Winch Power Leads, Cut 'em Or Coil Them?

I'm installing a winch on a 3b. On this 3b with a transplanted v6, the battery is on the passenger side front near the radiator (maybe they all are on a 3b?). The power cables that come with the winch are long enough to reach a battery anywhere in the engine compartment. The leads have nicely installed lugs. Would you cut the leads to optimally reach the battery and install new lugs or simply coil the leads and secure them with a zip tie?

 

Personally, I would cut to length. Although minimal, saves voltage drop, cleaner, less mess/bulk in the engine bay. Just my opinion.

 

Why not store the long leads for future application and buy new shorter ones for this app.?

 

I would just cut them . lugs are cheap

 

Cut em...

 

And less chance for damage and an unattended on-board welder welding under the hood. I use straight copper lugs, crimp (you can do that in a vise), fill with solder, and then apply heat shrink and a boot. All that stuff is readily available at Waytek Wire.

 

Agree with the others. Shorten them so there is less chance of a high amperage short.

I made my own crimpers modifying a small $10.00 bolt cutter. Disassembled it, ground a properly sized circle with an angle grinder, and added a little weld bead on each side to make an additional indent. Despite my inconsistent weld bead locations, they work great:

 

I agree with this. You can make longer ones shorter but can’t make shorter ones longer. Or just make new ones. As said components or new leads are readily available. My local NAPA stocks all that stuff.

 

cut em if you can't neatly wrap them under the battery tray. They ain't no good now if saved for later and later they might be an inch short.

 

To prevent a short to body metal or frame, I used heater hose to slide over the lead to add a layer of rubber between the lead and the metal.

 

my thoughts too

 

Here's the rest of the story.

I wanted to install a winch on my 3b. I already had some stumps in mind that I needed to pull out of the yard. I bought a Harbor Freight winch plate. Normally, the plate would rest on the frame rails, but my jeep has a steering box that sits proud of driver's side rail.


I cut the ends off the winch plate and welded wings to the sides to lift the plate above the frame rails and bolt to the sides of the rails.


Then I mounted the winch and was ready to wire it up to the battery. That's when I posted the original question about cutting or coiling the extra leads.


I was about to drive to Harbor Freight to get a pair of bolt cutters to make a pair of crimpers, Fireball-style, when I checked Amazon first and found they sold hydraulic crimpers for 37 bucks. I ordered it. Then Mother Nature intervened and we had a midnight windstorm that knocked out power all across the Puget Sound.


Our power was off for two days, but that didn't stop Amazon from delivering the crimpers. I cut'n'crimped the winch lines.


I used the winch this morning to remove the first stump. I was able to stand way off to the side and use the wireless remote to operate the winch.


The winch pulled the rotten stump out of the ground with no effort. Yes, the cable is dragging on the ground. That's why I got steel line.

 

Nice job! How long is your winch cable?

 

The set comes with 9 sets of dies for AWG gauges 2/0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12

The winch comes with a 90' wire rope.

 

I have a Temco crimper... $19.95 slamazon


All you need is a BFH and I have one of those from my Ford ownership days

 

I used my new winch to pull down a rotted tree house platform this evening. Twenty+ years ago, my daughter and I built a treehouse. She's married and has two kids now. The platform in the tree has rotted out and it was time to take it down. I used my jeep's winch to pull down the horizontal support beams.


The platform did not collapse, so I threw a strap up around a hole in the platform and tried to rip it down.


The winch line pulled the skidding jeep, even though I had HF chocks under the back wheels. I went and got another jeep and strapped it to the back of the CJ3B and tried again. The winch pulled both jeeps. Ok, this is getting serious. Either the platform is coming down or a strap or line is going to break before I give up. I went and got a Suburban and strapped that to the back of the second jeep.


I stood far away behind a tree while I operated the wireless remote on the winch. All three vehicles stood their ground and much of the platform came tumbling down.


It was nice to be outside on one of the first nice spring weeks in Seattle.

 

Nice workout for the trio!

 

You & your Daughter did some pretty hefty framin' there....20 Years ago

 

Three years ago I installed this winch on my 3B.


When I bought the jeep it didn't have a winch but it had a handmade winch switch plate mounted on the dash. The wires connected to the switch were cut and dangling in the driver's footwell. I've always wanted to make that switch operative and now that the winch's warranty has long expired, I decided to dig into the winch's relay box and hardwire up that switch.


On the relay controller, connecting the blue wire to 12v triggers the winch to spool one direction and connecting the yellow wire to 12v will spool the other direction.


Connecting the wires.


The switch in the cab now works. The switch is a momentary toggle switch and has to be held in position before springing back to the center off. Perhaps I should add a winch arming switch in a hidden place in the cab. Normally, I keep the jeep turned "off" with a battery disconnect switch.