DO winches really need an earth cable?

[Draven]

Hey all...

Well, ive got my winch all fitted and working now ...wahoo!!!

Now my one question is that do winches really need a earth cable ? At the moments its just earthed through my Bar and seems to be working ok.

[V8Patrol]

in all reallity .... probably not !

But over time our old friend corrosion will set in and the earth contact will weaken, be it through the winch/bullbar, bullbar/chassis, chassis/body, body/battery conections. Obviously there are alot of weak points in that lot.
Once the good earth is weakened then the unit will suffer, weaker pulling power, overheating motor, intermittent spooling etc.
You will only notice the failure of the winch when you are using it, not when its parked in the shed...... imagine that when ya stuck and need it to work, ofcourse you could carry all the tools to undo every nut n bolt between the winch and earth and clean them up for a better contact .......... you'd have the time to do it !!
For peace of mind and the cost of an earthlead........................ fit one !

[bazzle]

Yes
To overcome the above mentioned plus every join, nut , bolt etc has resistance so minute voltage drops will be present.
If a path goes high resistance current takes the next easiest path, ie your throttle cable etc so may burn things out.

So.. Always use an earth directly to the winching battery to the motor of the winch.

bazzle

[chimpboy]

This question (which should be in the auto elec section) is a very difficult one to answer, because it really depends on what you want from your winch.

If you want it to work properly and keep working properly for a long time, then yes, you should run a good earth for it.

On the other hand, if that doesn't matter to you so much, then you can run it without and earth cable with no problems at all.

Jason

[murcod]

Here's a good way to explain the answer:

Voltage (Volts) = Current (Amps) x Resisitance (Ohms)

A winch draws lots of current (over 100 Amps?), so from the above formula you can see it wouldn't take much resistance in either the earth or positive supply lines to get a noticeable voltage drop.

[Bluey]

hi mount draws the most current, fairly sure around 450 - 480 amps

[big red]

just recently i had the earth strap off the aux battery [forgot to refit it] and had sparks coming off the winch cable and numerous other points as it tried to find an earth path to the main battery.
would have looked good at night
BTW the winch was connected direct to the aux battery and the posatives of the two batteries are joined with a solenoid.

[Draven]

Hrmmm...Ok Looks like ill be going down to the Sparky's and getting them to make me up a earth cable.

Thanks for your reply's guys. Very imformative.

[Roktruk]

I had intermittent spooling problems on the Warn 8274 fitted to the truk. Solved by running a small earth wire from the solenoid box to the main motor cable, rather than relying on contact with the motor body. A liberal coating of spray on battery terminal gunk in the solenoid box helps prevent corrosion. I used to run a cover over the winch, but it restricted the air fow through the radiator too much

[Old Yella]

I had a bad earth on my XD9000

and melted the negative battery terminal

into a puddle of lead. while winching[it still worked]

i'm no electo but the dude that fixed it

said it was all because of a bad earth.

[Kev80]

I had a bad earth on my XD9000

and melted the negative battery terminal

into a puddle of lead. while winching[it still worked]

i'm no electo but the dude that fixed it

said it was all because of a bad earth.

A "bad earth" means that you had a loose batery terminal & the high current would of caused arking across the terminal producing heat.

This is how some house fires start, loose connections eventualy catching fire to its surroundings.