In-Cab Winch Controls

Had I taken the time to complete this back in June, I might not have gotten my @ss handed to me so remarkably in Canada on that Shoe Lake trail.

Well, with plans in the works for a trip to Pine Barrens soon, I definitely anticipate the need to be able to control the winches from within the cab.

 I got really frustrated with the Iphone. I was trying to focus in on which ports of the remote were occupied, and the camera would focus on distant objects, writing, etc, but would ignore this connector.

So my main goal from the outset was to get a sense of how many wires would need to be run to create the extension from my custom control panel to the winch solenoids.

Further complicating the matter, I have two different winches from two different companies. One was a 5-pin connector and the other a 3-pin connector. As it turned out, only 3 of the positions in the 5-pin connector were occupied. That was the photo I was trying to capture above.

My efforts on this started back in June, I think. I looked over at a box in my office which still housed the incomplete order that was shipped to me when I first sought to purchase a wireless winch controller. The distributor didn't realize it was an incomplete module (part of 2 or perhaps even 3 boxes) and listed it on their website as the full assembly. After we exchanged correspondence and they contacted the manufacturer, they informed me that, for another $200, I could order the balance of the assembly. I declined.

But I still had maybe $100 worth of...junk really. The controller differed from the controller that I had, but it had the same pin connector and also an extra length of cabling. I figured I could disassemble this controller for clues into how the solenoid was configured at the winch. This led to the initial discovery that I would only need 3 signaling wires. That was good news.


The bad news I discovered today was that the wrong pin locations were occupied in this controller than in the controller that came with the winch. This necessitated that I disassemble the primary controller. If I messed this up, I would have no means of controlling the rear winch. There was some significant pressure here for reasons I'll explain now.

I had set out this week to accumulate parts and components that I thought I would need. I had also ordered a second controller for my nicer front winch some months back so I could disassemble it as well in order to reverse-engineer my switching.

I was confident that both winches operated off of some sort of three input system. I basically destroyed the 2nd front winch controller, including the switch in my efforts to get it apart. Basically the entire housing was a molded rubber. I tried beating on it to get it to split at the seam, but instead, it transferred all the force to the switch and imploded it. I did succeed in getting it apart, but I couldn't decipher which wires were the 'in' and the 'out'. I could only tell which was the common carrier. That was a bummer.

 Although it took some trying, when I opened up the rear winch controller, I was greeted with stupid simple direction as to which wire performed which function. Stupendous!

I had hoped that this same color convention carried all the way through the device. It does not. That would have made too much sense.At the connector, the wires were then Red-Red-Black, and then there was another internal connector, and the wires went to another 3 colors.

My tracing had to go by position instead.

Here I learned that the common usually goes to a separate post terminal; whereas, the "in" and "out" signal wires go to land somewhere either on or in the solenoid housing.

Even with the stupid simple direction, I managed to get the directions reversed when I wired it up. There is one point where I probably neglected to 'mirror' the positions when transposing from one side of a connector to another.

On the front winch, where I had no such direction, it turned out that I guessed correctly.

 Steve S. has already commented on Facebook about my Home Depot approach to truck modifications. He's offered a nicer electric box. I'll have to see what this thing looks like. Here I just used a workbox cover as a mounting surface for the switches. The two on the left are disconnects that I put in to interrupt the common carrier. It is a safety mechanism I picked up from the interwebs so that someone inadvertently hitting one of the winch controls doesn't cause your winch to bind up when it spools all the way in and fry your winch. Seemed like a good precaution to build in.

 Basically I just jumped a wire over from the 'Load' post of the single pole, single throw switch over to the middle post of a single pole, double throw momentary switch. Then 'out' and 'in' land on either of the available posts on the SPDT switch, and the incoming common wire from the winch lands on the remaining post on the SPST switch corresponding to either "Line" or "Power".

 This was a goof that I should have anticipated since I've done it before. The switch bodies with the female push connectors sticking out the back exceed the allowable depth of a standard work box. I had to go back out and get a box extender ring. In the meantime, I had attempted to test the operation of the rear winch, and I was sad. It seemed to operate randomly. Reversing and then spooling out at a whim. Then I realized why. Since the box lid wasn't mounted, the edges of the switch were contacting the box and closing the circuit on their own. I was lucky I didn't fry something then. Once I held the lid up and out of contact with the edges of the box, the operation then followed the commands of the switch as I manipulated it.

All buttoned up and mounted. I just need to add labels and clean up the wiring runs with some split loom and zip ties.