To wire a winch

[Hogarthde]

A question if I may to Drivesafe or Blknight, or indeed all Aulro.
I had believed it practice to wire a n electric winch, Pos. to battery terminal Pos. and Neg. to chassis earth.
However, in the Warn manual, it states: WARNING! Do not connect ground to vehicle chassis.
Is this a USA rationale, or something more sinister?

Dave

[Leroy_Riding]

Given the current involved in winching I've always run the Ground/Negative back to the Battery, most winches come supplied with the same length of black cable as they do red.

Swapping the Tmax 9000lb out of my D3 this weekend to fit my home made Frankenstein 7HP, 2 speed winch (assume good for 12-13000lbs when the low gear is selected.) Im pretty sure the Tmax fitted by the previous owner/or ARB when the bar was fitted. has the Black running to the Chassis though which I will not be doing (that said the winch is brand new and has never been used anyway!)

Leroy.

[Graeme]

My Warn XD9000's earth lead is attached to the winch body which means that the winch is also earthed through its mount to the chassis then to the body. Thus attaching the winch earth lead directly to the battery negative of a D4 will short-cut the load sensor that's attached between the battery negative terminal and earth. Hence I have connected my winch's earth lead to the body.

[winaje]

Swapping the Tmax 9000lb out of my D3 this weekend to fit my home made Frankenstein 7HP, 2 speed winch (assume good for 12-13000lbs when the low gear is selected.) Im pretty sure the Tmax fitted by the previous owner/or ARB when the bar was fitted. has the Black running to the Chassis though which I will not be doing (that said the winch is brand new and has never been used anyway!)
Leroy.

I'm interested in details on your Frankenwinch!

[drivesafe]

Hi Dave and I have seen the same info from Warn.

But it is a No-No to connect anything to the negative terminal of the cranking battery of many new makes of vehicle, especially Land Rover D3, D4, RRS and Range Rovers.

If you were fitting a Land Rover Winch Kit then you would connect direct to the negative terminal of the cranking battery but these kits come with a special wire loom that is connected to the vehicle’s ECU.

When fitting an after market winch ( or anything else ), do not connect to the negative terminal of the cranking battery or you can effect the charging of the battery and cause error messages to be displayed.

When fitting the cabling for a winch to a D3, D4 or RRS, if you look just in front of the cranking battery compartment, you will see two M6 studs with nuts on them and one ( or both ) will have some thin earth wires connected to them.

I supply a special stainless steel plate with my USI-160 D3 and D4 Dual Battery Kits. This plate comes with two 6mm holes and an 8mm hole, and the plate fits over both studs and the winch negative cable bolts to the 8mm hole.

Here is a picture showing the studs and the plate setup.

A tip, do not use the original Land Rover nuts to secure the cables back on to the two studs, I supply stainless steel M6 and M8 Nylocks, they remain in place once fitted.

[Leroy_Riding]

I'm interested in details on your Frankenwinch!

Not much to tell really. .

7Hp series wound cheap motor from a Chinese winch.
Cable drum is from a 12000lb ridge ryder winch(super cheap one)[as is the rope] and a two speed gearbox from the old 9000lb tigerz11 2 speeds (from 2008) which was 9000lb in low speed ad 4500lb in high speed mode, even in high speed with the 5hp tigerz11 motor pulled out a old 2 door RR classic no issues.
Internal drive shaft(that runs through the center of the drum tot eh gearbox) I'm pretty sure came out of a fried Warn XD9000 but cant remember exactly as i was given the shaft, had to be cut down by about an inch to fit into the gearbox end due to the shorter input length on the two speed box.
I need to strip it back down and re-grease it all before fitting it to the D3 though, it got dunked in some nasty green mudd about a year ago before it came off the lat 4wd and has sat int he shed un-cleaned since waiting for its chance to shine once again!

reminds me, i need to find a motor for my other winch, damn thing had a clutch type electronic brake inside the motor which burnt out as i wired it wrong *facepalm*

Leroy.

[Leroy_Riding]

Hi Dave and I have seen the same info from Warn.

But it is a No-No to connect anything to the negative terminal of the cranking battery of many new makes of vehicle, especially Land Rover D3, D4, RRS and Range Rovers.

Glad I've seen this myself now too, as I would have connected to the Battery like I have done in all my previous 4wd's!!!
If I had the Cash spare Id be ordering your triple battery kit, Ill get to it one day though. . . one day.

Leroy.

[jon3950]

Very neat solution Tim. If/when I get around to fitting my winch I'll get one of these off you.

When ARB installed my winch on the D3 they earthed it to a bolt on the chassis down near the front suspension. Although I never had a problem with it, it was too exposed to the elements for my liking.

The other ting I want to do is replace the crappy Warn solenoid pack with a solid state one which will hopefully fit up there somewhere too, if I can squeeze it in around the second battery.

Cheers,
Jon

[Hogarthde]

Morning Tim, many thanks, I had considered the two 6mm stud holes, about 110mm apart immediately in front of main battery , tapped into horizontal surface of mudguard. Feasible?

Dave Really appreciate info re cranking battery. D

[Graeme]

Great idea!