Posted in Defensive Driving, Safety

Winch Not Working

We had a winch fitted to the front of a 4WD vehicle and thought it was just not doing what it was meant to do.  On further investigation we found the winch cable was running around the drum the wrong way.  The cable must run in on the bottom of the drum, the pulling power is on the bottom of drum as its pulling the cable in.  If the cable is pulling in on the top of the drum it will be gutless and have no power.  I replaced the "hand held" controller twice (2) and this did not fix the problem.  Swapping the wires got the drum to wind "in" with the "hand held" controller in the "in" position.

To fix this you can try the swap of the two wires (F-1) and (F-2) over in the control box mounted on the bull bar.  First thing to do is get the winch wire diagram and work out wires turn the drum.  Learn more about 4X4 recovery course

   

On this particular winch the two black wires were swapped so the current went in a different direction and the drum winding in pulls the cable from the bottom of the drum.  I replaced the "hand held" controller twice (2) and this did not fix the problem.  Swapping the wires got the drum to wind "in" with the "hand held" controller in the "in" position.  If you have a winch going the wrong way this may help you fix the problem.  Interested in 4X4 recovery course