Winch negative power cable run

[skoller]

To all you Defender owners that have installed winches,did you connect the winch negative to the chassis or did you run it all the way back to the battery.

[Tombie]

To all you Defender owners that have installed winches,did you connect the winch negative to the chassis or did you run it all the way back to the battery.

Back to battery....

[BigJon]

Back to the battery is the correct way to do it.

[lambrover]

I have always found this to be an interesting subject. I understand that you can get bad earths and by going directly to the battery you eliminate this but what is wrong if you get a good earth with 0 Ohms. It costs less as there is less cables you only have one cable to chaff out thus reducing places to short. Elec experts could you please explain.

[Brute]

I ran mine back to where the main battery lead connects to chassis
best of both worlds i reckon

Ian

[BigJon]

I have always found this to be an interesting subject. I understand that you can get bad earths and by going directly to the battery you eliminate this but what is wrong if you get a good earth with 0 Ohms. It costs less as there is less cables you only have one cable to chaff out thus reducing places to short. Elec experts could you please explain.


When are you measuring the resistance? With no load or with the full power gong through all of the joins / connections?

When you run a properly sized cable from the winch to the negative terminal of the battery there are only two possible places for poor connections. At the winch and at the battery. Provided the cable you have used is of an adequate size then the voltage drop will be minimal.
If there is a voltage drop issue then you only have two places to look for the fault.

If you rely on the chassis as an earth path you are introducing extra connections which will potentially be high resistance joins. Such as winch to chassis, chassis to earth cable and then earth cable to battery. Possibly even bullbar to chassis depending on the exact earth point.

Surely it makes sense to minimise the number of electrical connections that are made.
It will also lessen the chances of chassis rust. To make a good connection you really require a bare metal connection. The bare metal chassis will rust, causing potential structural as well as electrical issues.

[BigJon]

I ran mine back to where the main battery lead connects to chassis
best of both worlds i reckon

Ian

Are you using the standard earth leads from the chassis to the battery? If so you are asking for trouble. When LR specified the size of those earth leads I am sure they didn't factor electric winch loads into the design size... How can that be the best of both worlds?

[Bush65]

IMHO the -ve lead should go to the battery.

I have always found this to be an interesting subject. I understand that you can get bad earths and by going directly to the battery you eliminate this but what is wrong if you get a good earth with 0 Ohms. It costs less as there is less cables you only have one cable to chaff out thus reducing places to short. Elec experts could you please explain.
Claiming that running the -ve to the battery increases places to short is poor understanding, or mischievous.

[lambrover]

IMHO the -ve lead should go to the battery.

Claiming that running the -ve to the battery increases places to short is poor understanding, or mischievous.

maybe misunderstanding:D. My angle is that as you run more cable you have more potental for a rub through.



assuming you had good conections there shouldn't be any differance voltage drop wise between the two methods, I would at least bring the neg cable onto a bullbar mount bolt, or similar. but I surpose you know for sure if it is back to battery.

[goldrover]

back to the battery. why take chances on a bad connection

[rovercare]

maybe misunderstanding:D. My angle is that as you run more cable you have more potental for a rub through.



assuming you had good conections there shouldn't be any differance voltage drop wise between the two methods, I would at least bring the neg cable onto a bullbar mount bolt, or similar. but I surpose you know for sure if it is back to battery.

Correct, in a ideal world, the extra earth won't pose a problem rubbing though, as its merely connected to earth

But to be honest, its not absolutely crucial either, as your start motor operates via the chassis earth, and earthing via the chassis is no real biggy, as you generally aren;t operating the starter and the winch at the same time

[Brute]

Are you using the standard earth leads from the chassis to the battery? If so you are asking for trouble. When LR specified the size of those earth leads I am sure they didn't factor electric winch loads into the design size... How can that be the best of both worlds?

The main earth lead from the battery to chassis is same diameter or bigger than earth supplied with winch. The trucks done a lot of winching over the years

[skoller]

Thanks for for the comments. I had just installed my old winch on my new Puma and I earthed it on the chassis near the winch because I only had a short bit of cable left. After the first test run in the yard the motor destroyed itself.Now I have gone crazy and ordered a brand new winch which should come with cables so I think I might earth it at the battery lead connection on the chassis.