Winches

Sometimes, driving skills or risk management don't play a factor in getting stuck. Sometimes, it is just fate. Risk management = It's December, it is raining and snowing and I have a house that has 2 young boys in it that are the sons of friends of mine, visiting for the holidays, and want to go trail riding, in the mud, at Christmas time. I assessed incorrectly. We got stuck on a log left on the side of the hill, when the Gator slipped onto it. Driving skills had nothing to do with it. Fate was 100% in charge that day. Either way, it has nothing to do with the fact that I needed a winch that day. A 3 foot pull was all I needed to get either the front wheels or the back wheels back on the ground. I am not talking about pulling myself or someone else 100's of feet out of a ravine. I don't claim to Be Matt's Off-road Recovery. I am not the FabRats. I do kind of look like Robbie Layton, though. No dreams or aspirations to be them. So, I can't see into the future of if I will ever need a winch to pull myself just the foot or two it will take for me to drive myself out the rest of the way, but based on a couple of unforeseen events that have happened in the past 12 years without a winch on my old Gator, I am going to buy and install one on my new RTV-X1100C, just in case in the next 12 years, I once again, fail to perform risk management or lose my driving skills. Or.....maybe I will have a dream and get stuck.
 
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I’m sharing some information that I’ve learned. My dealer is installing a Warn winch on the new 1100. Has a remote! Great! Bluetooth, ok, I usually have my phone with me so no big deal. I downloaded the app and have to agree to the EULA in order to use it. I started to read the terms and conditions and it is a big no for me. You must agree to have all your data harvested from your phone and shared with third parties. Warn is not responsible for whatever happens after that. Yikes!
 
At least it comes with a corded remote switch. I was wondering if there is a simple Bluetooth switch I could use instead of my phone.

Email back from Warn says that they have eliminated the corded switch on many models, including the AXON, forcing Bluetooth opperation only. Their literature says that there is a rocker switch and a corded switch. Looking like there is a surprise awaiting me!
 
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I only use the cord on my Warn. I've had it a couple of years ...They had a recall and were giving out the wireless remotes as replacements at one time. Technology is getting ahead of me. I may just have to use a come a long if this is in the future for my next winch. It worked for my Grandpa and my Daddy... We'd be scared out of our wits if we knew what all was going on and where it's leading.... The writing is on the wall...
 
bordercollie said:
I only use the cord on my Warn. I've had it a couple of years ...They had a recall and were giving out the wireless remotes as replacements at one time. Technology is getting ahead of me. I may just have to use a come a long if this is in the future for my next winch. It worked for my Grandpa and my Daddy... We'd be scared out of our wits if we knew what all was going on and where it's leading.... The writing is on the wall...
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Next, you will need 5G internet connection, 2FA, a finger print reader, facial recognition and an active GPS session on your phone to make your winch work. That should be fun, stuck out in the middle of no where. The good part about it, you will be able to operate your winch from home or the office. 😎 That should impress all the chicks out on the trail.
 
Anything that requires me to have an APP on my phone to work it won't have a place in my yard, LOL

if Warn is pushing that for the future, then I guess it is a good thing there are other companies that make winches. And if they all go this way, guess I'll have to break out the old hand crank come-a-longs in my shed. LOL
 
If you are, in the middle of the night, in a massive rain storm, sucked down in mud over your axles in the middle of the woods, the last thing I want to do with muddy, wet hands, is fumble around with my phone, trying to enter the password so I can get to the app to use my winch. To top it off, what if your phone slips out of your hand, into the mud puddle? If I had a corded pendant control, at least I could pull it out of the mud by the cord and then use it. Apps are not the modern day solution to some things. Something simple, like a pushbutton pendant is tried and true. It's just like having a toaster with an internet connection.......Why?
 
Smilingreen said:
If you are, in the middle of the night, in a massive rain storm, sucked down in mud over your axles in the middle of the woods, the last thing I want to do with muddy, wet hands, is fumble around with my phone, trying to enter the password so I can get to the app to use my winch. To top it off, what if your phone slips out of your hand, into the mud puddle? If I had a corded pendant control, at least I could pull it out of the mud by the cord and then use it. Apps are not the modern day solution to some things. Something simple, like a pushbutton pendant is tried and true. It's just like having a toaster with an internet connection.......Why?
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LOL! Yep. This world is just getting more insane by the day.
The Warn winch on my RTC only has a corded winch and I didn't even like the fact that it doesn't ALSO have switches hardwired in the cab.
I like redundancy.
 
Smilingreen said:
Yeah, that is what phone apps were invented to do: harvest data from the unsuspecting.
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What is funny is if it was the government doing the data collection everybody would be up in arms, but nobody seems to worry about a huge corporation that is free to make as many bucks as they can off your personal information by you just simply accepting a user agreement. We give up all our personal information about us and our habits and get nothing in return except the loss of our privacy.

We just finished building a custom home. Our GC was so excited when he learned I was in tech and assumed that we would be building a "smart" home. I can tell you that our new custom home is as dumb as a box of rocks! My GC is currently having to replace some simple LED strip lighting because they will not stop flashing. The reason they are flashing is that is to tell you that they are not connected to the internet. In order to do that you must download their app AND turn LOCATION access for the app on. Of course the app is necessary to operate the lights. No idea what I would have to give up in the user agreement if I downloaded the app. Replacement lights are being procured as I type this.

It seems kinda funny to think that they would go to all that trouble to build a phone app for the winch on your RTV until you stop and think about what they will gain by doing so. I use to have a salesman who worked for me and would question why we would spend money in-house on technology that Google provided for free. He was unable to grasp the concept that all that stuff/services are not free and do come at a cost.
 
The real product being bought and sold is you. You may think your getting some snazzy app, with a few baubles and trinkets built into it, but to experience that app and use it just once before you realize it's worthless, you give up your rights to privacy for life when you accept the terms and conditions, that i would dare say, 99% of the worlds population has never made it past the second sentence. If your lucky, you might get a free doughnut out of signing away your privacy for life.
You know all those apps on the app store that never have worked even remotely like they said it would? It never will work. It was broken from the start, but in the description they promised the moon it would do all these great things. They got what they wanted the second you accepted their TOS before you could try the app out: All your data. They never will make a working app.
 
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