Thread: Winch earth

battery is a better option

Yep, definitely directly to the battery for the winch. Both of the big leads.

Not sure on the TD5
But on the tdi and tdci

You can run positive to the large starter motor lug
And negative to good chassis earth on the passenger side rail.

The battery box is well earthed to the passenger chassis rail and there is no copper cable you’d want to run that will carry more current than a chassis rail!

Steve

Originally Posted by roverrescue

Not sure on the TD5
But on the tdi and tdci

You can run positive to the large starter motor lug
And negative to good chassis earth on the passenger side rail.

The battery box is well earthed to the passenger chassis rail and there is no copper cable you’d want to run that will carry more current than a chassis rail!

Steve

I reckon battery is best option. When you have a device with such an enormous currant draw, you want to be taking it direct from the power source.

It's fine to say that the hattery is well earthed to chassis, but every connection in the chain can be a potential weak link and just because it is a good earth today, it might not be next weak.

In a Defender with the battery under the seat, I'd say run the earth cable to the chassis, not the battery.
Like roverrescue said, the chassis will allow a lot more current.

This way it keeps the earth cable shorter which allows more current, lower voltage drop.
Front bumper to seat area in a Defer must be about 2m, give or take a bit.

If it were a disco with the battery way up front .. then yeah, direct to the battery(or the body earth point) would be as good.