so what is the smallest gage wire I can get away with? can I use a battery shut off switch to isolate the power between on, off, front and back. I've noticed on some of these switch's their rated for 100 amp constant and 300 amp 10 second surge. will these handle the load a winch generates? I have a design in mind, as soon as I get some of these questions answered I'll make a build thread.
I've spent a good deal of time on the phone with engineers at Warn and Ramsey - primarily because I was wondering why they used a wire that seemed so light for their kits (400A over 2AWG just seems odd, y'know?)
And now I understand. The duty cycle of the winch is low enough that they can get away with it - also, continuous pulls are short enough that the wire
should not overheat.
For a front mount, the 1AWG that I use is enough. For a rear mount, you'll probably want to go with something heavier - even 0AWG would be an improvement (00AWG would be better.) Another option to maintain 1AWG would be to mount a secondary battery (on an isolator) in the cargo area, and use 1AWG from the secondary battery to the winch mounting point.
The quick-connect for the wiring is not a problem.
I would
definitely, either way, recomment using a "pass-through post" instead of punching a hole through the firewall and running the wire through, since you run the risk of the wire chafing pretty much no matter what you do.
Hit me backchannel if you want help designing your setup, and advice on where to run things so they don't get in the way. I can probably save you a few bucks on the wiring as well, if we're creative.
Just read more of your post...
A battery shut-off probably won't be able to handle the current of the winch on a moderate pull - I'd have to look yours up (I have a table of them around here somewhere.) However, you're not going to draw any power unless you're
using the winch. And, a little creativity should be able to stash the QD connection somewhere where Joe Schmucko won't be able to get to it easily. With a winch, you're looking at a "spot load" of somewhere around 300-650A, and a startup load considerably higher for a few milliseconds. The wire can be pushed, but I wouldn't push contacts in the switches too far - if you want, I can pillage around and see if I can't come up with something that
might work for you, but no guarantees.
