Hi folks, I've just joined the forum and I'm excited to be here. Looks like plenty of valuable information and a great community.
Just to set the expectation when I ask a naive question - I'm not a particularly handy person and am very far from being mechanically inclined. My clients are happy that I'm an investment advisor and not a mechanic.
I just ordered a new Pioneer 520 and it should be here by early February. I look forward to using it for ice fishing and booting around the hunt camp.
I asked the representative I was dealing with about a recommendation for a winch to be ordered and installed prior to pickup. He sent a quote for one but it seems expensive. All the quote says is "Winch Kit (Honda 2500LB by Warn)" for $839.40 and another $244 for installation plus tax. My question is really about pricing. I also asked about a 3500# winch kit as bigger seems better if you're stuck, but he advised against it. Can anyone let me know if this is reasonable pricing wise or if I should be looking at something else?
From Ontario by the way.
Hi Steve,
I am just writing my first posts here tonight. I just took possession of a 520 last Wed. I live south of Ottawa. I am very handy, I build experimental aircraft for people, and have my own machine shop, but am still recovering from a bad motorcycle accident a coupe of years ago. I can't ride dirt bikes anymore so that is the reason I bought the 520, also for the utilitarian aspect of it. Because of my recovery, I just had my local dealer install the winch, plow, windshield and hard roof. He buys his winches and plows through other suppliers so pricing was reasonable. The total cost of a 4500 Warn winch with the install kits and labour was $800 Cdn. The KFI 60" plow with install kit and labour was $900. The 4500 winch was only $130 more than a 2500, and it came with a dash mount kit for the switch and also a remote with a 12 foot cable and kit to plug it into a spot under the dash. After a fair bit of research, these prices were were quite good. The Honda accessories are a lot more expensive here than in the US by the way. I was also advised by a few ATV friends to go with the 4500 winch, as pulling a loaded 520 out of the mud you could count on the 4500 to do a good job, and for the small price increase I decided it was a no brainer.
I have only put a 126km's on it so far but am very happy with it. We got 8 inches of heavy wet snow last Sat and I was amazed at how much snow that thing can push, it did a great job. Then on Sunday my wife and I went for a 70km trail ride in the snow and we had a blast, it performed really well.
All stock btw, for now, lol. I do want bigger and more aggressive tires to raise the ground clearance and go better in the snow and other seasons. So after people sounding happy with the Kenda's, today I ordered 27x11x12, and 27x9x12 Kenda Bear Claw HTR (Radials) with new steel rims with a 4+3 offset, (520 same as 500 with stock 5+2 offset).
Regardless of what you do ,I think you will be very happy with it.
Cheers,
Steve Busby