The Warn M8274 is one of the most sought after winches especially for those in the comp scene wanting to add several performance mods.

The M8274 remains almost the same since it was first released in 1974.

The M8274 superseeded the Belleview winch which was manufacturered from 1959.


Ever wondered where the model name came from?

• M is for model
• 8 is for 8,000 lb
• 2 is for bi-directional ie can power rope in and out
• 74 is the year it was made.

1998 was the 50th anniversary of Warn and from then on the designation was changed to M8274-50.

 

Identifying early M8274s
Since the M8274 has been around for nearly 40 years, there are quite a few of them out there, many still performing regular recovery duty. We get a fair amount of requests to identify how old a specific M8274 is. Here's a way to identify them up until about the early 1990s.

On the top of the upper housing there will be a code with two letters and a number. For example, we'll use FB6.

• The first letter stands for the month the winch was made (A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.). Therefore, with our example, F would equal the sixth month: June
• The second letter stands for the working day of the month, not including Saturdays or Sundays. Our example says "B," which would be the second working day of the month.
• The ending number represents the year the winch was made during the '70s or '80s. In this example, it's 6, so that'd be '76 or '86. (Remember, M8274 production started in '74 and this coding system stopped in the early 1990s, after that, Warn used serial numbers.) Beginning in about 1980, Warn switched from a metal socket on the control pack to a plastic socket. So, depending on which one your winch has would determine which year your M8274 was manufactured.

Click here to read more about the M8274-50