Recently I decided to install a winch on my truck. In the past I went with a hydraulic but better realizing my winching needs I went with an electric.
My style of fun is basically overlanding. I do my best to make it out to Moab as often as I can and hands down my favorite front bumper is the @sleeoffroad short bus bumper. Attractive, strong with great approach angle. All this can make winch choices limited and installs challenging.
For the winch I wanted a 10K and settled on the Warn VR EVO 10K. Going in I knew that it would fit in the hole and would likely have issues with the cross bar support of the bumper, especially since it was an older version bumper and the control box would likely need to be relocated.
On the electrical side of the build it was going to be a single battery design and expected to deliver the 10K ability should that situation arrive.
Winch Purchase:
Amazon was selling a Warn 10k with steel line for @435.00 and since I'd be throwing away most everything except the main body it was an easy purchase.
The Warn VR EVO 10k winch has a max amp draw of 435amps. I'm assuming that that is when you are in a situation and actually stall the winch motor which I've never done. So for deign sake I used a max amp draw of 400 amps. The key to any successful which install is Amperage management. I had a friend install a M12k on his 80 and burnt out the contactor in a very short time. No amp management.
Amp Management:
First off I installed a 150amp alternator. This in itself requires rewiring the supply line to the battery and increasing the size of fusable link on that same line.
Amp Draw is based on how difficult it is for the motor to turn when winching in. There are two factors that will influence the amp draw of the winch. The first and most obvious is the resistance to move the vehicle based of the situation at hand. Is it up a slight slope or axle deep in thick mud? Axle deep in mud will greatly increase the amp draw over the slight slope situation.
The second factor in amp draw is what wrap on the drum are you pulling from. The amp draw will be it's lowest on the first wrap and increase in draw with every subsequent wrap. With my friend and his 12k winch he had 125 feet of line and would only pull maybe 30 feet out when he winched. This meant that he was always maximizing his amp draw with every pull.
To combat this I replaced the steel line with 60ft of synthetic rope. Along with the synthetic rope I installed a Bubba Rope Grabber. With the short rope I wanted to safeguard against pulling too much rope and nit having enough wraps t ensure the winch could pull at it's max ability. The grabber is like a bowtie with loops on either end. You stick the grabber into the drum aligned with the drum. You then thread the rope through the inner loop and around the drum several times and eventually thread it through the outer loop and attache the end to the side of the drum with a screw. This guarantees that you will always have the proper amount of wraps as that first inner loop will restrict how much rope you can pull off the drum. In my case I have about 52' available when all the rope is pull out.
Electrical Connections at the winch:
I couldn't bolt the winch in place because the electrical studs on the back of the winch contacted the cross member brace of the bumper. More infuriating was the fact that the studs extended beyond the which case itself. This is ridiculous, the case should offer some shelter to those connections especially since they carry high amperage and its on the front of a vehicle where most accidents occur.
The factory stack is as follows: an M8 flange nut-wire grommet-washer-lock washer-M8 nut. the whole stack measures 21mm
my stack is as f0llows: washer-wire grommet-flange nut. stack height measures 12mm. I cut the studs off flush and painted the ends. The studs are now within the case boundaries and not touching the cross brace. Note: I did have to order a special M8 washer that had an ID which was the same as the OD of the M8 stud so as to properly seal against the rubber o-ring at the beginning of the stack.
Control Box:
The control that was delivered with the winch was unuseable at the front of the truck and would have to be located somewhere else. This was mainly do to the wifi control option that I really don't care for. So I substituted one from a M12 Warn with the same D plug design. I then had a custom plate made that I could use in place of the plate that came with the M12 control box. this allowed me to turn the contactor 90 degrees so the wires would exit the rear of the controller and provides me with a mounting surface to the front of the VR EVO winch.
Disconnect:
Really simple, used a Bussman 200 marine circuit breaker. My understanding is that it will pass 200 amps continuously and has a "heater Circuit" for draws above 200 amps. Basically the breaker trips based on how fast the heaters temp rises to the trip point which is based on how much amperage is drawn. I've read that at 400 amps it will take the breaker 10sec to trip. This is blind safety and protects everything from being burned out.
If the line is on the first wrap that's 10sec 10k pulling strength which if I'm not free after that the snatch block has to come out.
Wiring:
Went to amazon and bought EWCS cable. For the controller I used #2 wire which has an ampacity of 250 for 25ft and 1/0 for power that has an ampacity of 400 for 25ft.
What I did the battery ground was to use the engine block as a junction point, I ran the ground wire from the winch to the block and made a separated new negative wire from the block to the battery with the pigtail for the stock fender connection.
For the positive wire it was brought up to the Bussman and then looped over to the battery.
Since the supply wires are rated for 400amps and are shorter that 25ft I should be good there and even though the control wires are only rated for 250 amps their length is only about 20" which adds to the wires ampacity and those times that I'm drawing more than 250amps with me short lived as the Bussman will trip.
Note: the power cables that run from the winch to the engine bay pass through a hole in the lower radiator cross member insulated with two rubber grommets.
![IMG_0756[1].JPG](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='1650' height='2200' viewBox%3D'0 0 1650 2200'%2F%3E "IMG_0756[1].JPG")
My style of fun is basically overlanding. I do my best to make it out to Moab as often as I can and hands down my favorite front bumper is the @sleeoffroad short bus bumper. Attractive, strong with great approach angle. All this can make winch choices limited and installs challenging.
For the winch I wanted a 10K and settled on the Warn VR EVO 10K. Going in I knew that it would fit in the hole and would likely have issues with the cross bar support of the bumper, especially since it was an older version bumper and the control box would likely need to be relocated.
On the electrical side of the build it was going to be a single battery design and expected to deliver the 10K ability should that situation arrive.
Winch Purchase:
Amazon was selling a Warn 10k with steel line for @435.00 and since I'd be throwing away most everything except the main body it was an easy purchase.
The Warn VR EVO 10k winch has a max amp draw of 435amps. I'm assuming that that is when you are in a situation and actually stall the winch motor which I've never done. So for deign sake I used a max amp draw of 400 amps. The key to any successful which install is Amperage management. I had a friend install a M12k on his 80 and burnt out the contactor in a very short time. No amp management.
Amp Management:
First off I installed a 150amp alternator. This in itself requires rewiring the supply line to the battery and increasing the size of fusable link on that same line.
Amp Draw is based on how difficult it is for the motor to turn when winching in. There are two factors that will influence the amp draw of the winch. The first and most obvious is the resistance to move the vehicle based of the situation at hand. Is it up a slight slope or axle deep in thick mud? Axle deep in mud will greatly increase the amp draw over the slight slope situation.
The second factor in amp draw is what wrap on the drum are you pulling from. The amp draw will be it's lowest on the first wrap and increase in draw with every subsequent wrap. With my friend and his 12k winch he had 125 feet of line and would only pull maybe 30 feet out when he winched. This meant that he was always maximizing his amp draw with every pull.
To combat this I replaced the steel line with 60ft of synthetic rope. Along with the synthetic rope I installed a Bubba Rope Grabber. With the short rope I wanted to safeguard against pulling too much rope and nit having enough wraps t ensure the winch could pull at it's max ability. The grabber is like a bowtie with loops on either end. You stick the grabber into the drum aligned with the drum. You then thread the rope through the inner loop and around the drum several times and eventually thread it through the outer loop and attache the end to the side of the drum with a screw. This guarantees that you will always have the proper amount of wraps as that first inner loop will restrict how much rope you can pull off the drum. In my case I have about 52' available when all the rope is pull out.
Electrical Connections at the winch:
I couldn't bolt the winch in place because the electrical studs on the back of the winch contacted the cross member brace of the bumper. More infuriating was the fact that the studs extended beyond the which case itself. This is ridiculous, the case should offer some shelter to those connections especially since they carry high amperage and its on the front of a vehicle where most accidents occur.
The factory stack is as follows: an M8 flange nut-wire grommet-washer-lock washer-M8 nut. the whole stack measures 21mm
my stack is as f0llows: washer-wire grommet-flange nut. stack height measures 12mm. I cut the studs off flush and painted the ends. The studs are now within the case boundaries and not touching the cross brace. Note: I did have to order a special M8 washer that had an ID which was the same as the OD of the M8 stud so as to properly seal against the rubber o-ring at the beginning of the stack.
Control Box:
The control that was delivered with the winch was unuseable at the front of the truck and would have to be located somewhere else. This was mainly do to the wifi control option that I really don't care for. So I substituted one from a M12 Warn with the same D plug design. I then had a custom plate made that I could use in place of the plate that came with the M12 control box. this allowed me to turn the contactor 90 degrees so the wires would exit the rear of the controller and provides me with a mounting surface to the front of the VR EVO winch.
Disconnect:
Really simple, used a Bussman 200 marine circuit breaker. My understanding is that it will pass 200 amps continuously and has a "heater Circuit" for draws above 200 amps. Basically the breaker trips based on how fast the heaters temp rises to the trip point which is based on how much amperage is drawn. I've read that at 400 amps it will take the breaker 10sec to trip. This is blind safety and protects everything from being burned out.
If the line is on the first wrap that's 10sec 10k pulling strength which if I'm not free after that the snatch block has to come out.
Wiring:
Went to amazon and bought EWCS cable. For the controller I used #2 wire which has an ampacity of 250 for 25ft and 1/0 for power that has an ampacity of 400 for 25ft.
What I did the battery ground was to use the engine block as a junction point, I ran the ground wire from the winch to the block and made a separated new negative wire from the block to the battery with the pigtail for the stock fender connection.
For the positive wire it was brought up to the Bussman and then looped over to the battery.
Since the supply wires are rated for 400amps and are shorter that 25ft I should be good there and even though the control wires are only rated for 250 amps their length is only about 20" which adds to the wires ampacity and those times that I'm drawing more than 250amps with me short lived as the Bussman will trip.
Note: the power cables that run from the winch to the engine bay pass through a hole in the lower radiator cross member insulated with two rubber grommets.
