HI I have an 08 kingquad 750. bought a snowplow and a winch(superwinch). everything went together well till it was time to hook in/out switch to power. all wires plug in except a small red wire that needs to be wired to only get power when key is on. Anyone know where/how I could attach this wire? Is there somewhere on the kingquad 750 that this could easily be done? any ideas /thoughts? thank you!

 

You could tap the accessory wiring.

I wired my winch direct to the solenoid & battery--that way the key does not have to be on to use the winch.

The winch uses a great deal of battery power/amperage, and having the switch/ignition "on" just adds to the battery drain.

It is even worse if you have the engine running, as the motor typically does not generate more electricity than it uses when the engine is idling.

 

IMHO, the down side of having the winch power tap before the switch is that you a cannot turn power off to the winch without removing the battery cable/unplugging a wire/etc... So, if you have problems with the winch and it starts draining the battery, you are stuck. Also, if you need to work on the winch, you have to disconnect a wire somewhere to make it safe.

I don't think the current draw is that much when the key is on as long as you have the lights and other accessories off.

And I would prefer to have the motor running when using the winch if possible. If you were to run down the battery with the winch, at least the quad is already running when you are done. If its not running, and you don't have a backup pull start (mine doesn't), then you might not be able to go anywhere once you get un-stuck!

Just my two cents, take it for what it is worth!

 

Dingo, I agree with 0010's points.
I used a 12v test probe like this (Lisle Handy Hooker Circuit Tester LIS25600) to find a switched hot wire in the wiring harness behind my steering column. Turn key on, ground tester with clip, begin trial and error piercing of wires (start with brighter colors first). When your tester lights up - double check that it's switched by turning key off.
Once you find the wire that works you can tap in your red winch control wire. For this I recommend heat shrink wire taps that you can find at home depot. If you don't use heat shrink connectors then I'd apply dielectric grease to your connections for sure.

 

Just a thought while I was reading this: Maybe if you didn't want to go through the effort of finding a switched power source, you could install a switch inline on that red wire. This would simply interrupt power to the winch when you turned it off. Also, if you do wire directly to the battery with a switch, I think it would be wise to install an inline fuse (maybe 10A?) to protect that circuit... Like I said, just a thought...

 

X2 it worked for me and didnt drain the battery down when setting.

 

I agree with 0010. But having a drained battery is the least of the problems you my have. My buddy hooked up his winch with the red wire on a constant hot supply. Unfortunately he didn't have a fuse in line. Something went wrong with the relays and it wound up with his brother calling him from the storage garage to tell him his quad was on fire! A bad relay or something caused the winch to turn on and spool in till it hit the hook. The winch keep running and overheated thus causing the fire. Luckily his brother was there and no one was hurt.

 

I know its a pain to wire in another switch,but I couldent figure out
why the battery was going down,putting in the extra switch solved
the problem fast.