Does anyone know if I can reverse the wiring to my winch motor so that the cable spools in on top of the drum? I assume that it's just as powerful in reverse as in forward but I'm not sure. Are there any issues with gearing or the brake that I should be aware of?

Tass

well as with most winches made these days, yours probably has an automatic load brake. if you turn the drum the other way (just as when you power-out) it will be pushing against the brake. this will overheat the winch with any heavy use, and will reduce the pulling power since you are pulling a load with the added resistance of the brake. if you could somehow reverse the brake it might work but not likely.

-Scott

I would write to Warn and ask, tell um model and mount type. On my HS9500 I THINK I could swap the whole drum, internals, ect around.. but am not sure. It looked the same, but sence I was not trying to do that, I did not look real hard.

With the cable coming off the top of the drum the loading forces also move. Think of it like adding a cheater bar to a lug wrench. The winch body isn't designed to handle the extra load this will cause. If you have the room you could flip it over AND lay it down ... this would end up with the cable on top like you want, but the winch will be "laying face down".

CP

bad idea... your creating an extra load on teh case and the bolts when you do that.

Thanks for the replies. Actually I don't want to feed the cable to the top of the drum, I just used that as an example. What I am trying to do is feed the cable in from the backside. My winch is mounted in the middle of my truck facing backwards. The cable runs to a snatchblock at the rear bumper and goes through the frame to the front. What I'm trying to do is get rid of the snatchblock and just run the cable to the front of the truck. This will make the cable wrap up on the back of the drum (still coming in at the bottom). Turning the winch around is not an option.
I was wondering about the brake being a problem too. I guess I'll leave it as is.

Tass