School me: 3 wire vs 5 wire Warn Winches & Controllers (1 Viewer)

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woytovich

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I obtained an older Warn M8000 that has a funked up control box and no remote. It is a 3 wire control box.

Are the old 3 wire control box M8000 winches themselves any different from the later 5 wire control box winches? Can I use a 4 wire control box on a winch that had a 3 wire control box with/without modifications?

If I verify that the solenoids in this old control box work I'll need to find a 3 wire remote or can I wire up a 5 wire compatible socket for a 5 wire controller (that I already have)?

Thanks,
mark
 
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4 wire remotes are fairly unique(not as common as the 3 and 5 wire). But the solenoids and remotes are wired the same as the 3 wire boxes/remotes. Just swap the plug on either the remote of the solenoid box.

As long as you are swapping from a series wound motor to a series wound motor which the M8000s are, you are golden. Swap away.

If the solenoids are bad look up a Temco 450 amp contactor, been running them for years and had great luck.
 
It's been awhile since I messed with it, but the purpose of a 5 wire control box is that you need to complete two of the control circuits with the remote switch. That prevents miscreants from hot wiring the winch with a paperclip or single wire. There are stories (perhaps myths) of people unspooling the winch, running the cable over the top of the vehicle, attaching the hook to the rear, and then hotwiring the spool in to crush the vehicle.

So the 5 wire controller is a safety feature and desirable. It does make it harder to wire in in cab winch control, but if you stare at the circuit diagram enough it's still pretty straight forward.

And you can wire a winch that originally came with a 3 wire control with a 5 wire control box. There are still just 3 wires that go to the winch motor, and 1 ground wire that goes from the motor to ground.
 
I have in cab control for my 5 wire m12000 warn, recently updated from the original solenoid pack to an Albright contactor.
My plan is to use this old m8000 on my car trailer. I may just wire it with a switch at the trailer rather than a plug in wired remote, it won't have a permanent power source so I'm not worried about somebody running it maliciously.
I have the old solenoid pack that I replaced with the Albright that I'll probably repurpose for the trailer winch.
 

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