Maybe slightly OT. trailer winch wiring

If you are going to put the winch on the trailer, then you may want to put a battery there too. Add the length of your tow vehicle, to the distance from the trailer tongue to the winch motor. That is how much big, fat jumper cable style wire you will need, if you don't. Make it a deep cycle motor home battery, connected to your tow vehicle charging system, with an isolation switch.

The relay diagram looks as if it will work. Print three copies, and pencil in what happens, for each switch position.

Earle

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Hi Earle,

I forgot to mention that a battery box is within a foot of the winch. I was guessing 8 gauge, maybe 10 gauge wire from relays to motor and battery to relays. If I knew more about this winch, I wouldn't need to guess the amperage pull off the battery.

Brian

Bulletsnbrains did pass the time by typing:

12V Amps Watts 3' 5' 7' 10' 15' 20' 25' 50 300 16 14 12 12 10 10 8 100 600 12 12 10 10 6 6 4 150 900 10 10 8 8 4 4 2 200 1200 10 8 8 6 4 4 2

I do not believe the headlight relays are large enough to carry the winch amp load.

I stalled my winch once and smoked out the 4? ga. cables hot enough to blow the heat shrink off them.

The wiring is the same to just use solenoid relays instead, I would go that route.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >

Hey Bill,

The battery is a full size auto battery. I think the intermitent usage of this winch probably doesnt deserve any more than this. Did you check out the link I sent in the OP.? I would sub relays into the circuit instead of solenoids. My concern, do I need to protect the relays with Diodes? This would be on the 30/51 "Load" connection on each relay. It would prevent current flow back into the relays that are unused during the forward or reverse operation.

Brian

Mike,

The relays are 30 amp. The winch is very small, I'm guessing 2500 maybe 3000 lb capacity. I'll post a pic on Alt.Pictures.Binaries.Autos.4x4 in a few minutes.

Brian

To answer the diode question, no you don't need them if you can even find ones that can handle the amps. When the trigger is off the relay is an open circuit.

Winches pull a lot more power than you are thinking I think.

Mike

Bulletsnbra>

Pics posted 8:50AM

Superwinch is a good brand to look up specs on: Their smallest (1000 pound rated) unit draws 92 amps at full load.

draw goes up (WAY UP!) from there, you have no idea what yours will pull.

The last pic should work for your two wire unit. You shouldn't need any diodes, this is all brute force low voltage power circuits. You are going to fry your relays the first time you stall the winch, use Ford (or Jeep!) starter relays. The starter relays are about the same price as the ones you are looking at.

Bulletsnbra> Ok,

In the fire service we used Ford starter relays for high amp applications as they are effective and cheap to replace of you manage to burn one out.

The Warn winches I have seen taken apart appear to use them also.

That's why the picture in the Pirate 4x4 link shows Ford starter solenoids, I think. Hook up a load to the winch, put a clip-on ammeter on the wire, and see how much current it draws.

Earle

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Some of the older 'big' winches (8-9k rating) can draw up to 400 amps at max capacity.

The Ford relays aren't rated that high for sustained use but can handle almost anything reasonable for short periods such as winch use.

The last time I bought one was probably 10 years ago and I think it was $4.99, the new modular relays probably cost twice as much, can't take the same load, and it would be difficult or impossible to connect a large gauge wire.

Did you notice that Pirate page shows both the 'new' and 'old' relays styles?

I'd go more for 4 guage at least, 2 guage more likely... or sacrifice a set of those nice big jumper cables or surplus welding cables.

Bulletsnbrains proclaimed:

If you have any electonics near a relay coil, is good idea to use a diode or even better a diode and resistor to get rid of the inductive kick that can literally punch holes in solid state devices. Those need a bit of current and high voltage to deal with the kick.

Some folks idiot proof connections with diodes... kinda like the phone sets that work no matter whether tip and ring are reversed or not.

L.W.(Bill) Hughes III proclaimed:

I would. At least on any car that has any sort of solid state devices on it.

L.W.(Bill) Hughes III proclaimed: