[johninMd]

Just thought i would post this for anyone who has had the same problem as i. using cheap 12volt winches and burning up the control. I fixed mine and have gone thru 2 winches and the same control is still working perfect.
Mind you, the "fix" is a little expensive, but... it will last and also seems to give your winch a little more power as it is not being robbed by bad control and small wires.
What i bought was a 12 Volt DC Reversing Solenoid.
The specs are:

Used for permanent magnet motors.
Such as winches,Hoist Any Reversible permanent magnet motor.
No need to use the (4) SPST Relays or the
(2) SPDT Relays with this New Reversing Solenoid .
Voltage: 12V DC.
Max operating voltage 14.5V DC.
DPDT intermittent duty.
Contacts: Copper
Flat Base type bracket Large studs: 5/16" -24
Coil terminals: two blades
Coil type: common ground
Two integral solenoids provide dynamic braking for permanent magnet motors when neither coil is energized.
12V DC 75A make and break,
max On time 5min.
12V DC 125A make and break,
max On time 30sec.
12V DC 150A make and break,
max On time 0.5sec.
Allow 5min Off after max On time. Use with a SPDT momentary toggle or rocker switch:

a momentary rocker/toggle switch can be run almost any place, small and doesnt get in the way.
A momentary switch i used has these specs:

Circuitry: SPDT-Momentary
Electrical Rating: 25A at 12V DC
Contacts:Silver
Housinglastic with plated steel cap
Up Position:Momentary On
Center Position:Off
Down Position:Momentary On
Terminals 3 screw

You can buy the momentary switch here:
http://www.texasindustrialelectric.com/toggleswitches.asp

part No.55021

the reversing sol. can be found here:
http://www.texasindustrialelectric.com/relays.asp
part No. 24450

attached is a picture of the sol. and a switch

And a word of caution, ALWAYS use a momentary switch, for anyone who doesnt know, momentary means it returns to OFF position when you release the handle of the switch. No matter how careful you are with the type that stays on, it WILL eventually get switched on when you dont know. And bad things happen to electrical devices when they have power, and cannot move, (like a already wound tight, winch)
been there, done that..

You can actually power a front and rear winch from on setup too. I am..
Just wire up both winches to sol exactly the same way. Only one activation switch. But add a cut off switch in one side of the 2 wires wires going to each winch.
Then just always have one flipped ON, while other is OFF. Simple...

 

[marlboro180]

That's a great idea, looks kinda like a starter solenoid- I bet it will last quite a while.:fing32:

 

[ZTT42]

I looked at this control, but ended up getting another one that cost about half as much. It has worked very well for me. Basically it is the same thing with a different design. You would use the same momentary contact switch to operate it. I know others have used this successfully, too. You can get them from Surplus Center.:thThumbsU

http://https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=11-3169-12&catname=electric

p.s. you can get the momentary switch at your local NAPA store.

 

[Tractor-Holic]

I wired up 4 Ford starter relays to make a forward reverse switch for a winch on my pickup trucks small crane.I copied one I saw on a Warn Winch....they take up quite a bit of room though,I mounted then in a box under the bed...they worked OK for about a year,I think continious duty soenoids would have been a better choice,but I used ones I got free off junk cars!...these DC controllers definately are a better idea where you want something compact like on a tractor,and are a lot easier to wire up too...

A "Drum" switch works good too,as long as you dont use it to start and stop the motor--but they cost almost the same as the DC controllers do,and you'd need a heavy duty switch to go along with the drum switch...

 

[Tencubed]

I've burned out both of the solenoid types pictured. They are a lot better than the weak things that come with most bargain winches but will fail with heavy use.

Tractor-Holic's method works well if four continuous duty, heavy duty, golf cart motor solenoids are used.

When mounting the switch to control the solenoids I've found it handy to mount it on a removable mount with a long cord on the switch. This allows using the winch while manipulating a load at the same time. Really handy when stretching fence with a quad.

Mike

 

[johninMd]

I can say the one i pictured is the one i have, been using it 3 winters now, powering a front and rear winch, using them hard and long in snow plowing, johnny bucket lifting and so on, and it is still doing its job. Using it summer and winter carrying dirt, rocks, you name it, clearing snowfalls all winter, one 3' deep.. Before i added it, i could burn up the contacts in the control that came with the winch in a summer, or over a winter. The one i had was for lift gates on rear of trucks. of course with anything today, maybe quality control is out the window and i got a "good" one

 

[mrolds88]

I did the 4 Ford solenoid unit on a 10k winch on my car trailer. Have used it for a couple of years with no issues. I can see how space would be an issue putting this on a tractor. But it worked for me!!

 

[ZTT42]

Here is a wiring diagram I worked up for the 4-solenoid solution. This is the simplified version and you can see it is somewhat messy. I wanted to use up less space and also the cost would be over $100 for just the solenoids if you use new parts, not to mention wire, lugs, etc.

All of these methods will work just fine and it is a matter of choosing which is best for your situation. Happy winching :fing32:

p.s. I'm happy to hear that JohninMD has had good success with the single solenoid. That's encouraging!

 

[johninMd]

what i used for most of my connection was homemade , get whatever size copper home wiring you want to use, and soft wall copper pipe that just fits over the bare wire. Copper pipe around here sells by the foot.
Also have got some few ft. lengths of heavy copper wiring at local ACE hardware very cheap, mostly ends that were left when the rolls were used up.

Cut pipe off about 1 1/2" - 2" long, slip over wire, solder in place, flatten the end of the copper pipe that isn't on the wire, drill appropriate size hole for lug, done... Lot cheaper than buying assembled wires.

 

[johninMd]

Here is a wiring diagram I worked up for the 4-solenoid solution. This is the simplified version and you can see it is somewhat messy. I wanted to use up less space and also the cost would be over $100 for just the solenoids if you use new parts, not to mention wire, lugs, etc.

All of these methods will work just fine and it is a matter of choosing which is best for your situation. Happy winching :fing32:

p.s. I'm happy to hear that JohninMD has had good success with the single solenoid. That's encouraging!

thanks, so far so good. Why i found the single reversing sol. is because i was trying to find cheapest prices online for 4 sol. setup too. takes a lot of connections with 4. Oh, and by the way guys, when i bought my reversing sol. from the url i posted, it was 50.00 now its 91.00

 

[ZTT42]

I see the Texas Industrial website says they are sorry prices have changed because the price of silver has skyrocketed. That's an 80% price hike!!!! wow!

I checked the surplus center site and the ones like I bought are still $42.95. Better get yours now!

 

[locknut]

Seems like a lot of things have neccesarily skyrocketed the last year,or so.I bought a winch solenoid exactly like the one in post#1 last year on ebay for 25 bucks.Works good on the cheap Champion winch.Use #8 wire,I think that helps,too.

I use two of the ones in post#3 for 24V actuators and controlled by an arcade joystick that uses 12V.Hope I don't have to buy any more of these!

 

[johninMd]

found same one here for 75.00

http://www.allbatterysalesandservice.com/browse.cfm/4,6331.html

 

[Brad]

Just curious, could this not be accomplished with 2 regular starter solenoids, providing a SPDT momentary switch was used? I am not familiar with winches and their operations, but it appears the 24450 in the post above is just that.

ZTT42--In your drawing you are using 4 solenoids. What is the reason for 4, and their individual purpose? Just trying to get an understanding of the specifics of a winch.

 

[Kbeitz]

Just curious, could this not be accomplished with 2 regular starter solenoids, providing a SPDT momentary switch was used? I am not familiar with winches and their operations, but it appears the 24450 in the post above is just that.

ZTT42--In your drawing you are using 4 solenoids. What is the reason for 4, and their individual purpose? Just trying to get an understanding of the specifics of a winch.

You need four because you switching both wires.
One solenoid can only turn on-off one wire. Not switch it from - to +.

 

[dmorrill22]

I saw contactors just like that on ebay a while ago for $15 shipped. Now they are all gone. I have a cheap HF winch that I purchased a while ago, and no surprise, the hand controller burned up, and won't work. I then found a cheap contactor that is a knockoff of warn winch contactors, and purchased it for $21 shipped. They are still on ebay for this price on buy it now. I know its a knockoff, but I didn't have the money to spend on a real one. Time will tell how long it lasts, but I hooked it up and it seems to work great for now. It is also apparently easy to fix these. They are not sealed, so that was a plus for me.

Here's a link to the same contactor, just $2 more:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATV-Winch-C...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item588f876e2c

 

[ZTT42]

ZTT42--In your drawing you are using 4 solenoids. What is the reason for 4, and their individual purpose? Just trying to get an understanding of the specifics of a winch.

A solenoid is simply a heavy duty switch for large diameter wire - and heavy loads like a winch motor - that is turned on or off by a lighter duty switch like the momentary double pole switch mentioned above. Trace the wiring in the diagram. The momentary switch turns on S1 and S2 for "straight through" Pos and neg with heavy starter wire from the battery. The other momentary switch position turns on S3 and S4 that simply reverse the polarity to turn the winch motor the opposite direction.

It cannot be done with two solenoids. This layout uses short wires and keeps most of the wiring in the solenoid mounting area. Other folks wiring diagrams may look different, but they do exactly the same thing with minor variations in which wires are attached where (for example, you could run two wires to each pole of the motor, one from each solenoid).

The winch controllers and reversing solenoids in this thread are just compact models of the 4-solenoid design put into smaller packages with internal connection methods.

 

[Brad]

Got it now. Have to throw 12v - and +, so 2 solenoids are needed for each direction.

Thanks for the info.

 

[johninMd]

and now that we know you need a reversing sol. or 4 singles, dont forget you can, like i did, power both a front and rear winch from same sol.
All it takes is a OFF/ON switch, placed in the ( + ) wire or each winch. One is on while other is off. Then reverse the two switch positions to use other winch. I use this setup for a rear blade. Sure helps when you have garage doors, etc with snow up against them and get get into any position with front plow to clear it out.

 

[Jack D D]

Here's another option, if your load is under 50A (or even slightly more in short bursts).

https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=11-3295&catname=electric

This would certainly work with most linear actuators and some winches, again, depending on current (amps) in your application.