adaycj

Be careful here, the one in my old electrical application book for this application is only listed as a 50% duty cycle solenoid. No real danger, but the $30 will be wasted if you burn it up the first time you need to use it. Anyone have specs to prove otherwise?

pitcoken

At the risk of setting off another flame, and in the interest of preventing a jeep fire, please consider:
If you use anything other than a fuse or fuse link (and yes, I have for years), you should raise the hood and have bolt cutters handy when using your winch at or near locked-rotor. Any high current disconnect or solenoid has two ratings - the load it can safely carry after it is CLOSED and the load under which it can be switched. The switching load is MUCH less, frequently 20% of the former. The published rating is typically the CLOSED value. When this lower rating is exceeded the contacts arc and weld themselves CLOSED leaving your winch engaged until something breaks or burns! This is exasperated by bumping the winch under load, perhaps in an attempt not to exceed the rated duty cycle. Since the welding can take place when opening or closing under load, the isolation solenoid as well as the disconnect switch are susceptible! BTW, at 4.5 ft/min (near locked rotor) the current draw of the 10K Chicago winch is 310 amps. Now, go read this thread again and use your best judgment!

adaycj

Sorry, it didn't say.

adaycj

I agree with your points about loaded switching, but there is no reason to switch the disconnect switch (or solenoid) under load except in the event of failure. Welding certainly could still occur, but is much less likely since the contact are otherwise exposed to no load during switching. The bolt cutters. They cost more and are harder to use than a simple, properly rated manual switch at the battery. Plus welding cable cutters are the right tool.

Please show pictures and details of your fuse-able line and fuse setups. I am particularly interested in advice in fuse and link sizing. If they are rated to save your Jeep from burning, then many winches can blow them under max loading. If you size them to never be blown by the winch, your Jeep and wiring can still go up in smoke. If you have worked out a system that will work in both conditions it would be a major contribution to this thread.

I wired up a DC inductive amp clamp to a stock battery and did a test. Even with a near short load from a carbon pile, I can only get 506 amps on the meter even for a short period of time.

33 williys 77

derekls, pitcoken is right, fuse the positive at the battery and this is why, today winch have what they call a dynamic dc brake, there are different kinds of this brake, which I wont go into for now, but when a winch controller fails a certain way, it can keep the dynamic brake energized ( draining your battery ) of which the MFG of the winch won't tell you about ! and could start a CABLE FIRE if it has a direct short to ground. These are simple devices
and most likely won't happen, but because the nature of jeeps is to have fun, these
devices are subject to water, rocks, vibrations and and trails with lots of dirt, they do take a beating, so protect yourself and your jeep FUSE IT ( a cheap insurance )

People forget that there is different types of fuses, slow blows ( to cover amp spikes ) and instantaneous ( which it's name imply )

solenoid or contactor is one way, to cut the power to the winch, but for me I use a slow blow fuse with an electric forklift battery connector, under the hood, after the fuse, to energize or denergize the winch and controller when needed.

when using your jeep as a daily driver and not on the trail, do you really need to have the winch controller energized ?

33