How to fit a winch solenoid by the battery?

[ShadowsPapa]

Yes. I have a switch in the truck that I can turn on and off the power to my winch (and bed power the way mine is wired) instead of having to open the hood. It's a 500 amp solenoid, so plenty of capability.

That, and the fact that winches have a duty cycle - you don't run them continuously or you over-heat them. Unless you push the winch beyond recommended limits, you aren't pushing the solenoid, either.

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[KevinM60]

Another example.
Terminal Solenoid Compatible with Mobile Audio 500A 12V Relay Continuous Battery Isolator 500Amp 12Volt Relay

You have a large gauge hot wire from the winch that connects to one of the large terminals on the solenoid. The winch ground cable grounds to the vehicle with the recommended location being the battery negative terminal. The other large terminal on the solenoid has the same gauge cable connected to the battery positive connection. The hot wire from the auxiliary switches connects to the small positive terminal on the solenoid and the small negative terminal connects a small ground wire to the vehicle ground.
With the auxiliary power to the solenoid turned off the power to the winch is disconnected and when power is supplied to the solenoid the connection is made for the winch hot wire.

 

[NC_Overland]

The solenoid is low power and is turned on and off with the switch on the dash. It sits on the winch power cable to turn the winch power supply off and on. With the solenoid (disconnect) the power from the battery is stopped at the disconnect until you turn it on and then the power runs through the disconnect and is supplied to the winch.

Oh ok. You run it to the aux switches from there?

 

[KevinM60]

Oh ok. You run it to the aux switches from there?

Yes. The solenoid is powered by an auxiliary switch on the dash.

 

[NC_Overland]

Thanks for the edumacation!

 

[KevinM60]

Thanks for the edumacation!

You’re welcome

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Oh ok. You run it to the aux switches from there?

The aux switch wires are right next to the battery, and in many of our cases, to the solenoid location.

In this pic, the unsteady red arrow points to the wire that runs from #3 aux switch over to the solenoid. My aux switch wires from the factory are laid in this terminal strip. I could then wire in any accessory easily with this type of strip.
I have numbered my aux switch wires on the strip for easy ID.
The green wire is a ground I ran up there for easy access so I can ground small items up there and not mess with the body ground studs.

 

[NC_Overland]

The aux switch wires are right next to the battery, and in many of our cases, to the solenoid location.

In this pic, the unsteady red arrow points to the wire that runs from #3 aux switch over to the solenoid. My aux switch wires from the factory are laid in this terminal strip. I could then wire in any accessory easily with this type of strip.
I have numbered my aux switch wires on the strip for easy ID.
The green wire is a ground I ran up there for easy access so I can ground small items up there and not mess with the body ground studs.

Yeah. I have my front lights to 1 (40A) and the rear lights to 3 (15A). My front lights are serious and were borderline for a 15A. I still have two available. I don’t even think about doing it, but it’s too late now. I bought a bracket and everything. lol

 

[wachuko]

I am using the positive cable disconnect switch that came with the winch....

Eventually I would like to install a solenoid to be able to turn on and off the winch from one of the aux switches.

Great thread to figure out what solenoid I should go with.

 

[GypsyMech]

Relocated winch controller, isolation relay controlled by aux switch and terminal strip used for winch and jumper plug, picture is not latest configuration

 

[wachuko]

Is it okay to place the solenoid like that? I thought they had to be oriented vertically and not horizontally.

I could be remembering things incorrectly... or maybe thinking about relays...

 

[GypsyMech]

Relays and solenoid are the same, power is the difference. Neither should care about orientation, just correct polarity. They use low power to control a circuit, solenoid typically are high power, where as relays can be used to create logic circuits, normally low powered.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Orientation won't matter.
Solenoid has a CORE that moves a plate.
Relay has an electromagnet at its heart, activating it pulls a metal arm down to make contact with a set of points.
A relay can be multiple configurations such as SPST or SPDT where a solenoid is just an on/off device in general.

Solenoid below - there's a plate attached to an iron rod that is pulled into the coil when the coil is energized. The plate comes down across the contacts as shown.

I suppose one could call our winch "solenoids" as "contactors" as a contactor handles a higher current circuit than a relay, which it typically for under 20 amps or so as I recall.


Winch "solenoid" -

 

[whiteglad]

this is my setup

 

[bill61]

So which solenoid is a suitable choice? I see the Warn 72631 is used with the VR10000 but I don’t see a black solenoid in any of the pics in this thread.
The silver Warn solenoid I see is for smaller winches.

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