Used my winch the other day and it seemed to work fine. I had a buddy hooking the line and he's the last one to put it in free spool. Today I was going to let all my line out and wind it up tight and neat, but I could not get it to go into free spool. It will take line in and out fine and works under load. What can I try to do to get it to free spool again?

 

The lever wont move...

 

try pushing in on the cable (towards the winch) and switching it to free spool at the same time thats what i have to do with my xrc sometimes

 

I had this happen

the gears need to rotate on the winch

On engage, switch to let out.

then turn the lever to free spool, the cable is hard to put because its not neatly rolled back. if you can get a foot or two out and still tight try to have two or more people pull it out. you can mechanically attach to another vehicle and slowly pull it out. or secure to somrthing and back up SLOWLY

 

I ran it out about 50'ft with and without tension and I couldn't get the lever to move and then I brought it in. The lever jumps when the lines going in and out, but it doesn't release when you try to move it with your hand.

 

I had the same problem with my xrc8 I just ran it out with the controls I could never get it to free spool. Smittybilt told me they would replace it but I had to send it back on my dime and it was like 50 bucks shipping so I just used the controls.

 

Did you use some strenght to move the lever

 

The lever on my xrc8 gets stuck all the time. you have to give it a little wiggle and gently push it into freespool.

 

There's a label on it that says not to use force to move the lever. I figured I'd rather have it stuck in engaged than broken or stuck in freespool. I pretty much tried all of these suggestions before posting.

I was really wondering if I coul spray it with something or if there was somewhere to oil it.

 

My lever used to stick until I sprayed some PB Blaster into it. That was two years ago and it's been as smooth as butter ever since.