Thread: In-cab winch switch help

From my understanding of winches - the three wires from the winch are as follows:

- 12v auxilary power from the battery
- wire to solenoid to wind up the winch
- wire to a second solenoid to unwind the winch.


Its not really feasible to put a kill switch inside the cab because you need to run the thick power wires to the switch and back out again - costly and you will get more power loss through the longer wires.
Just put the kill/isolation switch next to the winch on the outside of the bulbar.

Steve

I put a isolator switch on the main positive cable to the winch solenoid..it is on the front of the seat base...cost about $25.00


ho har

You don't need a diagram

3 wires

Open solenoid box, tie your 3 core cable in somewhere nice, strip it off, hook one wire to where the 12 volt supply is taken for the switch, usually of the big bus

On the solenoids usually 4 off, you'll see a little wire that hooks to 2 of the solenoids, then off to the hand controller, you'll see another, to the other 2 solenoids, hook one of your 2 wires to each of these

Get 3 position non maintained switch, then apply 12V wire to the common, and the other 2 wires to 1 and 2 terminals, if it works the wrong way for you, either swap the 2 solenoid wires, or turn the switch upside down

Rover cares on the money.

To go one better get a second switch and a heavy duty relay. Wire the relay into the main power feed to the winch and control it with the second on/off switch (I like to use a momentary switch) fed from an existing ignition switched source (the headlight power relay is usually a good bet) then take the power feed for the directional switch from the winch's main power cable and wire it up as per Rovercares instructions.

I ran a length of 5 core trailer wire from the control box up to the dash. One pair had a toggle switch locked off with a "R" wiggle pin which isolated both the socket for the hand control and on-dash winch control switch. The other 3 wires connected to a spring loaded, centre off 3 position switch for winch-in/winch-out functions. However I used headlamp relays to control the winch solenoids, reduce voltage drop and prevent overloading of the switch contacts.

By isolating the power to both the hand controller and the on-dash switch I reduced the chance of inadvertant operation of the winch and prevented someone using the winch without having access to the cab. e.g. if they wanted to steal my car and use my own winch to pull the car trailer.

Originally Posted by rovercare

You don't need a diagram

3 wires

Open solenoid box, tie your 3 core cable in somewhere nice, strip it off, hook one wire to where the 12 volt supply is taken for the switch, usually of the big bus

On the solenoids usually 4 off, you'll see a little wire that hooks to 2 of the solenoids, then off to the hand controller, you'll see another, to the other 2 solenoids, hook one of your 2 wires to each of these

Get 3 position non maintained switch, then apply 12V wire to the common, and the other 2 wires to 1 and 2 terminals, if it works the wrong way for you, either swap the 2 solenoid wires, or turn the switch upside down

Quite right, and couldn't be simpler

Originally Posted by Jim621

From my understanding of winches - the three wires from the winch are as follows:

- 12v auxilary power from the battery
- wire to solenoid to wind up the winch
- wire to a second solenoid to unwind the winch.


Its not really feasible to put a kill switch inside the cab because you need to run the thick power wires to the switch and back out again - costly and you will get more power loss through the longer wires.
Just put the kill/isolation switch next to the winch on the outside of the bulbar.

Steve

My IN CAB KILL SWITCH simply kills power to the solenoids ........... I bought a 4 core flex from the electrical wholesalers (to keep the wiring neat) and can select whether I wish to have power to the hand controller socket or inside or off (This avoids the "paperclip problem").
Wired as Rovercare describes above but the active wire between the handcontroller socket and the solenoids can be broken by the switch in the cab.
Centre switch position is off.
Sorry about the crappy phone photo ... but I do know the rules

Stevo