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New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install

airmax617

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So if I want to connect aux switches, then you don't need to connect the interrupt kit? But then do I still need to turn it on and off? or the aux switch manage the power to it? and what about parasitic draw? if I have this thing connected to power, will the aux switch stop power to it, even if it's left on?
So basically there are 8 options:
1. Wire the winch directly to the battery -- for bumper mounted winches used for recovery and small tasks, this is what Warn recommends
2. Wire the winch to the battery but use a manual on/off or quick disconnect switch, keeping it off when not in use-- this is what HF recommends
3. Wire the winch directly to the battery with a quick disconnect plug and keep it on -- pull the plug in case of a fire/issue
4. Wire the winch to to the battery and use a solenoid that connects to a switch (e.g., Warn power interrupt kit or any other solenoid relay on Amazon rated around 400-500A intermittent loads, not constant) -- in this case the switch can be either the Auxiliary switches on the Jeep or a switch you run to the inside of the cabin
5. Choice 1 + fuse --- would need to be a big fuse
6. Choice 2 + fuse
7. Choice 3 + fuse
8. Choice 4 + fuse

So to answer your question -- if you want to turn off the power to the winch you can't simply wire it to the auxiliary switches, they are not rated for the amps a winch would draw. You'd need Choice 4 or 8.

There are two big risks: A. fire and B. short that kills your battery.
A. It sounds like risk due to the winch cables shorting during a car accident is minimal. It's the same risk of the wires going to your starter shorting, melting the battery and setting it on fire. In an accident the winch doesn't turn on to draw the amps that would cause the fire everyone discusses can happen. The risk of a fire while using the winch and a short happening is the one real risk here, but since you're at the controls during this time, it seems very minimal to me.
B. Risk of a short that damages electrical system, mainly the battery. This is a risk since you have additional cables the can connect if an accident happens. However, this can happen with many other cables and parts of the car.

My overall conclusion is that choice 1 or 3 are the most convenient and logical. This my rational right now, so please challenge.
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The wires from the starter to the battery are short and fully contained in the engine compartment. The wires from the winch are neither.

As the wires from the winch leave the engine compartment and are exposed to rocks/gravel/etc, imo they have a higher risk of exposure of the conductors. So in addition to the device shorting, there's also the possibility of the wires making contact with various metal parts of the jeep it passes on the way to the battery. As the tires are rubber (insulator), they don't make a connection to ground. So there's also the fun scenario where the bumper, grill, etc. become energized, and look for a path to ground. Which could be you. OTOH it could be your idiot son-in-law, so consider carefully.

Events like this are low probability / high impact. The typical way to address risks of this type is insurance. However, as the cost is less than $100 to mitigate, it's cheap at the price considering it's protecting a $50k truck and the value you place on yourself. At least, that's the risk management decision that works for me. Plus the fire extinguisher, of course.
 

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The wires from the starter to the battery are short and fully contained in the engine compartment. The wires from the winch are neither.

As the wires from the winch leave the engine compartment and are exposed to rocks/gravel/etc, imo they have a higher risk of exposure of the conductors. So in addition to the device shorting, there's also the possibility of the wires making contact with various metal parts of the jeep it passes on the way to the battery. As the tires are rubber (insulator), they don't make a connection to ground. So there's also the fun scenario where the bumper, grill, etc. become energized, and look for a path to ground. Which could be you. OTOH it could be your idiot son-in-law, so consider carefully.

Events like this are low probability / high impact. The typical way to address risks of this type is insurance. However, as the cost is less than $100 to mitigate, it's cheap at the price considering it's protecting a $50k truck and the value you place on yourself. At least, that's the risk management decision that works for me. Plus the fire extinguisher, of course.
So many people leave out one risk when talking of a direct-wire scenario......... some idiot skipping a sign or light and smacking your front bumper - perhaps going over the bumper, or under it, hitting those wires and clamping them between two metal object that can nick or cut the insulation.
In an accident situation, you may have oil, fuel, or both exposed to the wires now turning a really cool orange color.
I know what that looks like because a class I took when I was a kid, the teacher showed what happened when you wore a ring while working on automotive wiring - and told us the name of a student he knew who later lost a finger when his ring became a near-perfect conductor.
He demonstrated by dropping a pretty heavy gauge wire across the top of a battery - ensuring it hit both terminals. Wow, that was neat! Melted copper.
YOU may be careful, maybe even have never had an accident - but what about the millions of dopes out there who can't even get a vehicle into park without trouble? Just saw images of what happens when a body shop failed to set the brake after being so dumb as to not know a car wasn't fully in park. Car hit reverse, left their parking lot, into the street, was totaled by an oncoming vehicle - which could have been a JT with a live winch.
Me, if I ever get the TIME to rig my JT up with power to the rear (for a receiver mount winch setup) or to the front for a winch, I'm using a disconnect. Seconds to disconnect when not used, connect when needed, could save a truck.
Why not? Plan on running that winch while driving through town, unable to get out and connect it back up?
People like me in the classic car hobby have used quick disconnects for the battery for years. The AMO show my SX4 was in last summer - RULE - BATTERY MUST BE DISCONNECTED during the event. And most folks there simply turned a knob, done, battery isolated.
So use a quick disconnect.
 
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I agree with my esteemed colleagues in that having a large live lead running to the front is not a great idea. In an accident it can cause a bad scene.

I installed a 500 amp power relay for mine wired to the aux switches. A simple and cheap option is a welding lead connector on the hot lead or install an Anderson plug on both leads. I have used the welding lead connectors and being designed for high current the work fine.

Here is the Anderson plug option on amazon
Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install Screen Shot 2020-07-24 at 5.54.46 AM
 

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What's the draw back to use the power on/off connect that harbor freight provides? I'm just curious because on my JKU I had the winch wired straight to the battery never had a issue. I found it convenient to have the on/off kill switch because I never liked having continuous power going to the winch on the JKU. With kill switch I can just turn it on when I head out to go wheel and the winch is ready.
 

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So basically there are 8 options:
1. Wire the winch directly to the battery -- for bumper mounted winches used for recovery and small tasks, this is what Warn recommends
2. Wire the winch to the battery but use a manual on/off or quick disconnect switch, keeping it off when not in use-- this is what HF recommends
3. Wire the winch directly to the battery with a quick disconnect plug and keep it on -- pull the plug in case of a fire/issue
4. Wire the winch to to the battery and use a solenoid that connects to a switch (e.g., Warn power interrupt kit or any other solenoid relay on Amazon rated around 400-500A intermittent loads, not constant) -- in this case the switch can be either the Auxiliary switches on the Jeep or a switch you run to the inside of the cabin
5. Choice 1 + fuse --- would need to be a big fuse
6. Choice 2 + fuse
7. Choice 3 + fuse
8. Choice 4 + fuse

So to answer your question -- if you want to turn off the power to the winch you can't simply wire it to the auxiliary switches, they are not rated for the amps a winch would draw. You'd need Choice 4 or 8.

There are two big risks: A. fire and B. short that kills your battery.
A. It sounds like risk due to the winch cables shorting during a car accident is minimal. It's the same risk of the wires going to your starter shorting, melting the battery and setting it on fire. In an accident the winch doesn't turn on to draw the amps that would cause the fire everyone discusses can happen. The risk of a fire while using the winch and a short happening is the one real risk here, but since you're at the controls during this time, it seems very minimal to me.
B. Risk of a short that damages electrical system, mainly the battery. This is a risk since you have additional cables the can connect if an accident happens. However, this can happen with many other cables and parts of the car.

My overall conclusion is that choice 1 or 3 are the most convenient and logical. This my rational right now, so please challenge.
Thanks for the explanations. I guess I'm looking at wanting to do #4. Which means I need to get a solenoid to replace the disconnect switch provided by HF. I like the idea of hitting a switch in the cabin to activate it. Plus I have the aux switches, so might as well use them if I can in some way.

Found this in another thread.
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/where-are-you-powering-the-winch.29534/post-508973
 

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What's the draw back to use the power on/off connect that harbor freight provides? I'm just curious because on my JKU I had the winch wired straight to the battery never had a issue. I found it convenient to have the on/off kill switch because I never liked having continuous power going to the winch on the JKU. With kill switch I can just turn it on when I head out to go wheel and the winch is ready.
You may never have had an issue previously. No one you know may ever have had an issue. That's the low probability part of the risk. The other part is the impact - "what happens if." I don't mean to imply anyone is doing things incorrectly, as risk management for stuff like this is personal risk tolerance.

I'm not familiar with teh exact specs on the HF winch. If HF provides a solenoid at the battery that ensures no power is going to the winch over the lead on the battery side of the connection, then that would serve the same purpose. If the cutoff is at the winch, then if the insulation on the wire between the battery and the cutoff is damaged, the connection can still be energized, waiting for a path to ground.

I'm not as worried about an accident, personally, because I drive it less than 7000 miles a year, and my personal record of accidents is such that front-end damage is far outweighed by getting rear-ended. I'm more worried about damage due to age/wear. Again, others' mileage will vary.
 

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You may never have had an issue previously. No one you know may ever have had an issue. That's the low probability part of the risk. The other part is the impact - "what happens if." I don't mean to imply anyone is doing things incorrectly, as risk management for stuff like this is personal risk tolerance.

I'm not familiar with teh exact specs on the HF winch. If HF provides a solenoid at the battery that ensures no power is going to the winch over the lead on the battery side of the connection, then that would serve the same purpose. If the cutoff is at the winch, then if the insulation on the wire between the battery and the cutoff is damaged, the connection can still be energized, waiting for a path to ground.

I'm not as worried about an accident, personally, because I drive it less than 7000 miles a year, and my personal record of accidents is such that front-end damage is far outweighed by getting rear-ended. I'm more worried about damage due to age/wear. Again, others' mileage will vary.
Yes that's where the power shutoff is at ,coming right off the battery. You turn it to power on or off. I leave mine in the off position so my winch will not get any power unless I turn it to the on position. Some have said that was over kill to do that or that it was inconvenient, but it's just 15 or 20 seconds before you leave to go wheel to open the hood and turn it on.
 

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IMG_5975.jpeg
IMG_1880.jpeg
Apex winch power controller.jpeg
What you need:

  1. WARN 101255 Winch Mount Plate for 18-19 Jeep JT/JL with Factory Steel Bumper = $273.99 @ Quadratec
  2. Harbor Freight Apex 12k winch = $599.00 with coupon
  3. Harbor Freight 6 Ft. Inverter Cable Set - SKU #63747, #2 AWG = $30.00 with 20% off coupon
  4. Home Depot metric M8-1.25 zinc flange nuts x6 = .72 cents (re-using steel bumper hex bolts to cover holes in bumper)
  5. Deep sockets and short sockets - 13mm, 16mm, and 18mm
  6. Jeep Hex bits
  7. Metric allen keys

Steps to remove bumper:
  1. Remove lower skid plate with 13mm socket
  2. Remove plastic spacer between bumper and grill (discard)
  3. Disconnect foglight coupling on the passenger side of the bumper frame rail
  4. Remove 8x18mm bumper bolts with a deep socket
  5. Remove winch cutout panel but keep hex screws for dress up after the install
  6. Install Warn winch plate per instructions

Prepping Apex for control box removal:
  1. Follow instructions to remove control box enclosure from top of the winch
  2. Completely disassemble enclosure
  3. Take wireless switch and winch control wired plug receptacle out of the enclosure
    • Note: winch plug receptacle wires use Siamese blade connectors to the electronic controller. Just disconnect each wire at the siamese blade connector to pull wires through enclosure hole
  4. Optional: use electrical tape to clean up loose wires and strengthen connections

Install winch to the winch plate
Note: if you want to get your hands inside the bumper do not bolt winch to plate yet, just make sure the anchor nuts on the winch are secured with tape so they don’t fall out while you're futzing with the bumper nuts. You’re going to be under the winch plate lining up your winch after your bumper is secure so if those nuts fall out you’ll need to remove the bumper to get to them.​

Electrical install
  1. With the 6 Ft. Inverter Cable Set connect wires (Red, Yellow, Black) to winch terminals using enclosure delete kit that comes with the Apex winch; run cables along passenger frame rail up to battery
  2. Connect wires to winch control block
  3. Tuck controller box between passenger fender and battery
  4. Connect power wire to control block
  5. Connect ground to the battery
  6. Test wired/wireless controller on the free spool (hold controller wireless button for 3 seconds to turn on)
Ok. I tried a similar setup, but used a Westin Max winch plate system instead. Everything was going well until I tried to put the bumper back on. It wouldn’t clear the winch by about 1/4".

Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install 4EED14FF-1D6A-4FCC-8EC7-452AF7BDA9B1

You can see the rubbing where the bumper wouldn’t fit.

Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install A0B9711F-54C6-44B7-8042-9807FDA48933

That corner next to the hole dips down and won’t clear the winch. Taking the box off the top won’t make a difference. Any suggestions? I don’t really want to grind down that corner... I might have to get close to the hole for it to keep sliding over the winch. Thouth it’s not integral to the bumper strength...more cosmetic...
 

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Just kind of bummed because I’ve been waiting two weeks to get all the parts, spent last night taking off the bumper and all day, on and off in the heat to have the winch work great, but not be able to put the bumper back on for lack of a 1/4"!
 

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I’ve decided to try bending the dip in the bumper straight. Either pounding with hammer and wood, or using a padded pipe wrench... thoughts?
 

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Yes that's where the power shutoff is at ,coming right off the battery. You turn it to power on or off. I leave mine in the off position so my winch will not get any power unless I turn it to the on position. Some have said that was over kill to do that or that it was inconvenient, but it's just 15 or 20 seconds before you leave to go wheel to open the hood and turn it on.
Fires are inconvenient, burned wires are inconvenient........... it's just lazy, that's all. So you don't want the risk, and spend a whopping 15 seconds on risk management.
Not their thing to worry about you trying to protect your investment. They can just hope some nut doesn't do to them what happened to my sister-in-law when she was driving her Blazer through downtown Des Moines one day - idiot in a pickup ran a light and smacked her Blazer which ended up on the left side, and her arm was out that window......... under her SUV. Smashed up the front of her vehicle really nice - had there been hot wires up to the front, who knows, she could have been trapped in that thing with gas leaking and those big cables frying.
 

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Ok. I tried a similar setup, but used a Westin Max winch plate system instead. Everything was going well until I tried to put the bumper back on. It wouldn’t clear the winch by about 1/4".

Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install A0B9711F-54C6-44B7-8042-9807FDA48933

You can see the rubbing where the bumper wouldn’t fit.

Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install A0B9711F-54C6-44B7-8042-9807FDA48933

That corner next to the hole dips down and won’t clear the winch. Taking the box off the top won’t make a difference. Any suggestions? I don’t really want to grind down that corner... I might have to get close to the hole for it to keep sliding over the winch. Thouth it’s not integral to the bumper strength...more cosmetic...
Would a 1/4" steel bumper spacer work?
 

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Would a 1/4" steel bumper spacer work?
No. The winch already sits too high. I ended up prying and pounding the bumper corner flat and up to get it to slide over the winch. Once it slid over enough to get one nut on the bolt, I pried a little more, tightened on the nut a little more, managed to get a second nut on another bolt and repeated the process until all eight bolts had nuts on them. It took me about 3 hours.
Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install image

You can see it’s a little rough where I pried it up where the bumper covers the corners of winch. It was more like a 1/2" I had to raise the curved bumper flat on those corners. I’ll tap and sand it smooth with a small hammer and dremel, then paint it with the bed spray paint I’m using for another DIY project on The Retirus.

It was a long and arduous journey getting that winch on, but it works great and the Badland colors look great on the Gladiator! It was well worth the struggle to do the work myself. I have very limited experience with mechanic repairs - I’ve never done any of this type of work before! I’ve only taken on mechanic type jobs with my CJ7. This was probably the hardest labor I’ve put into a project. I don’t envy anybody that shapes steel without modern technology...

Jeep Gladiator New Apex 12K Harbor Freight winch Install 489CF34A-92DF-4EC8-A312-EC898C9319A0

Anyway, now on to the next project! DIY truck bed divider and rail system.
 

PsyRN

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Got it all installed. Ran a solenoid (tried using the Warn interruptor solenoid replacement since I didn't want to buy the whole kit) and then to the Aux switches. Tested it out. Everything seemed to work fine, no problems. Turn on the Aux switch, winch worked. Turn off Aux switch, winch doesn't work. Thought we were done!

Took a short break, talked about bikes, hung-out. Time to leave and BAM! Hit the start button, flashing dash, jittering gauges, rough idle. Turn it off. Try again and nothing. Won't start but the dash is flickering, the gauges are sputtering. Disconnect everything. Disconnect the main battery. Disconnected the winch, and put everything back as we found it. Still won’t start. Even with the main battery disconnected, the dials still twitched and flashed, cabin light flickered. After a long time, trying to figure what's going on, we figured it had something to do with the ESS battery. Which then took a long time trying figure out where that thing is even located. Tested the battery via the cables because who designed to put it up behind the wheel well and the body?! Reads 1.7V.

Figure it must be a dead battery. Found this gem on the wrangler forum. and worked to get me home!

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-aux-battery-bypass.17293/

We re-wired the winch using the cut-off switch that came with it so that it's functional but that was not the original plan.

Do now I have to call the dealership to see about replacing the battery. I suspect the bypass as something to do with this, but my cameras don't work and It looks like I lost some apps or an update on my screen. So yeah, it was a looong day yesterday.

Addendum: Went home for lunch and checked the truck. Eveything is fine with it now, with the jumper. Even the check engine light is gone, all my apps are back, ran the winch and it didn't mess anything up. Weird. Going to maybe reattach the ESS battery tonight and see what happens.

Update: Turned out my TIPM was bad and had to be replaced! The jumper eventually blew a 40A fuse too. Fortunately the TIPM was replaced under warranty, and everything seems fine.
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