Just about finished up with my winch wiring, but I'm wondering where other folks decided to tie into the acc power. Thinking about tapping into the DRL power, but not sure that'd work. Any input will be appreciated. Bonus question! Can I just take the winch (-) to a ground point, or does it really need to go to battery (-)? I'm leaning toward the latter, but this is my first qinch, so I'm not 100%.
What did you get for a winch? Most winches just wire directly to the negative and positive of the battery as it needs a direct amperage connection. Since I didn't want mine powered all the time, I use a Rough Country quick disconnect kit on my Smittybilt X20 and connect it when I need it.
I went with the superwinch terra 45 synthetic. It uses a solenoid to isolate power when the car is off. That’s why I have to tap into keyed power. Unless I see a reason not to, I’m just gonna tap the DRL to energize the solenoid.
After a quick look at the install manual, the DRL power would work well since they are on whenever the car is on. Only negative side I can see is you may get a DRL bulb out warning due to a difference in voltage.
That’s my one concern with it but I’m thinking it should be fine since it will be drawing more amps whereas the warning light comes on for LED bulbs due to a lower amp pull. Guess I’ll find out here pretty soon.
Welp, Apparently that plan won't work. Wired it up to the DRL. The Jeep senses the spike and kills power to the light. :-/ I'm just gonna run unswitched power. After thinking about the circuit, I think it'll be just fine.
That's too bed, thanks for keeping us up to date. I'll have to keep this thread in mind when I can save up for a winch.
I wired my winch to the back and wired it like you would a trailer winch into my trailer hitch on a winch cradle. Positive cable all the way to the battery. Negative cable from the battery ground to the frame. Negative cable from the quick disconnect to the frame also. Got a Smittybilt 9500XRC.
