Freewill

I agree, however the industry does not seem to agree with us. The industry does its actuarial calculation, consults its lawyers, and decides it is cheaper to pay off a limited number of claims than to fuse these heavy cables on every vehicle.

Couple other items worth mentioning:

There was an interesting point made by an earlier poster who said he'd been told that a 200 or 250 amp fuse, which would protect 1ga cable against a catastrophic short circuit, takes 5 minutes to blow with a 500 amp load. Well, even a dual battery won't supply 500 amps for 5 minutes so maybe the simple approach of a fuse sized for the factory winch cable would do the trick here without re-cabling.

On a related topic - in an exchange with JK-Ford it was mentioned that a chaffed wire can act like a high-resistance load such as a light bulb. True, but there can be a 20 amp high-resistance insulation breach that will produce enough heat to start a fire before it would ever pop a 250 to 500 amp fuse. That's why I don't support a fuse as protection for this kind of fault. This was drilled into my head many times over the years by those wiser than me.

Anyway, I think a lot of good valid points have been made here. Been a good discussion despite taking a turn into the ditch a couple times

_J__C_

I may look this up. I think a good solution would be just to have a kill switch. Leave it off and when you need it turn it on. Although I haven't looked it up to see how exactly it works.

emoody007

A better solution to me is to run a switch solenoid for the winch. This will allow you to cut on or off the power to the winch. The power switch itself is fused and the solenoid provides protection between your battery and winch. This is a very handy feature to have if you forge any water and don't want power on your winch while you do it. Plus it keeps someone from operating your winch when you park your Jeep. Just my 2 cents.

goaterguy

How much 2awg wire would I need for the rear winch?

JK-Ford

I respect my elders also. Especialy since I have very little formal training. Most of my education has been passed down the old-school method. But I still need a little convincing on how a 20 amp load can destroy a circuit rated at 250 amps or more. I've had my share of experience with chafing faults. Usually they start small. But the rubbing and arcking whill eventualy open up the fault wide enough to creat a dead short. I have never seen a fire as a result of chafing.


Besides visual inspection, a fuse is the only protection for this type of fault.

JK-Ford

Any electrical device installed should be fused.

Freewill

Most of the "real" training comes from old school experience in the real world. Formal training might make the learning quicker but not always better.

Anyway, this thing with chafing and hot spots is an odd concept. The danger is because a 20 amp load CAN'T destroy a 250 amp circuit. If the 20 (or whatever) amp fault is the result of a pinched or chafed spot that maybe gets a little wet, it starts producing heat. The 250 amp fuse won't blow yet so the chafed spot just keeps producing heat. By the time the fault gets bad enough to pop the big fuse there will already be a lot of heat, so if something flamable is nearby then hello fire! Like a sudden catastrophic circuit failure, these slow burns don't happen very often but they do happen.

This is similar to someone in their house plugging an 18ga extension cord into a 20 amp branch circuit and then plugging a big electric heater into the extension cord. The extension cord can get hot enough to start a fire before the insulation melts through and creates a short that pops the breaker. The heat is from undersized conductors rather than chafing, but the fire starts before the fuse/breaker pops in both cases. They rarely include these details in the newspaper.

If both a fuse and disconnect is used, there will be some protection from both slow and catastrophic short circuits. Hmm. "Fused Disconnect". Has a nice ring to it - almost like something we've heard before

But, again, nothing is foolproof. Folks, inspect your wiring in your rig, your house, your shop. If it looks bad it probably is. Fire sux!

JK44M

Thanks for the link, 250 Continuous Amps 24V, 500 continuous Amps 12V. It should be able to handle the current load.

emoody007

Warn makes a kit with a solenoid that has like 20' of cable which is just enough to do front and back. You'll also have to buy a second set of connectors.

Stillmotion

Does anyone have the Benchmark Design fuse kit?