12V Winch Wiring

[swinters]

I've spent days going through the CUCV files here and see all kinds of good stuff on winch mount options, different kinds and brands of winches and so on but with all of that I can't find anything on where to best connect a 12 Volt winch electrical cables. I worked in an Army DOL when the CUCV's first came out and we put 12V winches on a bunch of CUCV's but darned if I can remember how they were wired in since it was a roundtable discussion and my part of the project was turbocharging them. I remember discussions with the engineers and GM reps. and it seems to me they went to a frame ground with the negative and one of the battery positive terminals but that has been a lot of years ago and I can't remember whether that's correct, or which battery if it is. I think it was the rear battery though.

I know this has been done by others on here and you all come up with some pretty slick options so if anyone has any ideas or can link me to where someone has posted the info I'd really appreciate it!

 

[cucvrus]

Run your 12 volt power cables from the front battery positive and negative. That is how I run all my snow plows. A snow plow is basically the same principle as a winch. It just gets used a lot more. It works. The Generator 1 will charge that front battery. I would put a circuit breaker in the positive cable as a precaution. Good Luck. Be Safe and Take Care.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Yep. That's really the only way to do it. It's simple and straightforward.

In theory (and in fact), you can use the rear (24v) battery, but that opens up a really nasty can of worms. You would have to completely isolate the winch from vehicle ground, and make sure it stays that way. That's easier said than done. Just letting the steel cable drag over the bumper could get sparky.


Of course, you can always get a 24v winch and everything gets easy.

 

[sneekyeye]

Ive got one mounted behind the front bumper on mine and the solenoid box mounted to the driver side fender near the radiator overflow tank. I just needed to source some more heavy wire and wrapped all the wire that I was worried about with some sheathing for abrasion protection.
It really was just as easy as using the front battery positive and negative.

 

[swinters]

Thanks for the replies! Looking at the truck and the schematics it seemed like a no-brainer but I kept remembering the discussions so wondered whether I was missing something. Thanks again!

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

If you are looking for a good source of cables, check out BestBoatWire.com. I have had quite a few cables made by them and all have been excellent. \I get them with clear heat shrink on the ends so I can watch for any corrosion and catch it early.

 

[swinters]

If you are looking for a good source of cables, check out BestBoatWire.com. I have had quite a few cables made by them and all have been excellent. \I get them with clear heat shrink on the ends so I can watch for any corrosion and catch it early.

Great looking resource. I'm looking at installing a solar charger on my old camper and might need more but that'll be tackling a totally new thing for me so have to figure out the layout, cable sizes and so on. I parted out an old semi that belonged to a grocery company and they had removed the lift gate but it still had the wiring so I've been in good shape for stuff like the winch but will likely need different sizes for the charger, though that's a guess at this point.