dang I will keep that in mind!
Printable View
dang I will keep that in mind!
When you say 2 pairs are for the e locker and the winch are you talking about doubled up wires? Like is shown in the pic? Is this because of the >0.5A? The smaller wire has to make it so much easier to get wire up and down a pillar and under the headliner.
Good job, looks great and functional.
Yes, I used the pairs for more current carrying ability and some redundancy. The cat 5 is perfect. 4 or 8 conductors in a jacket. Not to mention the ability to have modular plugs. Max I'm running through them is 80mA for the relay coil.
FYI. Cat5 has 4 twisted pairs. Orange, blue, green, and brown pairs with one each solid color twisted with one with a white stripe.
Back in November, during a rain (which turned out to be a rare thing this winter), I heard my car alarm going off. I went out and found my winch running in the "out" direction. I popped the hood and disconnected the lead from the positive.
My relays had fallen down and allowed water to wick from the bumper, down the loom from the hand control connector, and into the relays. It shorted out the "out" relay and ran the winch until it started sucking line back in and popped the clutch lever out. No damage to the winch, and when the relay dried out, it worked fine.
Fast forward to a few days ago, I was pulling some bushes out of the front yard, and I had no more "out" control in the cab. Relay is dead, so I had to replace that, which I did today.
In other news, since the new roof rack, with all the fancy lights, all but 2 of my switches are being used now. The other 2 were spare auxiliary switches from the get-go, so I am sure I will find use for them some day, maybe for some more interior lights.
Good thing it was the out relay and not the in; that could have been ugly!
I think it would have just stalled the winch and drained the battery super fast. Either way it was bad!
Hopefully no fire with the stalling. Do you have a master power switch for the winch? I had one on my MileMarker to keep it from being operated without me knowing.
No, I don't. For the most part, I keep it disconnected from the battery unless I am using it or on a trip where I might need it (like Mojave). I have the wing nut military style battery terminals, so pulling something off is no big deal to me. When I do my next big rewire on the front end, I will be adding a disconnect switch, along with a second battery and cleaning up my admittedly hacked wiring up front.