Roger, did not think so. Can get power from cab and use winch switch to power this isolator and also the in cab winch switches for in and out. That work ?
Winch Master Disconnect
- Thread starter Irun
- Start date
Yes, your in-cab winch arming switch should send 12V to one leg of the coil on the solenoid. The other leg gets grounded. Then the one leg of the solenoid's contactor goes to the battery and the other to the winch. Polarity for the coil legs may matter (depends on the solenoid), so look for a + or - marker on them. Polarity on the contactor legs shouldn't matter.
Are you buying a shorter, pre-crimped cable to run from the battery to the solenoid or crimping your own? Would it make sense to cut the existing winch power cable, adding connectors and inserting the solenoid?
I made my own cables.
If they are long enough, that would make sense. However, I used 00AWG cable to make mine after consulting marine cabling charts for max current draw. Overkill, I know...
I'm glad I'm not the only one here who actually tries to at least give a nod to the 450 amp max current draw.
I know that drawing the full 450A is not very likely in "the real world", but, in the event that I ever do, I'd rather not have to deal with my rig burning down after spending boatloads of time and money building it (I paid way too much for the base LJ, and I've already spent more than that again on parts). It's cheap insurance.
Yep - agreed. A burn down is unlikely with the usual 4 ga, or the 2 ga that I (partially) used, but heating the wire however little is just wasted energy that could have gone to the winch - even at lower current draw. The previous owner of my winch provided 4 ga. I used it for the return - PLUS - I grounded the winch to the frame, and upgraded the "master ground system" to 2 ga including a 2 ga jumper around one of the motor mounts. That gives me a super low return impedance, yet with the reliability of a direct connection as well - albiet at 4 ga. Then I ran a new 2 ga from the solenoid to the winch, and a short leftover piece of 4 ga from the battery to the solenoid. Not as good as 2, and certainly not as good as 00, but "good enough" and much better than running 4 the entire way.
I also fused the circuit right at the battery. Both solenoid and fuse can be easily bypassed in the field should circumstances necessitate.
Be careful using a welding cable chart for ampacity determinations for a winch. Voltage drop is not critical in welding (for constant voltage welding, you just crank up the voltage at the machine to compensate.) Electric motors, on the other hand, are more sensitive to voltage drop, and as voltage drops due to resistive loss in the cable, the motor pulls more current to compensate. Current = heat. Heat = damage.
True that - until you hit the guy. Blowen fusen und poppen corken mit spitzensparken!
I agree 100%. I did say it was overkill, after all. The amount of work to produce that overkill pales in comparison to the overkill required for your proposed bumper air bag, so I guess that's my limit. And that's the beauty of building my rig my way - I get to choose my overkill!
