I just bought my neighbor’s 2016 XP Turbo. He already has done quite a bit of custom work. His attention to detail is remarkable. However, I am wanting to enclose a winch into this beast of a machine. The kind of riding I have done in the past requires it. This past weekend I have scoured the forums and have not found a thread detailing this process.

So I thought I would try to do this myself. I wanted to turn to others who may have done this but have not published their efforts yet. If you could chip in your advice, I would appreciate it.

The first thing I looked into was the type of winch. I noticed that on the Polaris website they offered their version of the 4500 lb winch or offered the Warn Provantage 4500 winch (the one for 799.99). So, I assumed both will fit.

In comparing the two, I found the Polaris was 1.6 hp (which is just about all the information they give about their winch other than marketing BS) and the Warn was 1.9 hp. Looking at the Northern Tool website, the Warn has a line speed of 23.6 feet per minute and a gear ratio of 154:1.

When I compared those stats to the Viper Elite or the Venom or any of the others, the Warn Provantage 4500-s was the winner by far. Now if one considers cost–well, that is a decision to be made on how these factors impact your particular type of riding.

So as I thought about it, I came to see that the "pounds" rating isn’t of much value nor is the horse power rating. I think the line speed at a particular load is of the most value. Any opinions? Am I wrong?