warn winch issue

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nat88toy

nat88toy

10 Year 15 Year
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Mar 6, 2006
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i have a brand new warn M12,000lb winch on my 80 went to inspect the syn line today. first thing i did was pulled the line all the way out about 85' and spooled it in when i was about 5' from the end let my finger off the triger for a second when i went to hit the button to spool in it did nothing, it would spool out but not in wtf:mad: i walked away for 2 min went back and it worked fine i decided to pull some of the line out to see if it was just a fluke, nope did it to me 3 more times. anyone have a clue what the hell is going on with this thing
btw the motor was cool to the touch the whole time
 
that'll teach ya to put plastic rope on a beautiful M12000... :D

bummer though if it's new...


I would say first thing to do is find out if you can borrow a remote from somebody to try. Or check the switch with a multimeter if you have one. Or bypass the remote with some wires.

Check all the connections for tightness and double check the ground.


If that doesn't do it, well it's probably relay inspection time...

And during all this, talk to the Warn Techs. They might even send you another remote to try out, they're good and helpful...
 
I actually have that same issue with my M12000. I put the auto store solenoids in and that didn't help. I then replaced the switch and that didn't help. I'm stumped.

The next step is to bypass the realys and the switch by applying power directly to the motor. Haven't had a chance to so that yet.

Does anyone know if there could be a problem with the motor or armature?
 
have not had time to look at the winch yet but i did call warn this afternoon
they said try to wire the small ground to the negative side of the battery instead of the frame start from there i guess.
for what its worth the people at warn are very helpful just said to start with the easy stuff first and work from there.
 
they told me to do the same thing. I've been through there whole troubleshooting. What I really need it to "borrow" a realy pack and control trigger and swap them out for mine. That will at least confirm that the motor is working correctly.

After that, it's either a relay, the trigger switch, or the plug connection.

You can also power the winch directly with no relays or trigger control if you don't have anyone to borrow the relay pack from. Jumper F1 and A and apply power to F2 and it will turn one way. Jumper F2 and A and apply power to F1 and it will turn the other way. It's easy but it's a 2 person job because someone has to control the winch line while you mess with the power cables.
 
Or, you could call Warn for advice. Warn 800/543.9276 - they are very helpful and glad to answer your questions. I've spoken in the past with Ron Hoffman x3031 as well as Augie: x3205.

Good luck.
 
Nat.....I am having the same issue with my new M8000. Works fine going out, but intermittent going in. Used to work every 3 pushes on the IN button, but now works every 20 attempts. I haven't had time to deal with it, but is frustrating. I think the warranty is 12 months, so I hope it gets fixed for free. BTW I have a second winch, 20 year old M8000....never has given me a problem.
 
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If someone figures out how to resolve this issue, please post up. I would think it's a bad solenoid, but I've swapped the "in" solenoids for the "out" solenoids and it still spools out no problem and works intermitently going in. I've also replaced all the cables and my ground is good. Warn tech support was unablt to help me.
 
I believe I have the answer to this perplexing question. It has something to do with the type of battery that's powering the winch. The M12000's power draw requires a healthy battery with high cold cranking amps. Apparently, a cheapie starting battery may have enough power to get it going but once you've drawn some current, it's drained to the point that it can't start the winch again. That's why you hear the "click" of the solenoids but get no winch movement. Once it's rested for a bit, somehow the current is sufficient to start it again. According to a guy at warn, deep cycle batteries are not good for winch operation because they may not provide sufficient current to start the winch.

I discovered all this when I installed my new Die Hard Platinum (Odyssey) battery and my winch seems to work fine. I'll do a full test this week.

So, the fix to this not-so-common issue appears to be simple as battery selection or battery health. I'd be curious if any of the others posters of this issue have resolved it and if the battery thing works for them.
 
AdventureBuddies said:
I believe I have the answer to this perplexing question.
Click to expand...

The other posters claim that theirs will spool out (no load) but not IN (no load.) That seems to eliminate your theory since it is only a direction change and the battery condition shouldn't matter with no-load.

FWIW, my M12000 is doing exactly the same thing. I have eliminated the hand control as the issue because I have in-cabin controls. I have found that a tap or two on the solenoid box will wake it up and it will spool in. I took it apart and found a suspect wire from the controller but it recently started doing the same thing. I need to open it up again for inspection.

The "ground to battery" seems like a good suggestion. I will have to check this out too. I also have dual batteries and can parallel them the next time that I am testing this. That will also eliminate the primary battery (which is a deep cycle in my truck.)

-B-
 
I agree that this battery fix seems a bit unbelievable and I haven't had time to fully test the winch yet. However, I went through Warn tech support many times and have troubleshot and eliminated just about everything else:
- All grounds
- cleaned all contacts
- tested each solenoid and tried replacing solenoids, swapping their positions, etc.
- replaced power leads
- eliminated trigger control
- motor is never warm to the touch so it's not the overload protection that cutting out.
- switched F1 and F2 to reverse the action of the trigger
- operated motor by jumping A and F1/F2

I believe the fact that it works while spooling out actually adds credibility to the battery theory because you spool out first which means that you're using power, and then you spool in shortly thereafter and it's during the spool in that the battery becomes insufficient to finish the job. This is all according to Warn. Also, the only people who seems to have this issue are 12000lb winches assumably because those motors draw more current and therefore require healtier batteries.

I'll know for sure once I get time to properly test it with my new battery.

If I still have the issue with the new battery then the only remaing possibility is the motor itself. Warn suggested that I take it to an electric motor shop to have it looked at.
 
:cheers:hope the new battery cures it. in the spring im going to go duel batters and put in to new battery's so hopefully that fixes the problem worse comes to worse i will always have the warn 9000 in the back bumper that winch has never let me down let us know how the new battery works out best of luck
-nat
 
First off having a 1200 lb on an 80 is overkill and can cause more damage than good, Second You need at least 900 cca for a winch that big. I worked for a redletter dealer and am very familiar with all warn winches. Get a hotter batt. Also it is possible for new winches to have solenoids go bad in them, That is the #1 symptom for a bad soenoid. I can't count how many times poeple have pulled in with 50ft of cable wraped around the brushguard :lol:. Try Tapping the soenoid box as you trigger it in:cheers:
 
the truck doctor said:
First off having a 1200 lb on an 80 is overkill and can cause more damage than good, Second You need at least 900 cca for a winch that big. I worked for a redletter dealer and am very familiar with all warn winches. Get a hotter batt. Also it is possible for new winches to have solenoids go bad in them, That is the #1 symptom for a bad soenoid. I can't count how many times poeple have pulled in with 50ft of cable wraped around the brushguard :lol:. Try Tapping the soenoid box as you trigger it in:cheers:
Click to expand...
That is consistant with my observations regarding the battery. My new battery has 1150 CCA and it seems to work fine. Won't have it fully tested though until after this weekend...
 
AdventureBuddies said:
I believe the fact that it works while spooling out actually adds credibility to the battery theory because you spool out first which means that you're using power, and then you spool in shortly thereafter and it's during the spool in that the battery becomes insufficient to finish the job. .
Click to expand...

This doesn't hold water in my circumstance. I free-spool the cable out and winching in is the first the motor gets used. I can understand the battery theory. My M8000 is not working right with the OEM Panasonic battery, but I can swap in the Sears Die Hard Platinum PM-1 Marine battery to test this theory.
 
I also free spool out. But I brought up the relevance of power spooling out because someone had asked why it only stops working on while spooling in. My thought is that if the battery is the issue, then it doesn't matter whether you're spooling in or out. The motor is drawing current either way.

As for the comment that a 12000 lb winch is over kill for an 80 - my truck weighs almost 7400 lbs when fully loaded. Supposedly the winch should have a capacity equal to 1.5 x the weight of the truck which means I should use an 11,000 lb winch or greater.
 
Same problem with my W12000. It really sucked because the first time it wouldn't spool back I was in 2 feet of snow trying to pull out a buddy's truck. Pulled him part way and the winch just died. Ended up doing the manual hand spool back in ... ugh. Ended up being a loose terminal in the solenoid control box. Maybe these contacts should be checked regularly ... duh. Dual batteries on a diesel rig so I know it wasn't a battery issue.
 
It is interesting that this problem seems to be mostly a W12000 problem. I have over a decade of use on 2 XD9000I's with absolutely no problems. I still think that the high current draw of these larger winches your OEM alternator and battery just aren't going to be anywhere sufficient. You can get by with OEM setup on the 9000's or less but anything larger you need to upgrade. I feel sure that this isn't a solution to the problems on this thread but my be a factor as previously discussed. If all else fails send it back to Warn. They will usually pay shipping for anything under warranty or return it to a authorized dealer.
 
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