Winch wiring?'s

#1
So I worked on my winch today since I gave me problems a year ago and I tucked it away in the basement. It's a Warn x8000i. I completely rewired it in accordance with a diagram from warn. If the truck isn't running it just clicks like a bad connection or ground. If I crank the truck the winch takes off like its suppose to. After spooling up half to 3/4 of a 150' cable it stopped and the winch was pretty toasty. Let it sit for awhile and finished spooling the cable on. Any suggestions?
 
#4
That's my thought but I double checked every one.
are they all clean? Does it have solinoids or contactors? Might be a solinoid going bad and it only locks up with there is enough power going to it, but its overheating and shutting off because the connection is loose. I'm totally grabbin at straws here, but it sounds feasible.
 
#5
Oh I agree, sucks that it has internal solenoids. Trouble shooting is near impossible without completely taking it off and disassembling it. Everything was clean. All good connections.
 
#6
Read your owners manual!
You are winching for to long!
Warm winches are built to only which about 30-45 sec at the time. Over winching creates excessive heat, and heat creates added resistance in the electrical system. Your battery/charging system is also being over worked. Watch your battery meter close. 30 sec of winching takes roughly 2-3 min for the average vehicle to recover the battery amperage.
Be mindful of your alternator wire as well. Most are below the standard for the peak amp out put from the alternator. The mfg assumes the peak will only be reached in surges, so they gauge the wire for the average out put.

My xd9000i has a peak draw of 400amps. I have a 150amp alternator. A battery can only accept a set amount of amperage per min. My battery can only take about 100amps per min, so if I use the rule of thumb that the which always operates at a minimum of 50% draw even under no load. Thats 200amps per 30 sec of winching. 200amps takes roughly 2 min of charging to recover the battery.
Do I always obey the rule, NO, but my battery/alternator/wiring have all been beefed up to sustain higher amperage. I have a second battery with substantially higher rating too.
 
#7
I don't think that's the prob. No winch should over heat puling a cable in with no load on it. I've done it a few times over the year re-spooling a nasty cable. Precciate the winded response though.
 
0

01tj

Guest
#8
Read your owners manual!
You are winching for to long!
Warm winches are built to only which about 30-45 sec at the time. Over winching creates excessive heat, and heat creates added resistance in the electrical system. Your battery/charging system is also being over worked. Watch your battery meter close. 30 sec of winching takes roughly 2-3 min for the average vehicle to recover the battery amperage.
Be mindful of your alternator wire as well. Most are below the standard for the peak amp out put from the alternator. The mfg assumes the peak will only be reached in surges, so they gauge the wire for the average out put.

My xd9000i has a peak draw of 400amps. I have a 150amp alternator. A battery can only accept a set amount of amperage per min. My battery can only take about 100amps per min, so if I use the rule of thumb that the which always operates at a minimum of 50% draw even under no load. Thats 200amps per 30 sec of winching. 200amps takes roughly 2 min of charging to recover the battery.
Do I always obey the rule, NO, but my battery/alternator/wiring have all been beefed up to sustain higher amperage. I have a second battery with substantially higher rating too.
Even with no load on the cable it would get that hot? I know I've winched my Jeep for alot longer than 30-45 seconds and it never got as hot or stopped like his winch did last night.
 
#9
A couple thoughts:

1. Something is wrong with the motor internally. I had a loose connection on mine (think it was something internet to the motor, I know it sound weird but possible). In that case, you'll need to pull the motor and rebuild it/take it somewhere.

2. The brake is on. Without the extra voltage of the alternator, the motor cannot overcome it.

3. Are both solenoids clicking? If memory serves, Warn uses two solenoids that work together to deliver power to the winch. If only one is working, that might be the cause of the half-effort of the winch (because only half of its solenoids are contributing!)

4. You have nice big wires going from the battery to the winch, right?

Overall its very weird. My winch can full pull my truck on flat pavement (100ft of rope) with the engine off (do this for winch maintenance, try for once a month doing this). So something is definitely afoot.
 
#10
It is what it is for this trip, if it will get me off a rock or move me a few feet that will work.
This brake you talk about has me curious. But the winch seems to run at a speed for me to think its not on. I've basically decided that once I get back ill take it off and have it looked at. That thing makes my head hurt.
 
#11
Even with no load on the cable it would get that hot? I know I've winched my Jeep for alot longer than 30-45 seconds and it never got as hot or stopped like his winch did last night.
I'm just going on what yall are saying.
Is it hot to touch, or to hot to touch?
If it just stops, there's another issue, not just charging or load. Those are definitely things to keep an eye on though.

I have the test procedure for warn motors. I would start by testing the motor.

Disconnect the leads from the battery.
Label and disconnect the three cables that run from the solenoids to the posts on the motor. A, F1, F2

Run a 4ga jumper between "A" & "F1". Use a set of jumper cables to connect the battery ground to the motor, and battery positive to "F2". The winch motor should spin.

Switch the 4 ga jumper to posts "A" & "F2". Use a set of jumper cables to connect the battery ground to the motor, and battery positive to "F1". The winch motor should spin.

If the motor spins in both directions is good!
Move on to testing the solenoids.
 
#13
Do you have the large motor ground cable connected directly to the battery? It needs to be if not. Can't always rely on a chassis ground. Also the brake disengages when powering in. The brake could be stuck and the motor is having to power through the brake. That can over heat it quick. The brake does not disengage however when powering out. That is something to be aware of for people who power out their cable a lot. (Especially if you have syn rope, the heat from drum/brake can damage the rope) Not sure how your winch is mounted but normally the cable needs to be spooling in on the bottom side of the drum if the motor is on your left. We've had winches here with burnt motors where the person had the cable on backwards, making the winch work in reverse. It had to overide the brake to spool in.

Sorry to be long winded
 
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