SIDsjeep

ok so i am in the coast guard and this time of year we do ice rescue. well the other day i was off duty and the other duty section was off doing an ice patrol checking local areas. we have this huge F250 outfitted with all our response gear. they got burried bad in some mud/snowy mixture so of course they called me in with my jeep of all the things to get recalled for this is the best scenario. well i attempted to winch them out and also using a tree for an anchor on my jeep. it drew so much power my jeep stalled out. i gave it a few minutes and started it back up and no problems. im just trying to figure out why it stalled out. i had the jeep running and revving occasionally and i dont think it was my battery but im not sure if maybe the comp told my jeep to shut off? has any one experienced this? well i ended up getting them out after i winched them mostly out i them just turned around and put it in 4lo and let the jeep do work. im equipped with a rugged ridge 10500 synthetic winch and i only have the stock battery for the moment. after the recovery my jeep would not let me go over 30mph until i got about a mile down the road and shut off the engine and start it back up. thank you in advance for any comments

JK-Ford

This tells me that you have no circuit protection for your winch conductors. When you press the button on the winch to tell it to retract. And it can't. This is known as "Locked Rotor" on the motor. And it can generate very high currents in a hurry. It's almost as good as a direct short. Your probably lucky that you stalled the motor. Because your next indication of a problem would be a fire. Some people have noted that their vehicle will not opperate without a battery. Others say that this isn't true. But I suspect that you pulled the battery down to "0" during the locked rotor event. And this is what caused your Jeep to stall.

PS: Install circuit protection.

jnabird333

I wonder if it went into "survival mode"? Most ECUs have a feature that allow the vehicle to run in a restricted manner if it thinks the control system has failed. In your case is could've been an under voltage or over-current detection. Your Battery might have been overloaded and recovered after you waited for a bit?

???No smoking gun, just ideas???

Just out of curiosity, were you doing a straight line pull or using snatch-blocks? Remember you can essentially double your pulling power by using a snatch-block at the other vehicle and connecting your line to your bumpers d-ring. Even if you don't need the power it is safer and easier on the equipment. You do need a lot more line though.

Ryan0260

Are you using a deep cycle battery? The factory battery isn't up to the task. I would have the battery load tested, it is probably shot, or on its way out. My battery was only giving 55 cca's when it went.

tattedfire

I'd say your battery is on it's way out too. Need a good deep cycle (MAT) battery like die hard platinum.

JK-Ford

There isn't a battery made that can hold up to a motor drawing full lock rotor current.

Maverik

Sounds to me like your battery is going south, or just not big enough to run your winch.When the voltage drops below a certain point the engine light will come on and the jeep will go in limp mode untill it comes back up. Done this alot camping and running the radio half the night without starting it enough. Will have to let it run for 15min and turn off then start again to get it to reset. Could have stalled from the load on the alternator as your battery was giving out. This could happen even if it was fused.....which it probably isn't. Alot of winch kits don't come with fuses or breakers, heard guys argue this both ways. Your winch should have an LRA rating (locked rotor amps), this is what u should fuse to if u want a fuse. Anything over this draw and your winch and or feed wire will start to melt! There is also a duty cycle rating for motors, amount it runs to amount of cooldown time. This is what usually seperates the men from the boys in motors. The more pull (load) the less the duty cycle. What i'm getting at is don't hold the button down to long at once, feather it a bit, even a little helps alot. Even with a dual battery set up, u will kill them quickly if u just hold down the button on a hard pull. Can get more technical if u want.

jedg

Reference the LRA. I have a WARN V10000. The specs sheet and the owner's manual doesn't reference LRA. I do see that at 10,000 lbs pull, the motor is pulling 502 amps. So to fuse my winch correctly, should I have a 500 amp fuse in place or should it be something a bit higher?

shockwaveaz

Came to post the same thing in less words. This guy is correct.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

JK-Ford

Only motors that you will ever see that are rated and installed to pull "LRA" or Lock Rotor Current will be applications dealing with "Life Safety". Such as emergency generators in Hospitals and Health Care Facilities. A motor that comes to a dead stop during opperation ( or never even starts to rotate after the button is pushed ) will draw thousands of amps of current in seconds. There is no battery in the world, much less any AC distribution system that can withstand this type of current draw for verry long. On AC applications, this usually ends with a braker trip or fire. On DC applications, this usually ends with a fuse blow, fire or a shunted power supply.

But to answer your guestion on how to wire the winch. I normally don't like the wire ampacities rating based on length. But DC motors connected to batteries present a new concept to me. Normally I would say to wire the motor to its full load capabilities. But I don't think that installing a 500 amp circuit is very applicable either. So I force myself to a compromise. If you can afford it, I would recommend wiring a 200 amp circuit with a slow blow fuse. And make the connection to the winch as close as possible to the motor. I really have no clue how often you may see high current during an average recovery. But if it were my winch, I would want the most capabilities that I could possibly engineer. Good luck with your install.

Hope this helps