[Wren]

Ok, so I am hooking up my winch and my radio. I do not want to hook both directly to the battery, so I am looking for a relay and a somewhat waterproof fuse block to hook them to a switched source somewhere. The problem I am having is where to run the power wire from the relay to? Again, really not wanting to run directly to the battery, so where is your recommendation. I was looking at maybe running it to the solenoid? Or do you think it would hurt to go directly to the battery? Also, 30 Amps should be a big enough relay huh?

2009 RzR 50" btw.

 

[tomz1sttoy]

I bought a waterproof fuse block from black rhino, but there are other options out there. Their's is made by "painless" so you might save some bucks elsewhere, but the folks at black rhino will make sure you get what you need...takes out the guesswork.

 

[Wren]

ok, I will look into them.. Thanks...

 

[Hayden]

You should always hook the winch up directly to the battery.

 

[Magicmantx]

i agree. Hook the winch directly to the battery. Everything else run 1 power wire from the battery to a distribution block and the run everything from there.

 

[Wren]

You should always hook the winch up directly to the battery.

Whats the reason behind that?

 

[tomz1sttoy]

Reason is the amperage...Lots of current requires theist direct connection.

However, I'm under the impression the OP was referring to the switch power...if not, well, he needs to rethink his strategy.

 

[Hayden]

You should always hook the winch up directly to the battery.

Whats the reason behind that?

A winch pulls a lot of amps when it it loaded, you need a heavy gauge wire to handle the amount of amps and the most efficient way to transfer the power from the battery to the winch is with a single heavy gauge wire. The more connections you have the greater the chance for current loss.

The radio can be powered by tapping into the power that is already in the fuse block under the dash, no need to run a new wire to the battery.

Hope this helps
Hayden

 

[Wren]

So, just for my understanding (I have never been much on electrical crap), even though you have the proper guage wire and the proper size relay between the battery and the fuse block, it will not allow the proper amps through the fuse block to the winch? It just seems to me with it hooked directly to the battery, there is not protection for the winch or the battery unless there is something built into the contactor that I dont know about.

 

[Hayden]

If your talking about the large main power wires for the winch they will not fit into the fuse block, the terminals arent big enough to handle that size wire. If you are worried about the big wire shorting out there isn't much protection you can do for that. If you pay close attention to where you route your wires and put corrugated loom around them you should be fine. If you are still concerned then the best thing you can do is just mount the contactor close to the battery that way the wire that always has power will be as short as possible and less likely to rub against anything that would cause a short. The contactor is the relay in the system.

 

[Wren]

Got it. I had already planned for the wire loom and it is mounted close to the battery. Thanks for the info...

 

[tomz1sttoy]

THX Hayden! You had the terminology and information I just couldn't recall and didn't know. CHEERS!