Warn Winch Not Working, Help?

verrive · Apr 24, 2004

Hey Guys,
I was up in the hills yesterday and my winch just stopped working. I was trying to pull way more than it could handle.(Me hooked to a TJ trying to pull a full size bronco out of teh snow) and it stopped. It won't click on or anything. One of the guys suggested it may be a solonoid(sp) or a fuse. Any ideas for me?

Thanks,
Kevin

Goatman · Apr 24, 2004

Yeah, it may be a solenoid or a fuse.

Redcbr007 · Apr 24, 2004

I dunno if its a fuse if you went directly to the battery. Get a meter (test light/mutimeter/etc) and check for voltage, its prob. a solinoid.

-Red

xjhm · Apr 25, 2004

snow ...huh... i went swimming yesterday

try checking the solenoid
and try another control the shitch in it may be broke....and check all connections

verrive · Apr 25, 2004

Redcbr007 said:
I dunno if its a fuse if you went directly to the battery. Get a meter (test light/mutimeter/etc) and check for voltage, its prob. a solinoid.

-Red

Check the voltage on what? I'm gonna go out now and test the fuses in the engine compartment as I'm not sure how it's hooked up. How do I get the cover off the Warn thing? Yes snow, like 40 inches in some parts, I definetly didn't expect that.

- Kevin

verrive · Apr 25, 2004

Well,
After I went out with my pa we got it figured out. It wasn't a fuse or a solenoid though. If you drag and drop the following link into your browser you can see what went wrong

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/verrive/theproblem.jpg

Sucks, it's only like 6 months old

- Kevin

RichP · Apr 25, 2004

Kinda late to tell you now but you never put a winch on the side terminals, they are light duty on all the dual post batteries... Read about that many years ago on the optima site...

Willis · Apr 25, 2004

Agreed, don't winch from side terminals.

If battery is 6 months old, take it back. (ok, so it was your fault, but don't tell them that)

Steve

verrive · Apr 25, 2004

So where is the optimal place to mount them? I had no clue, I bought the Cherokee with the winch working and have never heard that so I never had a reason to see how it was hooked up or anything.

EDIT:
Is it better to have the winch hooked up to the posts and the car running off the side terminals?

- Kevin

Redcbr007 · Apr 25, 2004

so it was the voltage !! hehe j/k Im glad you got it figured..

-Red

Willis · Apr 25, 2004

verrive said:
Is it better to have the winch hooked up to the posts and the car running off the side terminals?

- Kevin

Yes

However, you will find that most of us don't have dual terminal batteries, and are using just the 2 top posts.

When I had mine hooked up differently than I do now, I was using a gold terminal that was designed like a marine terminal with a bolt on top (audio terminal). I put some ring terminals on the end of my wires and bolted them down.

Now, I have one 0/1 cable from my positive termial to a master switch. On the output of the master switch, there is a bar that connects it to the input of another switch (my winch switch). The output then goes to my winch. It works well, and with the lugs of the switches, it gives you room to hook up other accessories to them, without having a bunch of wires hanging off your battery.

Steve

vintagespeed · Apr 25, 2004

Read up a little on winch usage before you try hauling 13000 lbs with a 8000 lb winch......

A double line pull will double your winch's capacity & make it easy to free something heavier than your max single line pull.

I melted a buddies battery post while trying to free his stuck Junk, carry spare battery terminals & if it ain't working, stop & try something else.

verrive · Apr 25, 2004

vintagespeed said:
Read up a little on winch usage before you try hauling 13000 lbs with a 8000 lb winch......

A double line pull will double your winch's capacity & make it easy to free something heavier than your max single line pull.

I melted a buddies battery post while trying to free his stuck Junk, carry spare battery terminals & if it ain't working, stop & try something else.

His Bronco does weigh more than 5,000 pounds, not sure how much having a wheel burried adds. We were just hoping to pull him enough to get some traction so he could back out. It was the first pull(when we weighed more than him) so I didn't really expect it. It was getting dark, snowing and he was about 100 feet away, there wasn't a ton we could do. Ended up digging for a LONG time.

- Kevin

PS I just posted for help not to be criticized, I honestly can't help how it was hooked up nor the situation although it makes me pissed now considering it was at a Warn dealer that originall hooked it up like that.

xjhm · Apr 25, 2004

verrive said:
Well,
After I went out with my pa we got it figured out. It wasn't a fuse or a solenoid though. If you drag and drop the following link into your browser you can see what went wrong

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/verrive/theproblem.jpg

Sucks, it's only like 6 months old

- Kevin

that is bad..

but what do you do if you are running a battery with side terminals only?

RichP · Apr 25, 2004

Most of the winch add ons i've seen usually move the starter line down to the side terminals, that seems to work w/o damaging the battery. Thats with a single battery. Most who really use them put a second battery in, usually a yellow top, just for the winch. A second red top would also work then comes the issue of 'where the heck to I put it'

that usually involves alot of moving stuff around in the engine compartment or just mounting it in the back and running two big cables up front to a terminal or switch block if you want to isolate the two.. Live and learn, even if I am having something done by a shop I still research it in the event I see somehting I don't consider kosher going on.
I had a rear tire replaced last week, they pulled the bad one off, mounted the new one and bolted it back up, watched the whole thing. I did not say anything but when I got home that wheel came back off and got some antiseize then torqued back on.

jeo · Apr 27, 2004

verrive said:
His Bronco does weigh more than 5,000 pounds, not sure how much having a wheel burried adds. We were just hoping to pull him enough to get some traction so he could back out. It was the first pull(when we weighed more than him) so I didn't really expect it. It was getting dark, snowing and he was about 100 feet away, there wasn't a ton we could do. Ended up digging for a LONG time.

- Kevin
.

I read somewhere that a vehicle stuck in mud 1/4 up the tires is a pull double that vehicle weight, and if stuck to the axles, triple the weight.

noah · Apr 27, 2004

Funny, I was just reading that article (proper recovery):
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Recovery/index.html

Warn Winch Not Working, Help?

verrive

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xjhm

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verrive

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verrive

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