Winch isolator - solenoid or not???

[nick_the_fish]

Afternoon all,

Just replacing the winch in the truck ready for a summer in Scotland and hopefully Africa in the Autumn (!?)

When we brought the truck in 2010 it already had a winch fitted with a isolator switch in the cab connected to the winch via a solenoid. Having installed the new winch it turns out the solenoid is dead, so it begs the question - do I replace the solenoid and keep the switch in the cab, or do I whip out the whole thing and put in an inline isolator switch such as this

Marine Battery Isolator Switch - 2 Positions - 300A Continuous

2 position ON/OFF single pole battery isolator/master switch for boats, cars & other vehicles. Max. current @48V - cont. 300A, peak 1000A (5secs).

www.12voltplanet.co.uk

I'm a Keep it simple kind of a guy so I like the idea of the inline switch, but nor sure if there is a benefit of the solenoid option.

Any thought appreciated.

N

 

[Chris]

Personally from near death experience, I would not fit an isolator. At all. Now the nay sayers will undoubtedly go on about safety and fires and so on but this is a balance of risk. When you need a winch and I mean NEED one, faffing around with extra steps is not good. Properly installed with good sleeving and terminations and of course routing, a winch should be fine wired directly. Again in my considerable experience and I don't mean that as a boast, but a fact, I have seen more winches killed by isolating systems than anything else. If you do go down the route of isolating my single strongest recommendation would be to have an isolating solenoid made from an actual winch solenoid. Something top notch like a TG Thompson. Most of the tin pot ones even the Albright ones are cheap crap inside. They fail. Also those rally style key things are rubbish most of the time. Just use a basic switch then can be bypassed by pulling the connectors off the back and shoving them together. The winch solenod is designed to take heavy loads in poor conditions so re-purposing one to carry low tension isn't an issue. Or... just don't fit one.

 

[Iwan]

On my 81 my winch is wired directly... I do have a very high quality isolating solenoid with a metal key.

The reason for not fitting the solenoid is that I can't find the flipping key!

 

[nick_the_fish]

Thanks Chaps,

Just so I understand correctly, are you saying that you run the positive straight from the battery terminal (presumably fused) to the winch, which is therefore always on and ready to use? Is there any possibility it could drain the battery if left for a long time? I somehow feel there must be some sort of parasitic draw from a winch that is always on, although I'm not sure why I think that.

Also, why is the solenoid or switch dangerous? Is it because of the high ampage used by the winch blowing something causing the system to fail at a critical time?

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

 

[Chris]

There's no drain from the winch Nick, why would there be? It only operates when you activate it by using the winch solenoid and handset. That's the whole point. Why is an ISOLATOR dangerous, well it's not, but it's a weak point at the moment you need the winch, you find the whole thing doesn't work in a time of emergency, because largely the isolators are Chinese rubbish.

I don't use any fuses. Wire the whole thing pos and neg to the battery. Putting a fuse in is just another weak point. If you're really worried then don't connect the pos to the battery, just leave it to hand with a spanner taped to the end of it and a spare terminal to connect it to. Or...... just wire it to the battery like it should be.

 

[Gr8Yota]

I use this. I can switch on from the cabin

Amazon.com : Solenoid ML 12V RBS : Boating Battery Switches : Sports & Outdoors

Amazon.com : Solenoid ML 12V RBS : Boating Battery Switches : Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.com

I’ve had cheap isolators fail in the past. It is also wired through a 500A fuse

 

[nick_the_fish]

That looks interesting. I've got a load of Blue Sea gear and while expensive is very good quality. Thanks for sharing @Gr8Yota

 

[Gr8Yota]

Yes very expensive but worth buying. I also use their ACR for my dual battery set up and another RBS to kill the main battery without having to pop the hood.

 

[Batts88]

I had a basic isolation switch under the bonnet of 2 different 4wd's for 14yrs and have never killed my warn XD9000 winch with it I'm not sure how a switch would actually kill a winch bit of a mystery there.

You just have to make sure it's able to handle the power so I would probably start with at least 500amp one make sure it's wired correctly and is securely mounted to the vehicle and don't turn it on or off unless in an emergency when operating the winch. Mine was a similar type to this one I found a pic of I use to take the key out and keep it in the cabin and when I was heading out bush I would put the key in at home or when I first arrived at the track I was heading down so it was ready to go if needed. Also you don't put a fuse on a winch.

 

[Chris]

I think you're misreading what I mean by kill the winch. I didn't mean damage it in any way. Same as a kill switch wouldn't. It kills the power. Also I am sure that you get rain in Oz, I know you do. But you don't have quite the weather we have here with salt spread on the roads etc. Here, Im afraid those plastic rally kill switches last about as long as a pint on Melbourne Cup Day. Or possibly about a long as a Warn winch in winter. Salt is the ruin of many vehicle and components. Where alloy meets steel is a real sore point.

 

[Batts88]

Ok some switches can fail or the set up is wrong. So I'm just wondering why would this type of switch wouldn't last long where you are ? Mine was mounted drivers side up high behind the battery out of harms way but easy to get at on a GQ patrol. I don't have salted roads to drive on but live near the beach in the tropics with high humidity and salt mist covers the cars often because my vehicle is under a carport exposed to the elements and it's fine.

 

[Chris]

Just the curse of the British roads I'm afraid. Just look at some of the other threads currently running. Stuzbot in particular. Cars just dissolve in front of your eyes. Unless you buy something Yota has posted then frankly anything less just doesn't last. The TG thompson ones are pretty good because they're properly sealed.

 

[SteveJB]

There was a time a while back when some Tata owners had a winch on the front of their pride and rust would park up in the street or pub car park then some other lads who had a few good drinks inside them would come along and have some fun with the pride and rust where they would short out the terminals on the said winch and pay out the steel cable as it was back then enough to go over the roof attached to the backend then short the terminals and winch in and crush the roof in
After that Tata owners started to disconnect the winch battery terminals or put in cutout or solenoid switches
I've just got Durite marine on off switch if the switch buggers up can just join cables together on one of the terminal posts the switch is mounted next to the battery which is high and dry and at the moment as I don't have a snorkel fitted it's a bit of a inconvenience having to lift the bonnet to switch on and off but can live with that

 

[Batts88]

There apparently has been the odd case over here of people shorting out winches and damaging vehicles that's another reason why I fitted one to mine.