Battery disconnect for the winch, questions

[cruiser_guy]

I'm just about finished changing over from a PTO to a Warn electric. One last question is the final battery positive connection. Here in Sierra Leone folks are ALWAYS poking prodding and playing on anything and everything. I am leery about having a direct 12v hot wire out the front of my truck for some kid to ground out and either kill himself or explode my batteries!
Yes, the leads have rubber "hoods" over them and yes, folks should not be playing on other folks vehicles but neither of those is going to stop someone who's doodling around.
What I'm thinking is installing a battery disconnect switch between the battery and the winch positive cable so the winch is hot ONLY when I need it to be.
I have a Hella battery disconnect here but on another thread someone said it was only good to 100 amps (the box says 1000 amps @ 12v (10s).
Is there a problem using this switch? I have to think that once it is connected there should be no problems. Any arcing would only happen if it were disconnected or reconnected under load.
Thoughts?

 

[e9999]

I would think that if the box says 1000A you should be good. That does sound pretty high, though, so doublecheck with the company? Hella should be a reputable company, I trust.

(I use a free switch: I have a loop connector at the end of the main pos cable that I just put over the side "marine" accessory post of my battery, and hold down with a wing nut, when I need to use the winch. No worry about roof tacos.)

 

[Tapage]

keep in mind that your winch can ask for 450 amps when it's working hard ..

 

[Pin_Head]

The switch is rated by load and time, so it can take 1000A for 10 seconds. The longer the time, the lower the amp rating. Check with the manufacturer for the duty cycle.

 

[seapotato]

Someone pointed me at this website a while back Knife Switch for Top Post Batteries, Low Vertical Operation with Wing Nut #20148

I've been thinking of using one of these as an emergency shutoff for a winch, after I had a solenoid stick in the "ON" position the other day.

 

[george_tlc]

Rotary marine switch is what I've used on my two 4wds.

Blue Sea makes good marine switches that are good for several hundred amps continuous duty. Perko is another provider of marine switches.

Blue sea link -> Manual Battery Switches - PN - Blue Sea Systems

Here's my setup in my patrol:

and the switch opened up to check out the contacts and design (rated at 350A continuous). Has o-rings to seal all the working guts:

It is a Blue Sea 9001e and the basic specs are:

Cranking Rating: 10 sec. 2,000 Amps
Cranking Rating: 1 min. 1,000 Amps
Intermittent Rating: 5 min. 600 Amps
Continuous Rating 350 Amps

Of course I'm using it as a 4way switch to provide selection of main/aux/both to the winch. The both also provides me a self jump start by paralleling the main/aux batteries together.

Blue sea also makes other switches like simple on/off versions like the 3000 series whose basic specs are:
Cranking Rating: 10 sec. 2,750 Amps
Cranking Rating: 1 min. 1,325 Amps
Intermittent Rating: 5 min. 900 Amps
Continuous Rating 600 Amps

cheers,
george.

 

[canman]

I used these Blue Sea switches as well (300A cont). One on the left is for winch, and the one on the right is to join my batteries.

 

[laro]

Cruiser guy,
I have one of those Hella disconnects mounted in the feed line to a Warn M8000. Max amps draw for this type of winch is 435. Never had any issues with this set up. Even with "occasionly" heavy winching.
I had the same worries about kids playing with the winch and hurting them self.

Ronald.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Cruiser guy,
I have one of those Hella disconnects mounted in the feed line to a Warn M8000. Max amps draw for this type of winch is 435. Never had any issues with this set up. Even with "occasionly" heavy winching.
I had the same worries about kids playing with the winch and hurting them self.

Ronald.

Thanks!!

How are things out in Surrey? We lived there for years before heading out to Guatemala first and now Africa.

 

[laro]

Life is good. Recently we had our annual cold, snowy weather week.
Now back to "Wet" coast. I am sure you are not missing that where you are now! Gives you time to dream up new trips for the upcoming spring and summer. Also time to check over the truck and make some modifications. In case you were involved with the Coastal Cruisers, club is going strong and attracting more members! Happy trails
Ronald.

 

[AJAEbj42]

Good to hear from you Charles. Hope things are well and the fuel is clean!

I simply leave my positive lead disconnected from my battery and then hook it up when I need to winch. Probably not the best solution, but it's cheap!

 

[seapotato]

Yeah the reason I was leaning towards those knife style switches over the marine style was just for the emergency "holy crap" moments

( had the marine ones before as a night switch, so some evil friend didn't winch my truck to a lamp post while I was away.)

thinking I could attach a pull to the knife switch and have it somewhere accessable. A tab by the grill or dash maybe.

When my solenoid stuck it was naturally right at the end of the cable and was cinching the crap out of everything and I was desperately trying to get the hood open so I could unhook the battery cable before something snapped. Which meant having to run around the truck to get to the other hood latch...was not cool..

Some sort of emergency shut off that didn't require getting the hood open would have been nice...

 

[cruiser_guy]

Thanks to "Mr. Funnel" the fuel is clean even though Mr. Funnel ends up choking on dirt after about 20 gallons out here in the country.

The winch is operational with the hot line disconnected.

The switch would just be a nice finishing touch.

 

[e9999]

I always have the hood open when I winch, as additional protection for the cabin and to allow faster access to the battery. But, yes, disconnecting a lead, even with a wingnut, will take longer than throwing a switch, of course. If I were to put in a switch, I'd definitely put it under the hood, though.

 

[JamesR]

...
thinking I could attach a pull to the knife switch and have it somewhere accessable. A tab by the grill or dash maybe. ...

Here's a link to the disconnect in the photo..http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FLA-FR1003-2/?rtype=10

 

[fj404life]

brilliant idea on attaching a cable pull or something to a knife switch. I have all my wiring ran thru one winch and truck. I had a quad size winch run away not long ago...that was bad enough cant imagine my 8274! Gonna figure something out.