Warn Industries has issued a recall for around 121,000 wireless winch remotes that could activate inadvertently after getting water and corrosion in the housing.
If you own a Warn VR Evo winch with a wireless handheld remote, keep reading. The company has issued a recall on the remote sold with some VR Evo winches. The specific remote sold with the VR Evo Series winches is a wired design that can be detached and used wirelessly.
The winch remote can suffer from water intrusion and corrosion, which can cause the winch to run when you don’t want it to. This is a major safety hazard.
Warn Recall
The recall notice was posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) late last month under campaign 22E101000. There are 121,187 winch controllers that are potentially affected by the recall.
In the notice, Warn Industries says that “water may enter the handheld remote control for the winch and cause circuit board corrosion, which can allow the winch to operate unintentionally.” This applies to certain Warn VR EVO 8, VR EVO 8-S, VR EVO 10, VR EVO 10-S, VR EVO 12, and VR EVO 12-S winches.
The production dates for affected wireless remotes runs from June 3, 2019, through Nov 29, 2022.
Warn Will Replace Remotes
Warn’s interim fix is to send owners instructions on how to inspect wireless remotes for corrosion.
If corrosion is found, Warn advises disabling the wireless function by removing the battery pack from the remote. They should then contact Warn customer service for a remote replacement free of charge.
A permanent fix isn’t available yet. When it is, Warn will send customers a replacement water-resistant wireless winch remote free of charge. Warn hasn’t yet set a schedule for when this will happen.
In its notice to distributors, Warn said that “a small number of remotes” have shown the failure. The notice also said that the company is developing a solution for the problem.
Owners of the winches can contact Warn Industries at 1-800-543-9276 or online.
