Winch Wiring

[rmel]

Finally decided to get a proper Winch-guard fabricated -- Fatfab of course
My current Brushguard just can't be adapted without a lot of messy reworking.

Selected the 24V Superwinch 9.5i with Synthetic rope. Being a bit of a paranoid
I will be installing a high quality water prof Cut-off switch on the positive side
mounted near the Ground cut-off switch. Thinking here is that if there was a
hit up front from something sharp resulting in a chassis to Power short I'd have a
quick way to cut power W/O having to cut ground and the running of the
truck -- ya a bit of belts and suspenders.

Question for those who have winches on your Pinz'ies out there, where did
you run Power and Ground and if you placed the controller remote where did
you run these lines (and what did you regret after you did what you did ).
The obvious route would be through the grill to the air tunnel and on to the
cut-off switch and battery box.

I am also tempted to use 4AWG, rather than 2AWG given the lower current of
the 24V 9.5, curious if anyone went with less bulky wire and then had a problem?
Should be fine, but experience trumps V=IR

[Jimm391730]

I ran the + (red) winch lead through the grill and attached it to the heavy starter wire, on the starter. Winch ground to chassis once through tunnel. For safety, put each cable inside split loom (not spiral loom) for chafe resistance. As you said, 24V should have half the current draw so #2 or #4 should be fine (I've passed over 400A through #4 for 15-20 seconds w/o noticeable heating in some electric vehicle conversions). I figured I could just use the battery key (after tuning off the engine so the relay releases) in an "oh s**t" moment but hace not had any problem in the years it's been installed.

[Jimm391730]

Oh, and I wired a wireless remote directly to the solenoids in a sealed box mounted to the driver's side of the grill - works great. Still have use of wired hand controller as a backup when plugged onto the winch.

[rmel]

Thanks for the quick response Jim.

Pretty much corroborates that the 24V Winch and 4AWG is plenty good enough.
The spec's for this winch at max. load should be ~0.5V drop for a run length
of about 10'. It's just far less bulky than 2AWG or 1/0. As it turns out, the stock
Pinz power lead from the Battery to the starter is 16sqmm wire -- darn close to 4AWG.

I'd love to get that ugly controller off the winch and remote. I think I have
seen someone mount to the passenger sidewall, that would require holes drilled.
I hate drilling holes, thus the query to others on what has been done so I don't
do something that someone came up with of a better solution. One possibility
is holes, high up on the side of the foot-well, wires from the Winch through the
holes, then up through the diamond floor plate. With proper grommets and sealer
to prevent chaffing and water entry.

ron

[rmel]

Found all the old threads on Winch wiring ideas several have done.
Waiting for all the parts to come in, I'll post PIX's if I end up doing
something a bit different.

[VinceAtReal4x4s]

I can't recall how exactly, but I ran cables down the frame and beside the engine.

The Milemarker wireless remote is something I highly recommend. (I think I showed it to you a couple Mogfests ago.) Still unclear if it works, or can be made to work, on 24v though. Lodar is great and they make 24v for sure, but its pricey.

[rmel]

I've got 12V up front in the cab too

First thing is to get the bumper from Andre.
He had it all tacked up Wednesday eve and
most of the finish welds done on Thursday. He's
hauling it to SoCal and hopefully will drop that
off at UPS when he's done. HA! I know he's
gonna build you up a stair for your G. So remind
him while he's down SoCal that I'm getting real
itchy to get this installed

Next up is the dang Winch. the Superwinch Talon's
are on back order everywhere -- Scott's got me on
his list, I can drive up and get that puppy once in.

[rmel]

Winch installed, thought I would just capture some installation decisions I made.

First, a plug to Fatfab, worked remotely with Andre via Facebook messenger on the design.
Came out fantastic.

FrontView.jpg (785.49 KiB) Viewed 8853 times

With respect to the installation, I decided to remote locate the Controller, and include a
safety cut-off switch off of the +24V terminal of the battery. Thinking here is that if for some
reason there was a short or a stuck relay I could easily override that with the cut-off switch.
The Switch is water-proof, from FlammingRIver, located behind drivers seat.

WinchSwitch-s.jpg (149.13 KiB) Viewed 8853 times

Most Winch controller heads are physically large and if mounted on the winch are vulnerable
to the weather, getting whacked, not to mention they look ugly and don't help the airflow. I
decided to replace the controller entirely with a EV (Electrical Vehicle) Contactor (from EVwest).
This Contactor replaces four relays in a very compact space (becoming more popular as a Winch
controller). I remotely located the unit in the Passengers foot-well just under the ledge of the air
tunnel. I found an aluminum box to mount the connector for the hand-held remote control which
fits next to the contactor. If you go this route it's always a good idea to include "fly-back" diodes
to prevent large voltage spikes when a relay is turned off, also helps the turn-off time of the
relays. Diodes can be barley seen below, but they are there.

Contactor.jpg (772.38 KiB) Viewed 8853 times

The power leads to the Winch exit from the Contactor to 3 holes drilled and grommet just under
the cabin air intake. I used 4 AWG wires throughout -- sufficient for 24V and a easier to work with.
Red lead connects to the Armature of the motor, 2 black leads to F1 and F2 of the field winding.

ControlCables.jpg (817.46 KiB) Viewed 8853 times

I also decided route both the +24V and Ground connections towards the Battery box and not to the
Starter terminals -- a direct shot to the Battery and GND with fewer connections. Ground connects
to the Chassis ground terminal of the Ground isolator switch, while the +24V connects to the Power
cutoff switch.

I also replaced the steel rope with synthetic; safer, lighter, stronger. The Hawse, and Link are from
Factor 55. A very robust Hawse 1.5" thick with an entry relief radius more than typical for less wear
and tear on the Synthetic rope. Rope is from MasterPull, 8MM rated at 21,700 lbs.

[TechMOGogy]

Love it and thanks for posting the shots and details!

This looks interesting as a wireless winch controller but not sure how I feel about BlueTooth connection
https://icarus-blue.com/de/

[Hotzenplotz]

just a word of caution

you see all the shiny new wiring for positive and ground...

make sure the connection between both 12 v batteries is upgraded to the same spec !

[rmel]

Yup! All battery connections are new, and new clamps.
Including the batteries recent changed Optima Yellow's.

[murrayjp]

NIce
answered a lot of questions