Winch wiring

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wickford90

wickford90

Well-Known Member
Posts
3,623
Location
wickford essex
any opinions on the best route to run winch cables to battery. was thinking along side of chassis, or is it better to run in engine bay and back down again.
Can you get two standard defender batteries in the battery compartment, looks mighty tight in there.
 
Yes you can fit 2 batteries under the seat of a defender 90, i have 2 numax batteries a x-eng split charge system and a isolator.

I ran the the live cable to the isolator positioned on the front of the seatbox and then out of the seat box along the side of the chassis and then along the top of the chassis in the engine bay to keep it away from the exaust and around to the winch. I also ran a neg or earth cable the same route all of the way back to the battery. Most problems with winches are becausethey dont have a good earth.

Before you fit the 2nd battery you will either have to buy or make something for the batteries to sit on, i used a bit of 2mm plate with a bit of 25mm box section running the length of the seatbox(north to south) and then cut the plate to fit over riveted on to make the bottom of the seatbox flat. Once the batteries were i a used a bit of 6mm bar to clamp them down using M6 screwed rod( 1 at each end and one in the middle)

I squeezed the X-Eng split charge in near the back of the seatbox near where the the earth cables exit.

It all fits good, what i did do was use a piece of 10mm pipe to insulate the batteries from the screwed rod, i also covered the battery clap with adhesive foam to protect the battery,

Before i fitted any of that i used the wire brush attachment on an air die grinder to clean up the seatbox, Hoovered and degreased before painting with red oxide once that dried i gave it a health coat of waxoyl,
 
yes you can get two standard defender batteries in the battery compartment,
very tite but thay will fit 2009 defender under seat gaz
 
andy mcd said:
Yes you can fit 2 batteries under the seat of a defender 90, i have 2 numax batteries a x-eng split charge system and a isolator.

I ran the the live cable to the isolator positioned on the front of the seatbox and then out of the seat box along the side of the chassis and then along the top of the chassis in the engine bay to keep it away from the exaust and around to the winch. I also ran a neg or earth cable the same route all of the way back to the battery. Most problems with winches are becausethey dont have a good earth.

Before you fit the 2nd battery you will either have to buy or make something for the batteries to sit on, i used a bit of 2mm plate with a bit of 25mm box section running the length of the seatbox(north to south) and then cut the plate to fit over riveted on to make the bottom of the seatbox flat. Once the batteries were i a used a bit of 6mm bar to clamp them down using M6 screwed rod( 1 at each end and one in the middle)

I squeezed the X-Eng split charge in near the back of the seatbox near where the the earth cables exit.

It all fits good, what i did do was use a piece of 10mm pipe to insulate the batteries from the screwed rod, i also covered the battery clap with adhesive foam to protect the battery,

Before i fitted any of that i used the wire brush attachment on an air die grinder to clean up the seatbox, Hoovered and degreased before painting with red oxide once that dried i gave it a health coat of waxoyl,
Click to expand...

Just got me x-eng split charger gonna fit over week end. Good to hear two batts will fit. Do i need an isolator switch. sorry to be a pain you aint got any pics by any chance of your set up.
thanks for the info.
 
Sorry i dont have any pics,
The isolator is to stop the current going to the winch just incase for any reason there is a short, I always turn it off when i am finnished winching and only turn it on when i am going to use the winch, The winch drasws a lot of amps,


If you get stuck give me a shout and i will try to take some pics and email then to you, havent got the hang of posting pics on forums yet
 
andy mcd said:
Sorry i dont have any pics,
The isolator is to stop the current going to the winch just incase for any reason there is a short, I always turn it off when i am finnished winching and only turn it on when i am going to use the winch, The winch drasws a lot of amps,
Click to expand...

not sure why but my winch fitting instructions insisted that the iso switch be fitted on the earth cable........seems the wrong way round to me but did it anyway cause lecky-trickery is a bit of a mystery to me :confused:
 
Whats the point of having an isolator on the earth ??
That mean there is a potentially un fused supply from a big fffing battery runing along your chassis to a winch. Doesnt sound safe to me
 
andy mcd said:
Whats the point of having an isolator on the earth ??
That mean there is a potentially un fused supply from a big fffing battery runing along your chassis to a winch. Doesnt sound safe to me
Click to expand...

that was my thinking anorl, but fitting instructions were very clear and stated that if the iso was not fitted to earth then gaurantee would be invalid :(
 
What winch have you got ?

We were always taught at college that if using a single pole isolator that it always always goes on the live or +.

I have a had a lot of near misses with gas boilers and fires over the years with mupets putting isolators on the earth.

Any spark or auto spark will tell you isolator always on the live or +.
 
Have to say I agree with putting it on the positive in your case. I can’t think of any electrical or practical reason for switching the earth, but can think of several arguments for keeping any un-switched live conductors to a minimum length, doubly so if it’s not fused either.

You’ve got to consider why these types of switches came into existence in the first place. They became popular in racing application, like drag racing and stock car etc; where you typically have a big meaty petrol engine and very simple circuitry. As cars always tend to have more than one connection from the positive terminal (always one for the starter, and one or more for ignition and everything else) isolating the positive is not very practical. So having a single conductor from the earth terminal through the isolator (mounted to be accessible from outside the car) to the chassis, meant that when a car overturned or burst into flames the stewards had a single switch to pull to ensure that the engine as well as everything else was cut instantly.

But that isn’t the same situation as using it to isolate only a winch in a Landy. I’d say you want to keep the switch as close to the battery as possible and definitely on the positive feed, so that the permanent live wire is short, and not going anywhere that can get wet when wading or trawling through mud. Also there are so many possibilities of earth shorts in an old Landy and in an external winch. So putting the safety switch on the earth conductor, when chances are a fault will be one where something is being shorted to a different earth path seems like nonsense to me.

I would like to know why the manufacturer thinks an earth isolator is necessary instead of a live isolator.
 
Maybe but i dont think anyone would use a 20amp isolater ... well you never know, i am sure mine is rated around 500amps continous and 1000amps peak(approx 5-10 seconds) As a winch will draw around the 300 amps mark when worked hard.

Think about the isolator on the earth , If there is an internal fault with the winch it would be earthed through the body of the winch,through the bumper,chassis and then the battery.

On the plus side if any **** tried to cut through the winch cables and steal the winch they would get a very nasty shock. Ha ha serves them right
 
andy mcd said:
Yes you can fit 2 batteries under the seat of a defender 90, i have 2 numax batteries a x-eng split charge system and a isolator.

I ran the the live cable to the isolator positioned on the front of the seatbox and then out of the seat box along the side of the chassis and then along the top of the chassis in the engine bay to keep it away from the exaust and around to the winch. I also ran a neg or earth cable the same route all of the way back to the battery. Most problems with winches are becausethey dont have a good earth.

Before you fit the 2nd battery you will either have to buy or make something for the batteries to sit on, i used a bit of 2mm plate with a bit of 25mm box section running the length of the seatbox(north to south) and then cut the plate to fit over riveted on to make the bottom of the seatbox flat. Once the batteries were i a used a bit of 6mm bar to clamp them down using M6 screwed rod( 1 at each end and one in the middle)

I squeezed the X-Eng split charge in near the back of the seatbox near where the the earth cables exit.

It all fits good, what i did do was use a piece of 10mm pipe to insulate the batteries from the screwed rod, i also covered the battery clap with adhesive foam to protect the battery,

Before i fitted any of that i used the wire brush attachment on an air die grinder to clean up the seatbox, Hoovered and degreased before painting with red oxide once that dried i gave it a health coat of waxoyl,
Click to expand...

If I fit an isolator switch to the aux battery will it still charge if it is isolated.
or when i have finished winching make sure battery is charged before I isolate it
 
andy mcd said:
Maybe but i dont think anyone would use a 20amp isolater ... well you never know, i am sure mine is rated around 500amps continous and 1000amps peak(approx 5-10 seconds) As a winch will draw around the 300 amps mark when worked hard.

Think about the isolator on the earth , If there is an internal fault with the winch it would be earthed through the body of the winch,through the bumper,chassis and then the battery.

On the plus side if any **** tried to cut through the winch cables and steal the winch they would get a very nasty shock. Ha ha serves them right
Click to expand...

well that all makes sense to me.....reckon I'll change it....need to fit my aux battery anyhow :rolleyes:
 
Ok Make sure your isolator is rated Mine is rated at continious 300A @24V its a marine cut off switch and peak is somthing like 600A. i have fitted and thrown away cheapo 100Amp isolators these were rubbish and affected winch performance and eventually over heated and were U/S This included FIA approved and rated cut out switches they are not man enough for serious winching.

My split charge goes like this:

Main battery to normal car electrics with EVERY circuit run through an Fia rated cut out switch next to the main live terminal. the only live wire to come from here is my split charge/batt indicator only. Second battery has the marine isolator from which the winch is connected directly. All accesory circuits run from the live switch on the isolator. The only perm live wires on here are my solar panel charge wire and split charge /batt indicator. The split charge Relay is connected to the batteries directly so will always work weather the isolators are open circuit or closed circuit. This means the only live wires when both isolators are closed engine shut down is with the exceptio of 2 wires to my split charge within the battery box and these are nice and neat and double insulated with conduit.
 
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