Thread: Does one leave an electric winch in gear when left on a vehicle?

I was in the same boat as you. Wireless remote and concerned that I'd return to my vehicle and find the bull bar folded in half and half sucked into the winch.

I fitted a isolation switch in the power line of the winch so I can completly isolate it. The isolation switches from Super Cheap are only rated at 100amp but I found one rated at 500amp from Battery World.

My gear engagement leaver is very hard to access and I wouldn't want it disengaged when I am bogged up to the door sils.

Happy Days.

To leave the clutch disengaged opens it up to loosening the cable as you drive and having it come unspooled. Results of driving over the cable would be far worse have more potential than the risk of someone "accidently" running your winch with their remote. All I do is disconnect the power lead to the solenoid while in the city. It's 2min to bolt it back on.

Originally Posted by joel0407

I was in the same boat as you. Wireless remote and concerned that I'd return to my vehicle and find the bull bar folded in half and half sucked into the winch.

I fitted a isolation switch in the power line of the winch so I can completly isolate it. The isolation switches from Super Cheap are only rated at 100amp but I found one rated at 500amp from Battery World.

My gear engagement leaver is very hard to access and I wouldn't want it disengaged when I am bogged up to the door sils.

Happy Days.

Do you disengage it to pull out the cable or do you power out the cable ?
Cant you isolate the remote system, it must trip a small relay somewhere.

I leave the winch in gear so the cable doesn't loosen and rattle its way out. Normally I leave the winch cables off the battery but if you want a low cost isolator just put a switch into the solenoid earth wire.

oops - double post - how did that happen ?

With an electric winch, I regard some means of isolating (or disconnecting) it when not in use as essential. Previously mentioned isolater switch is fine, as is just disconnecting the +ve winch lead (assuming the battery access is locked).

Actually my original winch, Tigerz had a switch to choose between remote and lead switch inputs so you can't engage both in opposing directions at once.
See below, it's the diagram of how it's connected. So that'll isolate the remote unit by switching the power supply to one or the other. You could put another on/off switch in the red wire to the wired remote socket to cut power to it so it cant be shorted (which is far more likely to happen when parked).

It is not really a good practice to power the winch line out. The freespool mechanism is designrd to allow you to 'pull' the cable or synthetic line out by hand. This prevents the battery from being 'drained' before the winch has even been used. The second reason for using the 'freespool lever, is to prevent the brake machanism which is normally inside the drum on lowmount winches from overheating, therby creating a condition where the winch has no brake machanism.

It has occurred previously, where one remote control has activated the wrong winch. However, the vehicles would have to be fairly close to each other as the remotes on the winches are usually limited in the distance that they can operate.

Isolation switches are a good investment, not only do they prevent unintended mishaps, they can also be used as a
'cutout' switch

Reading the manual is only one part of learning how to use ancillary/ auxillary equipment. If you are unsure, it is advisable to undertake a training course.

XDrive run recovery courses, specifically tailored to winch operation and safety

Hope that this helps

Regards