Winch Project

[Vintage Windmills]

Well, I needed a winch and they are pretty pricey so I decided to build one with spare parts laying around. I built the majority last fall but now I am doing the wiring and polishing up the pull unit itself.

Here is a pic of the wiring so far. I had all these components laying around. The box is cast aluminum and is weatherproof with rubber gasket and stainless latches. It used to hold a temperature logger. This is nice becuase i plan on leaving it mounted on the trailer for loading vehicles and things. I wont have to worry about it getting wet. I included an ammeter to monitor the pull load and weatherproof covers on all switches.

[andyh1956]

clean fab. any chance of posting a diagram of how you wired those relays up? i have to do the same thing to my trailer & don't have relays. thanks!
andy

[Vintage Windmills]

Andy,

I don't have a wiring diagram but I'll post this better photo and try to explain it. The top two solenoids are for unspooling the winch. You can see the red terminal (positive) on the left one. The right one is negative. The bottom two solenoids are for pulling and are backwards from the top with positive on the right and negative on the left. The outputs of all solenoids are on the right side and this is where the motor will connect. The middle post (top) of the solenoids goes to my switch. The little box to the lower left is a circuit breaker. Thats pretty much the basics, hope this helps.

Second photo is of the switch and ammeter wiring. The positive from battery goes in series through ammeter and circuit breaker before going to solenoids. The top switch with only one wire is for a light I'm going to put on.

Third photo is of the holes I couterbored since I couldn't find the strain reliefs with enough thread for the thick walls on the box. This thing is going to be watertight.

[andyh1956]

ok got it! power in to the ammeter, through to the breaker, then through to sol #1, jumps to feed sol #2. the other two act as ground connects independent from each other. once i drew them out on a sheet of paper then i could trace the flow of electricity & make my motor run! thanks!
andy

[Allensracing]

what solenoids did you use? I have heard that the starter relays cant handle the amperage

[Vintage Windmills]

Andy,

I think I am going to first route power to the circuit breaker then to the ammeter. Its a little safer that way if there are any shorts.

Allen,

I just used standard solenoids that I had laying around. My winch is low current. Could be a concern if you have a large winch I suppose so check rating on what you buy vs. your winch. I'm sure you can find large enough ones to handle any winch. Think of the current it takes to crank a diesel.

[andyh1956]

solenoids for class eight diesel trucks should work fine, those starters pull 500 amps. the cab feed relays look just like the starter relays but are taller, prolly cause they stay on all the time. they would be the best to use. navistar (ih) part # for them is 1693495c91.
andy