I bought a winch for my atv I'm not sure were to run the wires do I run them straight to tthe battary if any one can help thanks for your time and help

 

Is there not an instruction manual that came with the winch it should tell you which wires run where if not I've always ran my hot to the battery and usually ground pretty close to the winch, which makes it easier to check the wire if you ever have issues, and the switch if wired separately run to a wire only hot when key is turned on.

 

Make sure to add in a fuse if your going to wire it direct to the battery

 

I bought it used and there was no manual so thanks u for all your help and I will make sure I run a fuse

 

Andy,

Some questions (I'll number them so you can answer by just referring to the question number...):

1) Did you just buy the winch motor itself?

2) Or did you get the ancillary stuff that always comes with the winch too?

My winch came with a handle bar mounted rocker switch, a contactor assembly which reverses the battery connections to the winch motor (or not) depending on whether you want to draw the cable in or spool it out.

3) And did they provide big heavy duty fat cables to go from the battery to the contactor assembly, and from there to the winch itself?

4) Are you aware that winches draw an *enormous* amount of current when they are loaded (i.e. actually pulling something)? A 2000 pound winch at that rated load will draw 80 amps. That is more than your starter motor draws by quite a bit.

5) What kind of quad is this being installed on?

6) How many cc's is the engine? I want to estimate for you how long it will take to charge the battery back up using just your quad engine after the winch runs the battery dead (just so you have realistic expectations...).

7) Do you know how big your battery is (amp-hour rating)? That way I can calculate how long the battery will power the winch before your battery is dead and you can't start the quad anymore (another effort to convey realistic expectations..).

Justjoe is correct about adding a fuse, but this fuse will only feed the small power wire going to the handlebar switch which controls the contactor. The winch motor wire themselves are not fused, and really heavy duty (like #6 gauge wire) to handle the enormous current that the winch will need when doing actual work. These wires are too big to fuse - much the same as the wires that go from your battery to your starter motor through the starter solenoid.