JK44M

Never seen a compact 500 AMP circuit breaker?

A solenoid is not rated for use with a winch. Even a 500 Amp solenoid can only handle that amount of current for a few seconds (Cranking Amps). On a hard recovery you will be running a lot of current through it for several minutes.

ShakyJake

Warn makes a power interrupt kit with a switch and solenoid for those wanting easy disconnect.

ShakyJake

Huh? My winch has four of them. How does your winch switch between forward and reverse? Do you know what that black box above your winch is? I give up.


Oh, and Here's a 500a continuous:
http://www.texasindustrialelectric.c..._1119865CD.asp

joe002

I use a fuse and relay: https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...ctrical-Hookup

A 500 AMP ANL Fuse is way to much for my winch (a 250 AMP fues is perfect): https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...=1#post2540555

JK44M

Yup FOUR, not one in line. It divides the current evenly through two going forward or reverse. Why do you think there are four? I talked to an Electrical Engineer here at work a while back and he said NEVER use a single solenoid in-line for the winch. With the possibility of running over 400 Amps through it when you have problems it may not disengage because of the amount of power being drawn. Power consumption would have to drop to 250 Amps or so before it will disengage if it were to get stuck closed.

This guy was an Aero Space Engineer for about 30 years. I will follow his advice and not use a solenoid.

ShakyJake

I wasn't suggesting using a single solenoid for running a winch. Your winch already comes with 2 or 4. The example I linked was merely to refute your claim that they didnt exist. Rather, I was suggesting a solenoid as part of a disconnect circuit, similar to the power interrupt kit offered by Warn. This is a relatively low amperage circuit, but can prevent damage or unwanted use of your winch by controlling the power to it. The other option is a manual disconnect like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Tuff-Stuff-WIN.../dp/B002CEPI5O
Less convenient, but does the job that people here were discussing.

mvymr

That's a WirthCo switch. It's rated for 250 amps continuous.

Source: h t t p://www.wirthco.com/heavy-duty-fixed-handle-battery-isolator-disconnect-switch-p-515-l-en.html

TheTerminator

It doesn't matter what's the draw on the cable or if even that cable is connected to anything on the other end. What matters is a short to ground. Just take a small wire, connect it to your pos battery post and touch the engine with that wire. Then come back and tell us what happens.

So you'd rather regularly pull all the unfused power cables from the vehicle to thoroughly check them, than install a cheap fuse once in 5 mins? OK...you do that.

It doesn't happen every day, but they do happen. Here's one not too long ago. And this is a good read too.

I consider wired wrong is when you have a huge power cable hanging off the battery unprotected. Maybe you have something else in mind.

Freewill

I already made my case for best-practice wiring, It includes protection for the winch cable, and I'll stick by it.

But, fact is a starter is not much different from a winch. Both have a big electric motor controlled by a solenoid switch. Both use a big power cable and draw amps by the hundred .

I've heard that some starter cables are protected by a fuse. Can't say that fused starter cables don't exist, but the 35 cars and trucks I've owned did not have one.

That means most rigs have their starters "wired wrong". Still, we drive these rigs every day. Of all the crap that goes wrong with vehicles, blown up electrical systems due to unprotected starter cables are way down on the list.

So, you can have the pragmatic approach: Millions of rigs run with unprotected starter and winch cables running to the battery and few fail, so why worry about it?

Or you can have the fail-safe approach: Running a power cable to the battery without protection is insane and both the battery and winch cables should be wired correctly and provided with fuse protection.

No point in having a pissing contest about it. You choose and then live with it.

TheTerminator

It's not about how often it fails. The fact is it can fail, and when it does, you'd be happy if you had some sort of protection there.