winch help???

[robo83]

So I got a winch and I got it all hooked up and I was running it in and out without my jeep running, not long just out about 10 feet then back in. Now my jeep wont start even when im gettin jumped by a friend. I got both the cables (power and ground) hooked up to the battery the right way. The directions say to hook the ground up to the battery terminal but Im thinking if I should hook it to the frame or something. Also the directions require a min 650 cca battery which is what i got. when i turn the key all I get is one click and nothing, when my friend is jumping me off all i get is one click and nothing. but i can roll start my jeep since its a stick. i currently have the battery hooked up to a charger and hoping for the best.

thanks,
Rob

 

[LGR]

Winches use alot of juice. Sounds like a dead battery. If charging doesn't work I'm sure a new battery will. What type of battery do you have?

 

[robo83]

i believe its an everstart? maybe ill look in the morning. its hooked up to a charger right now.

 

[robo83]

Wow ok so I feel like an idiot now. I woke up this morning and tried to start my jeep after it sat all night on charge and got nothing, so I'm kinda mad and ready to take the winch cables off the battery to see if that will work when i see it, a wire thats not on the battery. wheres that wire go? to the starter...so I hook it up and jeep starts just fine. I guess I missed the wire when I was putting it all back together.

but thanks for the help, problem was just me rushing to get the winch put on.

 

[LGR]

Good to see you're up and running.

 

[superj]

welcome to the club of never rushing through another job because i left something off. you only do it once and then you check better when you do work from now on

 

[jfrabat]

Cant say I blame you; I have had to take things apart once I "finished" because I forgot to connect something... Word of advice, though; dont run the winch with the Jeep off unless you have to. As stated, a winch will drain a battery REAL QUICK, and from what you stated, you do not have a deep cycle battery, which means, if you kill your battery, it's done for (no recharging will bring it back to life). In fact, whenever I winch, I always use the hand throttle to keep the RPM's at about 2,500...

 

[Robert_Stephens]

Now, just for some old time input that may be helpful for what is coming for your Jeep and what you will do with it with a winch, upgrade the wiring to as heavy as you can get--2/0 welding cable is tops and works incredible. Then, go with 2 batteries, hooked in parallel. Like this:

Those are 1000 amps each.

Then, one of these:

Next, if you get real real serious about it all, jump up to 12,000 lb. capacity winches and then put one on the rear too, like this:

Then, last, "The Rule": The winch on the front is for everything, everyone else. The one on the back is for you!

Cheers,

Robert

 

[jfrabat]

Now, just for some old time input that may be helpful for what is coming for your Jeep and what you will do with it with a winch, upgrade the wiring to as heavy as you can get--2/0 welding cable is tops and works incredible. Then, go with 2 batteries, hooked in parallel. Like this:

Those are 1000 amps each.

Then, one of these:

Next, if you get real real serious about it all, jump up to 12,000 lb. capacity winches and then put one on the rear too, like this:

Then, last, "The Rule": The winch on the front is for everything, everyone else. The one on the back is for you!

Cheers,

Robert

Robert,

Do you have any issues with the rear one dragging? The Jeeps with rear winches on our last trip (2 weeks ago) all had issues with the rear winch dragging on the steeper drops... I WOULD like to add one of those premier power welders, though! Must be nice to be able to repair (weld) stuff out in the boonies!

 

[Robert_Stephens]

Not sure on trail drag. Been running rear winches on various Jeeps now for some 40 years. Works fine and if the support/frame get up is heavy enough, tough enough, no problem.

I run a Premier on VEX there, and its fabulous. Don't forget the industrial 200 amp alternator. This one is by John Deere my GF bought for me as a gift to replace my CAT alternator that finally failed after 14 years.

Robert

 

[robo83]

yea i was just running it to make sure i had everything hooked up right. i know not to run anything without the car running. Robert where did you get those pulleys on the front of your? im looking for some but all i can find are 3000 pound ones and im not sure if thats quite enough.

 

[Robert_Stephens]

yea i was just running it to make sure i had everything hooked up right. i know not to run anything without the car running. Robert where did you get those pulleys on the front of your? im looking for some but all i can find are 3000 pound ones and im not sure if thats quite enough.

Depending on what you end up pulling beyond just you, I'd go heavy and stay away from offroad and automotive stuff. What make and size is your winch by the way?

Those blocks on VEX are from Western Iron & Steel through this outfit:

Snatch Block & Wire Rope Pulley - Snatch & Rigging Blocks and Pulleys

They are 40 ton rated. They run through 1/2" industrial cable, replaced from the little cable that came with the 12,000 lb. MM winches on VEX. This cable size has a 80 ton break away and so is margined for the hair brain stuff I get into pulling with VEX.

Hope that is helpful for you. Let us all know here what you get and how the setup ends up and looks when you get all rigged for your rig. Love this stuff.

Robert

 

[robo83]

its a smittybuilt xrc8 its 8000 pounds which should be plenty for my jeep but i wanted to get at least on snatch block just to make it easier.

 

[jfrabat]

Then, last, "The Rule": The winch on the front is for everything, everyone else. The one on the back is for you!

In my case, the winch in the front has gotten me out of all my jams. Of course, we run trails that can mostly only be run in one direction, so if you back out, you still have to go forward again...

Regarding the snatch block, I run an ARB one, and it was good enough to take the full power of my winch on a pull in which I had to stop because a friend was just TOO stuck to be unstuck by only 1 winch... (it took 3 and 2 snatch blocks to get him out!)