and the winch fit on the mount. The four supplied mounting bolts were 1/4" short. I purchased four longer grade 8.8 bolts at a local shop. No big deal.

Wiring the winch is simple enough. The instructions are confusing, but there's no magic to wiring a winch. Run the heavy guage hot and ground wires from the battery to the relay. Actually, there was a ground point near the battery, so I ran the ground wire to that. Saved room in the battery box; it's pretty tight in there. I wired the fuse in next to the battery... Then run the hot and ground to from the relay to the winch. The wires are color coded. The instructions suggest putting the relay close to the battery. I didn't have a dry place to mount the relay near the battery, so placed it closer to the winch. Short (black & red) and long (yellow & blue) pairs of heavy wire are supplied with the winch. I used them and for the Honda Pioneer (relay under the front hood) the wires were the perfect length. I included an image. DON'T follow my image to wire your winch. I swapped the black and red, for the blue and yellow because of the length of runs I needed. So for me, the yellow was hot from the battery and the blue was ground. Easy.

Wiring the switch is simple. You find a power source for the switch (either always hot, or hot when the key is 'on'). Then there are two longer wires which clip on to the relay. If the winch goes 'in' when you press the 'out' rocker... swap the two wires on the relay. Easy.

I wired in the remote switch as well. Placed that plug near the winch rocker switch. The wires for the remote plug into the relay as well. Ran the wires with the switch wires. It's a simple enough install (though my explanation might not be).

The synthetic rope is nice. It comes with about four feet of sheath (made of the same stuff the rope is). That sheath is to protect the end of the rope closest to the hook. That end of the rope gets the most abuse, so it's a smart idea to add the extra layer of protection. I bought a KFI 'winch cable hook stopper. It's a round chunk of rubber that allows you to snug the hook up against the hawse (fairlead) to prevent banging the hook around. It clamped on the hook end of the rope. It's a MUST HAVE; just buy it with the winch purchase.

Again, I like the look and feel of the Superwinch. I dragged the machine around the yard abit with the winch. It's a 3,500 lbs so had no problem pulling an 1,100 lbs side-by-side. If I'm really stuck, I'll just double-up with a snatch block. A bigger winch is simply more weight hanging off the front of your machine. Don't need that.