Pros / Cons of interior winch control? (1 Viewer)

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macneill

Rollin’ on 33s
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Not that I use the winch that often, actually only twice. Once to pull out Noah and the other my buddy in a Disco II.

Thought it might be nice to have the control inside.

What are the pros and cons of that?

I guess the main would be visibility while winching.
 
Not being in the "line" of the line. Bad stuff happens the second you look away and cables snap.

Scott
 
macneill said:
Not that I use the winch that often, actually only twice. Once to pull out Noah and the other my buddy in a Disco II.

Thought it might be nice to have the control inside.

What are the pros and cons of that?

I guess the main would be visibility while winching.
Having the winch controls inside is a great idea. Having the winch control inside enables me to power out my winch rope as my spotter carries the rope to the anchor point. I can run my cruiser at elevated RPM while doing so. In the rain and snow I stay in the cab while the person I am winching pulls the rope. I can operate my winch immediatley without looking for the control head and handing it out to someone. One thing to be careful of is to have the winch rope properly spooled to avoid running over it, (on the spool) if the spotter does not keep tension on the rope. And it is a simple mod to do.

If you have bucks Ramsey makes a universal wireless winch control, and they are cool. I am told they have limited range.
Good luck

JB

JB
 
gotta chime in on the wireless.... seems an awful idea to me to have a remote that is so prone to failure. Winching can be dangerous. Losing control of the winch at the wrong time could be very dangerous.

The winch control itself is pretty simple- you could have an interior and/or exterior switch that would allow you to do both/either.

I plan to install the winch control plug into the driver's side fender of the rig. Then I can plug it in from the driver's seat, and control it from the driver's seat. If I want to walk up front, I can do that too.
 
ff347 said:
Not being in the "line" of the line. Bad stuff happens the second you look away and cables snap.

Scott

Are you saying you are safer in the cab or not safer?
 
If you wire in the cab, I would want to have one switch to control in/out and a safety switch that must be tripped in order for the in/out switch to work.

Otherwise it would be real easy to rip off a bumper etc if you weren't careful.
 
In cab is a huge help. Then again, you do drive a 100 right? So maybe it's not an issue :D

Either way, if wired correctly it's not going to cause any issues.
 
I have in cab controls in all my trucks and never use the remote. That said, we do have a master switch that kills power to the winch when not in use. Essential when you have in cab controls. For the kind of wheeling we do, it makes a lot of sense. You control both the winching and the driving with spotters telling you what is going on. That way if you screw up it is all your fault :D
 
I have my winch switched from inside. I do need to pop the hood where the solenoid box is and flip a switch to activate the power. This was done in case the switch on the dash was bumped.

I've wired two winches, both Warn and they were different. I don't remember what I did, but it wasn't hard to figure out with a multimeter. My old 6000 is a three wire design that was way easy. The 8000 on my truck was a five wire and took a little bit more figuring. I used mom on/mom on rocker switches that fit the stock hole on the dash (well sort of fit).

I like it, especially when I'm exploring by myself. I can hook up the winch cable, climb inside, give the truck gas, run the winch, and steer the truck all at the same time. Of course you still need to hook up the cabled switch to wind in the cable, so I guess it really doesn't matter too much.
 
The master disconnect that Cristo mentioned is very good idea. I had a customer tell me that in Texas, the latest teenage prank is to release the clutch on the winch, spool out the cable and wrap it around the truck, connect the hook at the winch, then stuff tin-foil into the solenoid pack until it shorts. Once shorted, the winch starts tightening and essentially compacts the rig until the battery is shot. I guess toilet papering has graduated to this.
 
mobi-arc said:
The master disconnect that Cristo mentioned is very good idea. I had a customer tell me that in Texas, the latest teenage prank is to release the clutch on the winch, spool out the cable and wrap it around the truck, connect the hook at the winch, then stuff tin-foil into the solenoid pack until it shorts. Once shorted, the winch starts tightening and essentially compacts the rig until the battery is shot. I guess toilet papering has graduated to this.

Sounds like time to hook up the winch to the kid and test the shear rating of his bung hole...

I will remember the master disconnect w/ I do the winch, sounds very sensible all around.
 
LR_RESQ said:
I'm thinking about running two solenoids off the winch, on for the dash controls and one for the wired remote.
No new solenoids are required. Just run tour new control circuit parallel to the existing one. You'll have 12 volt positive sent to one bank or another bank of solenoids.

I use a hooded enable switch to turn the 12 volts on to the in out toggle switch.

JB
 
mobi-arc said:
The master disconnect that Cristo mentioned is very good idea. I had a customer tell me that in Texas, the latest teenage prank is to release the clutch on the winch, spool out the cable and wrap it around the truck, connect the hook at the winch, then stuff tin-foil into the solenoid pack until it shorts. Once shorted, the winch starts tightening and essentially compacts the rig until the battery is shot. I guess toilet papering has graduated to this.


I heard of this a few years ago and tried to short the pins with a paper clip but no workie. I have a 5 pin plug and I'm a dummy I guess :D
 
mobi-arc said:
The master disconnect that Cristo mentioned is very good idea. I had a customer tell me that in Texas, the latest teenage prank is to release the clutch on the winch, spool out the cable and wrap it around the truck, connect the hook at the winch, then stuff tin-foil into the solenoid pack until it shorts. Once shorted, the winch starts tightening and essentially compacts the rig until the battery is shot. I guess toilet papering has graduated to this.


Last time I heard about this, it was in Australia. This is starting to sound like an urban myth.
 
Anyone know where to find a heavy duty solenoid to wire a simple on / off switch?
Can't seem to figure out where to get one. Looks like I would need a solenoid capable of about 500 amps for 30 seconds.

Hayes
 
I use one from Roadless gear. It is a bargain at $30...

DSCF1105.JPG


More info on the install here:
 
Hayes said:
Anyone know where to find a heavy duty solenoid to wire a simple on / off switch?
Can't seem to figure out where to get one. Looks like I would need a solenoid capable of about 500 amps for 30 seconds.

Hayes
I do not understand why you feel additional solenoids are required. Are we talking about the control side or the power side of the winch?
 
Set it up to have both interior/exterior and be happy.
 

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