In-Cab Winch Control Wiring (From Basic to Warn Zeon)

[tonygiotta]

Ok, update time. So for the first bit of modern day technology that complicates things, we're going to talk about LEDs. Yes, LEDs are not always your friend. LED's are great for the most part, and are pretty much replacing incandescent bulbs for most all automotive applications. LED is short for Light Emitting Diode. While it's not important that you know how exactly a diode works, it is important that you know that diodes (typically the non light emitting varieties) are used as one-way check valves in electrical circuits. Jeepers often use them when tapping into their factory wiring in order to prevent back-feeding the system and throwing a CEL. On a wiring diagram, their symbol is an arrow pointing to a line. Diodes only allow current to flow the direction the arrow is pointing.

One of the places LEDs often turn up is in backlighting and/or indicator lighting for switches. Carling V-series switches have an upper light and a lower light, and Carling still sells them in both LED and incandescent versions. Options for their switch bodies include lights that are independently wired, lights that turn on with switch activation, or a combination of the two.

So how does this affect our installation? Well, if you're using a lighted switch, there are a wide variety of pinouts that you may encounter. If you buy a switch that is prewired so that the indicator light turns on when the switch is activated, it simplifies the wiring as the light shares a pin with the input. Let's say for example that you are using a basic ON/OFF switch for your Winch Power switch. It has a single indicator light that turns on when the switch is activated. You simply attach your 12V+ wire to the input, connect your IN/OUT Switch to the output, and then attach a ground to the third pin on the back of your switch so that the light circuit can be completed. When you turn on the switch, power flows from the input to the IN/OUT Switch and through the LED light. Easy peasy, for the 3-pin folks out there.

But what about 5-pin? Remember on a 5-pin control, we're using the Winch Power switch to supply ground (12V-) directly to the winch's control pack. If we hook up a 12V- to our input, the light is not going to receive any power, so the indicator will not work. With an incandescent lit switch, we can fool the indicator light into turning on by connecting 12V+ to the third (ground) pin, as incandescent lights don't care which way the current is flowing. An LED lit switch however will not allow the current to flow backwards, so the indicator light will still not work.

So, did you just figure out why that damn LED indicator light on your fancy new switch isn't working?...

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[tonygiotta]

Ok, next up for modern (in)conveniences are switch pods. Back in the day, we built our own switch pods by buying a hobby box from Radio Shack and then cramming a bunch of relays, fuses, and wiring connections into them with the hopes of being able to make them water resistant when everything was said and done. Nowadays, there are a bunch of different ones out there from all different manufacturers. Some are old-school with rocker switches and relays, some have touchpads with solid state circuit switching components, some are even wireless and have customizable touch screens. They are all similar however in that they have a large cable providing 12V+ to the power module, which in turn distributes power to the various switched accessories via smaller wires. I personally like the slightly more old-school approach, so I went with the Voswitch JL200 setup. It has actual Carling style rocker switches, Bosch style automotive relays, and blade type automotive fuses. This means that when something goes wrong, I can just troubleshoot the individual parts and replace them as necessary. No need to replace (or lose functionality of) an entire touchscreen worth of controls should something go wrong with it. It also provides a lot more flexibility to "customize" the way the system works.

Here is an example of a switch panel. This is my Voswitch JL200 (without the interchangeable rockers installed):

You can see it has very basic wiring connections:

And this is the power module it controls. Standard automotive relays and fuses, with just a couple bells and whistles thrown in:

So again, how does this affect our installation? Well, once again the 3-pin folks are in pretty good shape. Two of the module's circuits will be dedicated to winch controls. One will control IN, one will control OUT. 12V+ power is already provided to the circuits via the module's power cable, so there is no longer a need to separately tie your switches into an ignition switched power source inside the cab. I highly recommend replacing your designated switch panel switches with momentary switches, and/or programming your touchpad buttons to operate as momentary buttons. You really don't want to operate your winch with regular ON/OFF switches as it will be hard to feather the controls for small rope movements, and it will create a big safety issue if you were to somehow become distracted/incapacitated after flipping one of the switches on. You want your IN/OUT controls to operate as "dead-man" switches. I really can't stress this enough and am pretty confident this is why some of the pod manufacturers state that their system is not to be used for controlling a winch. The other big safety issue here is that we no longer have a Winch Power switch, so the IN/OUT switches will always be hot, assuming your pod system is turned on and your winch is hardwired to the battery:

But what about 5-pin? Remember on a 5-pin control, we're using the Winch Power switch to supply ground (12V-) directly to the winch's control pack. A switch pod however is not capable of supplying 12V-. It only has one large 12V+ input, and multiple 12V+ outputs. There is a workaround, but it gets a little more complicated... What we need to do is add a relay to the system. A relay (as you hopefully already know) is a device that allows you to switch a high current circuit on/off by remotely controlling it with a very low current circuit. What we're going to do is use one of the 12V+ outputs from our power module to control this extra relay, but instead of using the relay to switch a high current circuit, we're going to have the relay switch our winch control pack's 12V- (ground) circuit:

And here is my actual relay set-up. It is the 3rd relay, which I'm also using to simultaneously control the remote battery switch that feeds my winch motor its power supply:

Wiring your switch pod this way will require 3 of the module's circuits to be dedicated to winch controls. One will control IN, one will control OUT, and one (Winch Power) will control the extra relay that in turn supplies 12V- to your winch's control pack. Or, if you have separate switch bodies like my panel does, you can replace two of the ON/OFF switches with a single (ON)/OFF/(ON) and a blank. This combines the IN/OUT into one momentary switch and makes it impossible to accidentally activate both the IN and OUT circuits at the same time. I'm not exactly sure what would happen if you did. Maybe the two 12V+ signals would balance/cancel each other out, or maybe it would fry your contactor? I don't know, and I'm not going to test that out for you either...

Comparing the above picture to the 5-Pin diagram, there is a blank, an IN/OUT switch that is connected to circuits 1 and 2, and a Winch Power switch that is connected to circuit 3. "Light Bar Power" is unrelated to this write-up.

 

[tonygiotta]

Well, that pretty much wraps it up. Hopefully you learned something along the way and are now ready to tackle your own in-cab winch control project. The possible configurations are really only limited by your imagination. With a little creativity (and possibly some trial and error) you should be able to get your system working just the way you want. Feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have along the way and I'll do my best to steer you in the right direction. Thanks for reading!

Parts used in this write-up:

Warn Zeon 10-S - Warn Industries
Voswitch JL200 Switch Panel Power Control System - Voswitch/Amazon
(ON)/OFF/(ON) Switch and Custom Labeled Rockers - OTR Switch Guys
Micro Relays - Painless Performance Wiring Products
18g Posi-Taps - Amazon
18-3 300V Outdoor Power Cord - Home Depot
+plus a wide variety of crimpers, connectors, wiring loom, and heat shrink tubing - Mostly found on Amazon

 

[MNWrangx2]

Well, that pretty much wraps it up. Hopefully you learned something along the way and are now ready to tackle your own in-cab winch control project. The possible configurations are really only limited by your imagination. With a little creativity (and possibly some trial and error) you should be able to get your system working just the way you want. Feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have along the way and I'll do my best to steer you in the right direction. Thanks for reading!

Thank you, I have been looking forward to this since discussing it with you on the Voswitch thread!

 

[newcastle]

Thank you for posting this.
Do you see any problems with permanently grounding the brown wire? (other than a punk with only one paper clip)
Is a 5A fuse appropriate for the 18 gauge control wiring?

Thanks

 

[tonygiotta]

Thank you for posting this.
Do you see any problems with permanently grounding the brown wire? (other than a punk with only one paper clip)
Is a 5A fuse appropriate for the 18 gauge control wiring?

Thanks

Permanently grounding the brown wire would not be an issue, but it eliminates your protection against accidentally bumping your IN/OUT switch. If you want to go this route, I’d recommend wiring your IN/OUT switch like a 3-pin winch as diagrammed in Post #5.

As for fusing, I usually use 3A fuses for all of my relay control circuits. Big enough to prevent nuisance blows, small enough to provide good protection. 5A however is in fact what I used for the contractor control circuits. I can’t recall if I found an actual amp draw listed, but it would make sense to me that the contactor draws a little more than a typical Bosch style relay.

 

[mudmaster]

I've started wiring up my Zeon and I read this step: " First off, you need to disconnect the thin Black ground wire from the back of the winch. It shares a bolt with the large ground cable for your winch motor. 1/2" or 13mm socket / wrench will work here. You can leave it loose for now, we'll be replacing it later". I didn't read, or may have missed where/when this wire gets replaced??

 

[cHRNO]

Well, that pretty much wraps it up. Hopefully you learned something along the way and are now ready to tackle your own in-cab winch control project. The possible configurations are really only limited by your imagination. With a little creativity (and possibly some trial and error) you should be able to get your system working just the way you want. Feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have along the way and I'll do my best to steer you in the right direction. Thanks for reading!

Thank you for a great write up Tony!
I found this thread looking for answers on how to connect my Warn winch to a battery isolator (Redarc) so that I can connect my starter and aux battery when winching.
I have asked on various forums on what wire to use from the winch according to Redarcs wiring diagram, and neither Warn nor Redarc are too keen on answering.

Reading your post I am under the impression that it's the brown wire from the Winch that goes to the relay in the below picture? Or have I completely misunderstood it?

Thanks!

Daniel

 

[tonygiotta]

I've started wiring up my Zeon and I read this step: " First off, you need to disconnect the thin Black ground wire from the back of the winch. It shares a bolt with the large ground cable for your winch motor. 1/2" or 13mm socket / wrench will work here. You can leave it loose for now, we'll be replacing it later". I didn't read, or may have missed where/when this wire gets replaced??

Sorry, didn't see this back when you posted it. I didn't really go into much assembly detail aside from just saying to put everything back in the reverse order from which you took it apart. Removing it was the first step, replacing it in the same spot it came from is the last step. I wire loomed and heat shrunk mine in addition to replacing the ring terminal with a sturdier and more corrosion resistant one for good measure.

 

[tonygiotta]

Thank you for a great write up Tony!
I found this thread looking for answers on how to connect my Warn winch to a battery isolator (Redarc) so that I can connect my starter and aux battery when winching.
I have asked on various forums on what wire to use from the winch according to Redarcs wiring diagram, and neither Warn nor Redarc are too keen on answering.

Reading your post I am under the impression that it's the brown wire from the Winch that goes to the relay in the below picture? Or have I completely misunderstood it?

Thanks!

Daniel

I'm sorry, but I'm not really familiar with the set-up you're trying to run there. It appears that the idea is for activation of the winch to automatically cause the battery isolator to connect the two batteries, in lieu of pushing what appears to be a pushbutton switch to connect them?

If so... the Brown would not work if you wired everything as pictured above. The Brown becomes a 12V- wire when the winch is activated. If you hooked that up to the relay, activation of the winch would cause 12V- (ground) to exist on both sides of the relay coil which would not activate your relay.

I could venture a guess that if you're just using the supplied wired remote to operate your winch, you'd want to tap into the Green wire for your relay signal. That is the "IN" wire and becomes 12V+ when you're winching in, and winching in is when you'd want the batteries connected as that is when there is the most draw on the electrical system. There is some critical information missing from that diagram (or maybe some written documentation?) that could really help clarify their intent.

If I'm understanding REDARCs intent correctly, and the wiring isn't some sort of preassembled loom, I'd just eliminate the relay altogether. It looks as if that pushbutton switch is simply grounding the isolator to activate it. Connect the winch's Brown wire to the back of the pushbutton switch (Purple wire in your diagram) and the Brown would ground (and therefore activate) the isolator whenever you used the winch, not just when activating the "IN" function. Cleaner and more effective than their suggestion if you ask me... There are however a lot of "ifs" involved in my suggestion, and as I really know very little about your actual setup, I would proceed with caution unless you're really feeling like you have a solid understanding of what I've explained. If you have more questions, send me a message. I'd rather not derail this winch control wiring thread too much with battery isolators and solar systems and whatnot.

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