Winch Will Not Power Up
 

I have a Rugged Ridge 10500 winch which was professionally installed in 2013. It worked fine at install and was covered up proudly riding in the front until it would be called on. But it never was. Until today that is.
Fired it up...dead as the proverbial doornail.
No power at all anywhere. Tried to trace the wires which run directly from the battery. What a tangled mess that was. All contacts are spotless clean and tight. Battery is less than 2 years old and no issues with it.
The remote has no power at all. So what is going on here?

It might be the control box. Did you get any warranty? Mine went out. I was talked into a life time warranty. Using it now, they shipped a new control box for mine for free.

diagnosis
 

diagnosed a bad solenoid in the box. Supposedly a 5 year warranty. We'll see..

FYI- we're supposed to run these winches at least once a month to keep the solenoid from sticking. That's for all winches.

Give it a little tap with a dead blow hammer. I have had to do that with my Warn in the past.

Winch Fried
 

Turns out the motor was frozen up somehow. Rugged Ridge is replacing the winch with a new one. Their 5 year warranty is a great thing. Whew!!