Warn Winch Wiring ?

Does anyone wire in a circuit protector? or does everyone just wire straight to the battery?

They're intended to be wired directly to the battery.

I've got a related question here, hopefully somebody can answer this. The instructions do say to wire direct to the battery, and that tends to work most of the time - you just have to monitor the temperature of the winch and not run it when it gets too hot, until it cools down some. But still, three times in the last 5 years I have burned out a solenoid, which is kind of expensive and a pain to replace. Wouldn't it be possible to wire in a fuse or circuit breaker that goes just before the solenoid would burn out? Aren't the solenoids essentially acting as fuses?

Detour said:

They're intended to be wired directly to the battery.

Click to expand...

x2...unless it's a remote mount for like a trailer or rear receiver

92xjsp said:

I've got a related question here, hopefully somebody can answer this. The instructions do say to wire direct to the battery, and that tends to work most of the time - you just have to monitor the temperature of the winch and not run it when it gets too hot, until it cools down some. But still, three times in the last 5 years I have burned out a solenoid, which is kind of expensive and a pain to replace. Wouldn't it be possible to wire in a fuse or circuit breaker that goes just before the solenoid would burn out? Aren't the solenoids essentially acting as fuses?

Click to expand...

Are you running a Warn winch? Model?
If not, what brand?
How olds the winch?
Whats it rated for? (6k/8k/10k)
What were the conditions when winching?

Detour said:

Are you running a Warn winch? Model?
If not, what brand?
How olds the winch?
Whats it rated for? (6k/8k/10k)
What were the conditions when winching?

Click to expand...

Warn MX8000, rated 8K lbs, bought new around 1995.

First time I have no idea what happened. One of the solenoids for power out blew. The last use was a few weeks before, and there I was pulling somebody else out of a bog using a snatch block. It was a YJ or TJ and they were stuck pretty good, which is why we rigged up a 2-for-1 loop with the snatch block, but it pulled them straight out and never seemed to strain or get hot. I wound it back up, nothing seemed to be wrong. Then a few weeks later I noticed that I had never rewound the cable smoothly, and I went to do that, and it wouldn't power out.

Second time, I guess I got it too hot. I winched myself up a long muddy hill, not too difficult but just too wet to get traction. Then I took the top of 3 positions on the hill to help others up the hill, did two guys, and then on the third one "pop" and it wouldn't rewind any more. I hadn't been monitoring the winch like I should have, being more focused on keeping our conveyor belt working properly, and the winch was very hot after it blew.

Third time was unusual - I had the winch disconnected because I'd been working on the battery wiring (the regular negative power cable had become so corroded I had to cut off the terminal and put on a new one) and I came to a little log in the path that I needed to move, very small job, so instead of reconnecting the winch cables properly, I just held them against the sides of the battery terminals using jumper cable clamps. Well, that was dumb, the solenoid blew almost instantly.

I know instructions for most winches say to wire directly to the battery, but there's no real reason you can't include circuit protection while "going direct." ANL fuses will carry you up to 600A - and winch draw is mainly a function of the weight being pulled (so you'd need to know how much your rig weighs, in field trim.)

I've got specs for most of the common winches, so I can help you if you need it.

Thanks Jon. I'll get exact specs when I get home on Monday.

92xjsp, your winch is 13 years old, have you checked the brushes? Might be worth going
thru it checking connections, brushes & clean the armature. It sounds as if your getting
resistance.
Also, to me it sounds as if you're winching correctly using snatch blocks and such, when
mud is introduced, depending on just how deep & thick.....(we're not talking puddle), winch
calculations go thru the roof, you're really pushing an 8k winch, add a small incline to those
calculations and you end up out of the 8k range, keep in mind that 8k is virtually the minimum for our vehicals, I think you've done alright getting 13 years out of it without a rebuild.