Like the others on the thread, I would suggest running a dedicated ground of equal size cable to the winch for both the positive and negative leads. The chassis ground is probably fine for a hundred amps +/-, but beyond that, you could start backfeeding into your electronics.
Imagine what would have happened if you had your winch under full load?

 

yah .. its what it was .. we get to figure out from where now it came. Its gonna be a fun day!

Oh and another 120$ + overnight shipping to get em replaced ; plus parts for the brakes .. agh! Not including installation if I go to my shop i have my work done at!

This blows!

 

??? I'm not following here. I have always wired my winches directly into the battery terminals, both positive and ground. Why would you do otherwise? I cant figure why whe would get current flowing through a brake line. It's not like your axle housing should have a charge to it...unless it was a Rubi and has a short somewhere in the wiring, but hers looks like an X. Does it have the e-locker option? Weird.

 

 

nope ... X and no locker.

I found out that my husband hooked up jumper cables to the winch from the battery since they wouldn't reach cause thre frickkkinn battery is in the back.

I don't know if that would have anything to do with it. He said its not it .... But he said that there was a charge flowing the the brake line in the rear ... agh. So we are gonna have a long night!

Off to order parts.

 

Battery terminals are best, but not everyone does that.

In any event a good solid frame ground as a backup is a good idea since the winch is by default hooked to the frame. If the ground is lost at any point it will look for another route via the default frame. It also can easily jump like lightening.

If the braid on the brake line was wet and dirty (pure clean non mineralized water will not conduct electricity) then the full force of the load could conceivably go via the wet braid and the resistance would be seen via heated/melted/burnt areas.

Hope this clarifies my post.

 

Did he relocate the battery to the back?

The Battery needs to be grounded to the chassis, the body, and the engine. He also needs to have cables sized for the full load amps and length of run.

I pray this does not start a family feud.

 

Would this look like a second wire going from the ground on the winch to the frame, or chained from the battery terminal end to the frame (doesn't that happen already?)

 

No .. its located in the back from the factory. Its where it was put ...

I called my shop that does all the work. Well ....

since I have abs .. and my husband took off the brake line yesterday without me knowing .. he dcrained the whole system and may have shot the entire brake system. So A HELL OF A LOT MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE! Now I am pissed. I have to tow my jeep into the shop, its not covered by warranty cause the winch fried the lines ... my day just keeps getting better.

TO make matters better ('worse' really) .. he's on duty tli' tommorow. I have no vehicle to drive if I have an emergency. I have two little babies too. 20 months and 5 months old. This calls for a replacement rig. Maybe I can talk him into getting a loan for this. I am angry. This is freaking stupid and this blows ass!

 

Yes, and usually. Most often they are braided or small gauge wire. Too small to take the full load of a winch. They are usually sized for the normal electronics on a vehicle. There are some larger grounds when you see the ground between the engine and battery or frame due to the starting motor amperages.

I've seen corrosion build up under some of the contacts, especially those that run through water a lot. It's a typical cause of problems with CB's having poor grounding and signal strength.