The Winch and Dash Controls
I bit the bullet and purchased a winch. After reading
a write up on 4Wheeler magazine about saving some coin by purchasing a used winch, I decided to give it a try.
Found this used T-max 9,000 winch for sale for $170 and walked away with it for only $100. It free spooled cleanly and didn't look to rough for wear.
I called T-max service and parts down in California and those guys were a big help. They recommended repacking it with lithium grease and then potentially replacing a pin in the free spool lever - a common maintenance issue. I pulled the pin and saw it was bent. I think they made it out of lead. My plan is to eventually replace the whole free spool lever and mechanism, so I simply straightened it out and put it back in (some recommend cutting a drill bit to size and replacing it).
With the winch back together I dropped my bumper and got it mounted. I quickly discovered that my bumper doesn't allow for the solenoid box to remain on top. The remembered that they guy I had purchased my plate bumper from had said he had to mount his solenoids up inside the bumper itself. I wondered if this would cause it to ground out somehow, but after talking with the T-max guys, they said there shouldn’t be any issues.
The next problem I ran into was after installing the winch and getting it all wired up, I couldn’t get it to work. With no “clicking” sounds coming from the solenoids, I knew it had to be something else. I used a jump wire to jump from where the positive power in came from the battery to the posts where the winch in and winch out control wires were wired in. This allowed me to see that the solenoids were still good. Turns out it was the remote that came with the winch that was bad. Turns out those are notorious for going out. Found a replacement for $13 shipped.
Once I knew the winch worked, I went to work on wiring in the in dash controls. I really liked the switch panels that 12 volt guy sells but after seeing the $1-200 price tag I decided to build my own for less than $30 off amazon. I used a flat trailer wire spool and tied in to the same places the winch control plug was tied into (see diagram).
I ran the cable and wired in a winch control switch, a master kill switch (peace of mind with two kids) and an indicator light that lets me know when it’s got power.
Overall a pretty fun project. I now need to figure out how to get the “accessory switch plate” that I drilled into to stay in place better… it wants to pull out every time I pull up on the kill switch cover.
The finishing touch will be to get a vinyl sticker that says “Plan B”.
