General Winch Advice

[MattLaurence]

Hello All

I’m getting ready to do my first bit of tinkering in my 2019 JLU Sport S (26,000 miles) and add a Quadratec Q Series Stealth winch. Before I f*%k up an otherwise simple task, I figured I should ask the experts if they have any words of wisdom before I set into work.

I’ve read on the dual battery system here: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-dual-battery-consolidated-information.25377/

And I’ve read about some general winch wiring considerations here: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/winch-wiring-question.7631/

Prior to reading these, I thought “I’m just gonna wire it to be used with my Aux switches and it’ll be nice and clean”. Now I don’t think that will work because of the amperage of the switches vs draw of the winch.
I also thought I would just wire directly to positive and negative terminals on the battery, but it seems that I should put the negative wire to the frame instead of the negative battery terminal on main battery.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! Like I said, should be a simple job but a dual battery system has me thinking carefully even about the simple stuff

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[FitBliss]

Some people use a switch to turn on and off the power to the winch so if they crash etc, there is no power freely going to the front of the vehicle, possible gas explosion etc. I just ran my 10-s directly to the battery and I am not worried about turning off the power, I also just used a factory ground point on the top left nothing crazy. You will really love having that winch, how are you mounting it? I did the Warn winch with the Warn winch carrier on the stock Mopar bumper.

 

[Chocolate Thunder]

Wired mine directly to the battery and ground, no switch. Simple. No problems thus far.

 

[TJ2018]

Yup... one of the "wired straight to the battery" crowd!

 

[Roky]

Hello All

I’m getting ready to do my first bit of tinkering in my 2019 JLU Sport S (26,000 miles) and add a Quadratec Q Series Stealth winch. Before I f*%k up an otherwise simple task, I figured I should ask the experts if they have any words of wisdom before I set into work.

I’ve read on the dual battery system here: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-dual-battery-consolidated-information.25377/

And I’ve read about some general winch wiring considerations here: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/winch-wiring-question.7631/

Prior to reading these, I thought “I’m just gonna wire it to be used with my Aux switches and it’ll be nice and clean”. Now I don’t think that will work because of the amperage of the switches vs draw of the winch.
I also thought I would just wire directly to positive and negative terminals on the battery, but it seems that I should put the negative wire to the frame instead of the negative battery terminal on main battery.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! Like I said, should be a simple job but a dual battery system has me thinking carefully even about the simple stuff

I have that same winch, love it, I’ve used it a dozen times so far, on other vehicles. Was a rash of stupidity over spring break, kids out in moms minivan trying to run some sugar sand trails......works great though. I kept it simple like these other fellows, wired direct ......

 

[FitBliss]

I have that same winch, love it, I’ve used it a dozen times so far, on other vehicles. Was a rash of stupidity over spring break, kids out in moms minivan trying to run some sugar sand trails......works great though. I kept it simple like these other fellows, wired direct ......

No fair I still haven't gotten a chance to use mine! Especially saving mini vans

 

[MattLaurence]

Some people use a switch to turn on and off the power to the winch so if they crash etc, there is no power freely going to the front of the vehicle, possible gas explosion etc. I just ran my 10-s directly to the battery and I am not worried about turning off the power, I also just used a factory ground point on the top left nothing crazy. You will really love having that winch, how are you mounting it? I did the Warn winch with the Warn winch carrier on the stock Mopar bumper.

I’ll be mounting mine on a Quadratec stubby front bumper
Just waiting for that to arrive in the mail

 

[MattLaurence]

I have that same winch, love it, I’ve used it a dozen times so far, on other vehicles. Was a rash of stupidity over spring break, kids out in moms minivan trying to run some sugar sand trails......works great though. I kept it simple like these other fellows, wired direct ......

Reallllllly looking forward to having the proper gear. Once I sank in the mud and had to be rescued by two strangers in a Jeep driving by. They winched me out and then said “I mean..... it’s completely stock... that’s why he’s stuck”
Since then I’ve carried a ratchet strap like they use to hold down things on the back of a semi thinking that it’s the poor man’s winch, it’ll get me out of a bind.

Can’t wait to return the favor to someone who’s stuck

 

[Shooting or Jeeping]

Straight wired. Much easier. The Aux switches are nice (and I have those), but they more play the role of cutting power. I can’t see a way that I would get a benefit from wiring to control in the actual cab. So if I’m already out of the vehicle, no need to make it more complicated.

 

[Ma$$iveDebtAche]

I wired to my factory aux switch 1. Just need a solenoid relay. I used this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CQFVN8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and attached the ground to one of the factory grounds, near the battery.

 

[Dagwood]

I use the warn solenoid as well but wired to aux switch 4 instead of ugly switch.

You can wire straight to battery but the wire will be hot all the time and not a good thing in a wreck situation or if your wire routing causes a chaff in the wire and goes to ground. That = bad day. You really can't fuse at 300 amp draw, you can and they do make a 300 amp fuse but it will never blow so really useless. So by using a heavy duty solenoid you can simply switch the wire off. Think of a solenoid as a high current relay.

 

[ToolMan514]

I use the warn solenoid as well but wired to aux switch 4 instead of ugly switch.

You can wire straight to battery but the wire will be hot all the time and not a good thing in a wreck situation or if your wire routing causes a chaff in the wire and goes to ground. That = bad day. You really can't fuse at 300 amp draw, you can and they do make a 300 amp fuse but it will never blow so really useless. So by using a heavy duty solenoid you can simply switch the wire off. Think of a solenoid as a high current relay.

+1 for ^^ this. Warn solenoid to Aux 3 along with flashing amber LEDs that come on when my winch circuit is live. My negative is also directly to the battery.

 

[Ma$$iveDebtAche]

I use the warn solenoid as well but wired to aux switch 4 instead of ugly switch.

You can wire straight to battery but the wire will be hot all the time and not a good thing in a wreck situation or if your wire routing causes a chaff in the wire and goes to ground. That = bad day. You really can't fuse at 300 amp draw, you can and they do make a 300 amp fuse but it will never blow so really useless. So by using a heavy duty solenoid you can simply switch the wire off. Think of a solenoid as a high current relay.

Yeah, it doesn't draw much current from the switch. I wired to aux 1, because I have the 15A switches wired to LED lights.

 

[robaw]

I use the warn solenoid as well but wired to aux switch 4 instead of ugly switch.

You can wire straight to battery but the wire will be hot all the time and not a good thing in a wreck situation or if your wire routing causes a chaff in the wire and goes to ground. That = bad day. You really can't fuse at 300 amp draw, you can and they do make a 300 amp fuse but it will never blow so really useless. So by using a heavy duty solenoid you can simply switch the wire off. Think of a solenoid as a high current relay.

My thoughts exactly, and I did the same. I don't have any big plans to use the aux switches for much (currently using 2, one for winch and one for aux lights) so it made sense to me. And my aux lights have inline fuses and a relay which I left intact, probably overkill but oh well.

 

[Ctaylor1432]

I also did it to a solenoid and in to aux 1 switch, then I have my front floods in to aux 2.

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