I’m looking forward to meeting you, brother! I will send you a PM with my cell number. If you could do the same, that would be great!
And even if the manual switch is there for the risk of a major collision you could turn it on while you're airing down so as to be able to winch whenever you need to on the trail. I'm not anti-switch by any means. The fusing I still think is unnecessary and like ineffective.
That’s usually what I do, Zach. I’m very confident in the supplied switch; I think failure is a very very remote possibility. In spite of that, Jeremy’s post got me to thinking. I’m going to purchase an additional switch to carry as a spare.
Courage? LOL. You mean stupidity, right?
At that point you're removing the wiring so it would be just as easy to move the winch leads to the battery positive. I used to be the carry every spare part and tool possible guy... until I realized the extra 500lbs was probably contributing to breaking parts in the 1st place. I'm much more of a minimalist now. I have the tools and recovery gear but don't bother with spares. Having grenaded a transfer case and a transmission on trails I've realized you likely won't have the parts you need anyway.
Good points, brother, but I don’t think the length of the wire is long enough to bypass the switch and reach the battery. Dammit, now I need to go out and look!
If the fuse works as you hope its just a fuse. We all know what happens in a short. There's nothing to test there. We aren't on here making assumptions or arguing that we know better than every winch manufacturer. The only test we need from the hardwired side is to run it and wait for our impending doom we are promised by the safety team. We aren't arguing our wires, batteries, winches, etc will come out unscathed in a short. That's like a bullet proof vest manufacturer who will only test their vest if someone with no vest proves they're not bullet proof?
Sorry, you're not going to bait me into shorting 950A. Yes, I lack the courage.
It was my poor attempt at sarcasm. I don't expect anyone to dead-short anything at these power levels outside of a controlled test.
You think you can get involved in an internet argument and expect peace?As I don’t know crap about electrical theory/science, I decided to use the cut-off switch that came with my Apex winch, as instructed in the manual. Before doing so though, I read argumentative threads here first. Obviously I could not make a decision based on that
I just used common sense. The switch won’t cause a failure and is added protection to the winch and vehicle. It’s a very small risk with possibly huge consequences, but when doing a risk assessment, one should mitigate all risks if possible - at least the ones that could have huge consequences, no matter how small the risk is. So, that’s what I did. Besides, when recovering others, I ALWAYS raise my hood to protect the windshield - another risk mitigation. It takes me half a second to turn the switch on when I do so.
If we consider this argument under common risk assessment and mitigation procedures, it makes sense to use a cut-off switch. It’s obviously not necessary - one may decide the risk is not worth the $15 switch - but nobody can argue against using one, based on risk mitigation as described above.
Let’s all argue about something else. Peace.
Zach, I just checked. If the switch ever fails, I do have enough wire to reach the battery. Also, I could just connect the two switch wires together, in various easy ways.
Well so far Ron, it’s been a peaceful argument! I don’t think anyone has been driven to fisticuffs - yet.You think you can get involved in an internet argument and expect peace?
I love that movie, Wasn't it Sahara about a Jeep and it's owner?You think you can get involved in an internet argument and expect peace?
