has anyone found a nice tidy bolt location to ground their winch? I have lots of ground cable to work with and would like to find a nice tidy foolproof ground spot.
best place to ground the winch?
- Thread starter semlin
- Start date
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Why not run it to the negative terminal on the battery??
Or you can use paint stripper around a hole in the frame and put an eye on the ground wire... bolt the eye to the frame and paint over.
-Phil
-Phil
I would not go to the frame unless you also put a high current ground from the block to the frame,
As an 80 sits stock there are several small gauge wires from the block to the frame and body and another at the battery that cover all the loads except for the starter, the starter grounds to the block and the main negative takes it from the block to the battery,
the negative post of the battery would be very good
there is a 10x1.25mm threaded boss on the right side of the block below the exhaust manifold just forward of the engine mount , threads are about 14mm deep so get the right length bolt, that would be a good direct ground for the winch, or you could run a ground from here to the frame and then from the frame to the winch. this is where I grounded by second battery, the surface of the boss had some rust, thread chaced the hole and then sanded the surface and it was good to go.
As an 80 sits stock there are several small gauge wires from the block to the frame and body and another at the battery that cover all the loads except for the starter, the starter grounds to the block and the main negative takes it from the block to the battery,
the negative post of the battery would be very good
there is a 10x1.25mm threaded boss on the right side of the block below the exhaust manifold just forward of the engine mount , threads are about 14mm deep so get the right length bolt, that would be a good direct ground for the winch, or you could run a ground from here to the frame and then from the frame to the winch. this is where I grounded by second battery, the surface of the boss had some rust, thread chaced the hole and then sanded the surface and it was good to go.
x2, I've always been told you want to ground the winch directly to the battery.
I recommend grounding to the neg. batt. post.
It is generally the most reliable place to put it.
Additionally, it is a spot that is much more likely to be serviced (cleaned) from time to time, whereas grounds to the frame, motor, other.... are normally never touched again.
It doesn't take long for oxidation to occur and start causing significant resistance.
It is generally the most reliable place to put it.
Additionally, it is a spot that is much more likely to be serviced (cleaned) from time to time, whereas grounds to the frame, motor, other.... are normally never touched again.
It doesn't take long for oxidation to occur and start causing significant resistance.
And every ohm counts in a high current applications like a winch or starter. Because voltage drop equals current (amps) times resistance (ohms law), then you really need to minimize the resistance in order to get maximum performance out of the device. Say you've got 0.02 ohms resistance between the power source (battery/alternator) and some device that draws 10 amps. This is a reasonable resistance value if the path to ground goes through the steel frame/body and a couple of ground straps, especially if one of the connections is corroded a bit. 0.02 x 10 = 0.2 volts, so the device is actually getting fed with 11.8 volts - not bad - most any device will work just fine. But if the device is a winch or starter drawing 100 amps (a conservative value), then that voltage drop due to resistance becomes 2 volts and so the device is now getting only 10 volts - or 83% of the nominal supply voltage. Definitely not good if you want the winch/starter producing all the torque it can. So grounding direct to the battery with copper cable is the preferred option in any high current application.
Excelent explanation Tom.
Thank you.
Thank you.
- Thread starter
- #9
thank you. i have it on the battery right now. i have always in the back of my mind thought it should be grounded to the engine. I will leave it alone.
Hopefully through some military style terminals, not the stock set up with it small contact area. Or some other means of good contact surface on both the positive and negative terminals.
- Thread starter
- #11
yup, milspec terminals...
Those are nice, aren't they.
There is no "ground" for a better explanation 
were can i get these mil spec battery terminals?
- Thread starter
- #16
napa. they are in their beldon catalog.
Nice. Thanks for that.
I went into the Napa store in Monterey and the clown behind the counter told me they did not carry those anymore, so I settled for some inferior clamps.
That really irks my noodle.
I've got a marine deep cycle battery that has secondary screw posts next to the big fat ones. Perfect for the winch. I leave the positive one unhooked until needed so nobody can do the taco thing on me. And yes, I'm paranoid about these things... 
- Thread starter
- #20
um, i believe that is not recommended. those secondary screw posts will melt with the ampage from a winch
