Winch Wiring question (1 Viewer)

[1000Taco0001]

I picked up a winch cab switch install kit a while back and finally go around to installing it. The problem is that the instructions that come with the kit are not accurate to my setup. I will upload a picture of the two (how I have mine wired) and the instructions/diagram that came with the kit.

The Dash Rocker Switch kit number is Warn 99897 (Dash Rocker Switch Kit)

I also have a warn power interrupt (Part 62132) that i installed a while back and its been working great. (Power Interrupt Kit - 62132)

I am connecting it to the Warn Contractor pack solenoid Part#81400
(https://www.amazon.com/WARN-81400-1...46&sr=8-1&keywords=warn+contractor+pack+81400)

I am running a Warn 9.5 XPs - (9.5XP-S Winch)

The grey wire #7 shows it connecting on the solenoid that connects to ground. That connection on my pack does not go directly to the battery and the connector is too small for any of the posts.

I diddled with several warn diagrams below ... I am not sure if it makes it more confusing or not...

The original is how the contractor pack was wired with the plug on the top.

The rest is how its currently wired (with the switch kit) . I am not sure what to do with gray.

Still have same two questions:
Question #1.
Is this (gray wire) really supposed to be ground to the battery or is it intended to be grounded to the frame? (or something else?)
* note the grey wire also eventually connects to the switch in the cab as well.


Question #2

Is the red wire that they show connecting to the ignition really just for the led?
If so can I just connect it to the power interrupt switch that is already in the cab? (I really don't care if the light comes on until power is turned on to the winch.)

Thought of a third question:

If Gray should just be ground. I can I just ground it to the chassy? AND If that is true, Can I reconnect the original switch and still use that as an option if the switch fails?

 

[black95]

Man, that’s pretty confusing. The grey wire should be a ground. Sometime a few years ago, Warn went from three wire controllers, to five wire controllers. The three wire controllers were simple, one + hot in, two switch legs out. One switch leg to the “in” solenoids, and one switch leg to the “out” solenoids. The other side of the solenoids were always grounded with a jumper, straight from the main ground. They must have had issues with sticky switches causing the winches to not shut off because they went to a five wire controller. The five wire controller is the same configuration as the three wire, but adds two wires to break the ground to the solenoids as well. Now the ground goes into the controller, and out to the negative on the solenoids. Double safety kind of thing. I believe that is what your grey wire is. The main ground to your winch controller, which it sends out to the negative side of the solenoids when you push in or out.

 

[black95]

The red from the key switch is power to the switch LED, and also the switch + hot power that you will send out to the in and out solenoids. The grey wire is the ground for the LED light to function. Oddly, the dash switch is a three wire setup, and not a five wire. At least, that’s how it appears to be drawn. I’m not sure how that’s going to work, because you still need to ground the negative side of the solenoids for them to close.

 

[black95]

Yes, you can ground the grey wire to the chassis. I actually took mine to the same bolt that connects the ground to the winch motor. Seemed more logical having one main ground point, rather than two. Only one point of failure to troubleshoot if things went bad.

 

[1000Taco0001]

Thanks for the great explanation. It was a little frustrating when I asked the inline vendor if it would work with my winch. He assured me it would. I did some checking on the warn website again last night saw that this kit is for is the smaller power sport avt winches.

I pulled it all back out last night because I'd rather not screw up my winch or burn down the rig because I wired something stupid. I'm learning as I go and sometimes the Internet is just not your friend. I suppose in internal in/out switch is not a big deal, you have to get out to connect the winch line anyway. /Shrug.

 

[black95]

It will still work, even being for an ATV/UTV winch, because there is very little load on the switches. The only thing they control are the solenoids. The size of the winch motor doesn’t affect the controls. Of course, the solenoids on a bigger winch will be bigger, but the loads are still negligible.
I used a UTV winch remote on my Milemarker 9500 winch, because the one that came with it was garbage, and I liked the smaller size. It fit nicely in my center console.

 

[1000Taco0001]

It will still work, even being for an ATV/UTV winch, because there is very little load on the switches. The only thing they control are the solenoids. The size of the winch motor doesn’t affect the controls. Of course, the solenoids on a bigger winch will be bigger, but the loads are still negligible.
I used a UTV winch remote on my Milemarker 9500 winch, because the one that came with it was garbage, and I liked the smaller size. It fit nicely in my center console.

Cool. I will look into this again and see about adding the switch and putting the wiring back. Heh, well live and learn.

 

[1000Taco0001]

Just to maybe complete this thread. I received this reply in another forum where I asked the same question. Between you @black95 a the guy on TW (6GEART444E) and a few others, that was also very helpful. I want to give appropriate credit .

maybe this will help you, i can expand upon how i worked around the new 5 wire system. That post above is correct, the old 3 wire was simpler but the 5 wire adds in redundancy of isolating the ground as well as the power when using the remote. Failure is unlikely, so I defeated that to go back to the old 3 wire setup. This was my controller setup on the 9.5 xps.

With this setup the stock plug and remote still works as it should. If you want to keep the 5 wire setup, simply run two extra wires into the cab and use that on the other pole to switch the negative (ground) side of the solenoid.

6GEART444E also had some photos I uploaded below. (just in-case someone wants to do the same thing in the future it will give one place for the reference.)