Winch Installation

[BushWacker]

In order to extricate fellow members
from overambitious & compromising predicaments ...
I believe it might be appropriate to install this
4.1 ton Warn Winch on my Defender 130 Dreadnought.

https://ibb.co/nGgEC0

https://ibb.co/d2SnX0

The problem is I dont want to connect it to my
starter battery under the passenger seat but rather
to my gen utility ( fridge etc) battery box
which sits behind the drivers seat
and is downstream of a DC-DC 12A HCDP charger.

Question being :
is this feasible wrt voltage-drop, cabling and ready/versatile connections etc
... or is something going to melt ?
eg can I just use Anderson plug connections etc?

[Quack]

I’m going to get flak for this as I have not thought it through, but why don’t you swap your primary and secondary battery?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BushWacker]

I’m going to get flak for this as I have not thought it through, but why don’t you swap your primary and secondary battery?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

... so is it implicit that the winch battery
must be supported by alternator running
off idling engine whilst winching ?

( ... and that HCDP unit would not readily accommodate this and/or be vulnerable under winching load ?)

[Quack]

Found this on net;



That’s almost 500A, not sure how much your battery can supply, but often I’m reliant on the alternator to do its bit!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Anthony Forgey]

Don't put it on the aux battery. The high cycle capacity of the main/starting battery is far better suited to sudden high current draws and it recovers quickly from these sudden major current demands. Also it is best to high idle your vehicle while doing a winch recovery to ensure that your alternator is delivering maximum voltage during the winching event. My patrol has a handy high idle knob for such times, but holding your foot on the accelerator quite adequately performs the same function.

Most auxiliary batteries are deep cycle type. They are able to withstand long low current draw events and are able to repeatedly recover from these drains. This is not the case with a high cycle. If you run it flat just a few times, it never recovers properly.

[BushWacker]

OK.

So now on a defender battery is typically under
the passenger seat ....
... and as I understand it
Winch has to be heavy wired to the main charging battery
... so is there a safe effective way to avoid taking my heavy wire winch leads all the way back to under passenger seat
ie
can I connect them to the earthing point of the battery and , for positive, to heavy terminal of starter or alternator ?

and

do I have to have an isolating switch for the warn winch or is it integrated/ built-in ?

[Anthony Forgey]

Although not ideal, you could connect to starter positive as long as the existing cable between starter positive and starter battery is equal to or thicker gauge than the warn power cable. You could connect the warn negative to the engine block, again, not ideal. It is best to run pos and neg from starter battery to winch.
There is no built in isolator in the winch. Most diagrams sho no fuse or isolator, but if that winch positive cable starts melting from overheating you dont really have time to look for a spanner to disconnect. Cheapest option is to add an in-line fuse on the positive lead with a 300amp capacity. Alternatively an isolator switch on the positive.

[BushWacker]

Ok so now I’m back doing a bit more on my winch installation...

I’ve got hold of the manual and main question at moment
Is
How far back from the rectangular winch-window
Do I plant the winch ?

Page 7 of the manual (& see picture below). shows the drill hole spacing
And I’ve also made a template to get good alignment ...

But there’s no indication of how far back from the front plate with window
To plant the winch ... given that I have some choice on this.

has anyone got any experienced view on this ...

...as rope winds in/out the window over/between the rollers
It needs spool/unspool readily and presumably one doesn’t want too much
force bearing on the rollers and too much angle change of the rope as it
passes through the window ?
... as far back as possible or up close or doesn’t matter ?

https://ibb.co/wQ173Dr

htp://www.manualsdir.com/manuals/get?doc=3547 ... 83d&open=1

[Anthony Forgey]

I would mount it so that the center of the drum is the the same distance away from the fairlead surface as the distance from the "feet" of the mounting housing to the center of the drum.

[KurtG]

I would mount it so that the center of the drum is the the same distance away from the fairlead surface as the distance from the "feet" of the mounting housing to the center of the drum.

I may need a drawing of this to understand it. Way over my head

[BushWacker]

... so drum/spool is about 1/2 its own length
from fairlead surface ...

[Anthony Forgey]

Winch installation

[KurtG]

Thanks 4G

[Rabbiddog RIP 7/6/21]

Use a solenoid as close to the source of power as you can, but it must be accessible. You can break the thin feed wire if required or add a switch.

The body of my winch is around 10mm from the front plate

[BushWacker]

OK , thanks Ant , Peter ...
Makes sense, now I picture it, that winch drum
sits well forward, close to the fairlead window...
... as rope winds in ( ie under load & esp initially)
and feeds round drum from underside it will bear les heavily on bottom roller as rope will move through much gentler angle over the roller.

My older winch , which I will put on my Series3 ,
is ‘front footed’ in that it bolts onto the vertical,
windowed, facepate ... with the same four bolts
that hold the fairlead ... so reel is as close to window as it can get ! I used to wonder why Warn made it like that ! .... pictures below whilst pictures of new Warn 9000 (‘basal bolting’) are in post 1.

Warn 8274 ... mine is about 1975 model ... !
https://ibb.co/Sxpgmk1
https://ibb.co/80bVGrt