Measuring voltage drop when relocating the solenoid (1 Viewer)

[LCFJ]

I really want to relocate my winch solenoid into the engine bay, away from the elements and tampering. Just trying to understand and calculate voltage drop for the whole connection. Do I measure the whole circuit? e.g. Battery positive -> Solenoid -> Winch motor -> Battery ground.

The wires from the solenoid to the winch are obviously pretty short and it's designed to be located close to the winch motor. If you located the solenoid right next to the battery (with a short positive wire) and the cables from solenoid to winch were longer, would this impact the potential voltage drop, assuming the total length of the battery positive -> solenoid -> winch -> ground circuit was kept similar?

 

[e9999]

It is the total length of the wiring circuit that matters for voltage drop, not just one side (like just from battery + to winch). So it would not matter if you have one side short and the other long, or the opposite.

 

[LCFJ]

Thanks, that makes sense. Interesting they give you such long cable runs to go from battery to solenoid / winch ground. The supplied wires don't seem up to the task considering their length and the max amperage of the winch.

 

[gnob]

You aren't running 100% duty cycles, that is basically why stock cables are smaller.
Go with some 2ga or better and you are fine.
I just ran 14ft runs of 2ga to the rear of my rig to run an m8.