May 2013 Randys Electrical Corner - Jp Magazine

I like going fast. Like that time we were chasing the guy from Bargain Bag in the stolen Bargain Bag truck. Well, the Bargain Bag guy didn’t steal the truck, he was in the back of it. Well, he was in the back of it when Joy took it. But then after he was running around in his underwear and we put him back in the truck, we chased him. We chased him because Earl didn’t tell me to put him in the back of the truck, so I put him in the front. But then the guy took the truck and we had to chase him. So Earl finally drove fast to catch the stolen truck.

may 2013 Randys Electrical Corner warn Wiring Kit Photo 46016669 The kit includes 4-gauge wire already attached to a quickconnector, a quickconnector cover, zip ties, a switch to mount in the Jeep, and a solenoid. There are two kits available, one with 20 feet of wire (PN 32963) and one with 24 feet of wire (PN 32966). The included instructions are pretty short, but it is a pretty simple installation and they do cover all the information you might need.

You Jeep guys don’t like going fast. It seems you get a big kick out of going slow over big rocks. Sometimes the rocks are too big and you get stuck, which is why you have all those wenches on the front of your Jeeps. The thing is, sometimes you need the wench on the back of the Jeep and not the front. So, I got to thinking how it would be cool to make the wench removable so it could be mounted on the front or the back of the Jeep, depending on which way you got stuck. Plus, it would allow you to remove the wench or leave it at home so it doesn’t get stolen when you go into those bad parts of town.

But wenches need a lot of power if you are really stuck, and an electrical plug from even a welder just isn’t going to cut it. I had started with the McMaster Carr catalog and was figuring out how to do it myself when someone suggested I use the Warn disconnect kit. It was only $150, which was cheaper than I could piece it together and get all the parts delivered for, so I ordered one up. Here’s what’s in the box and how the world leader in winches had figured out how to let you unplug your wench.

PhotosView Slideshow One thing not included in the kit is a connector
for the winch side of things. So if you are
retrofitting an existing winch, you will need
to order them as well (PN 22680). I couldn’t
find a part number for just one of them, so
the other one will be used for quick-connect
jumper cables. I ended up with the 20-foot kit
and didn’t need near that much wire to get the
wire to the front of the Jeep. The rear of this
Jeep has a receiver hitch on it, but I wouldn’t
trust it for a winch. So I shortened the wires
up using some crimp-on connectors that I
also soldered on. Warn includes this solenoid in the kit, and
while it looks like an old Ford starter solenoid,
they assure me it isn’t. The old Ford starter
solenoids aren’t rated for constant-duty
usage, and if you try to use one instead of
this solenoid, Warn tells me that you will fry
it pretty quickly. The solenoid is included so
that you don’t have constant power going to
the bumpers of your Jeep. Can you imagine
some kid sticking his fingers in the connector?
Talk about shocking. Note the plastic
feet on the solenoid; it needs to be isolated
from the chassis ground. The kit even includes an illuminated switch
with a mount to put inside the Jeep and
the wiring harness to hook it up with. The
included harness has an inline-glass fuse
installed in it. The instructions told me to
hook the red wire to a switched positive, but
I ignored them and hooked it to constant
power just in case the winch needs to be used
with the Jeep off or stalled. The kit is rated
for 175 amps, and like I said, I wanted to use
the connector for jumper cables as well. I was
worried that jumping a dead Jeep would fry
the solenoid—but so far, so good.