has anyone tried to use a three way toggle switch on their winch? my switch on my superwinch went bad and i really dont want to pay $40 or $50 for a new one. do you think that it would work?

 

It needs to carry a few hundred amps. you can't just get any old switch.

Cabellas carries them. Other places have them too. Price shop.

 

Nycro is correct be VERY careful with the switch you pick, it is going to carry a lot of current and you dont want your elec. system going up in flames. (plus remember this is going to be in a harsh enviroment, not inside of a truck cab) I would look at the switches offered by all the winch companies and fine one that suits your budget... Maybe Ebay ????
Good luck !!

 

i doubt that it is going to be carrying a few hundred amps,[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] anyway, your winch should say how many amps it pulls, keep in mind this would be maximum and you are not normally going to be pulling maximum load. when and if you can find a 3-way toggle that you can make water tight or close to, look for how many amps it is rated for. i normally will go 80% of that.i.e.,( for a 20amp outlet i would only put 16 amps on it). this way even at max you should not burn up your circuits.
later sparx

 

BZZZT! Wrong Answer! Sorry for being rude Sparx, I get cranky when it is past my bedtime.

This is from Warns Website for the 2500ci:

Line Pull..............Motor
Lbs.(Kgs.)...........Current
0 ........................18 amps
500(227).............51 amps
1000(455)...........88 amps
1500(680)..........125 amps
2000(907)..........165 amps
2500(1134)........204 amps (7ft per minute)

It looks like my 2500 has probably drawn 200 amps plenty of times.

So, rammy, only use a small switch for your winch when the cable is not pulling anything.

Personally, I would get the contacter from warn (the DPDT relay) so that you can use a small switch to operate it. See this photo for an award winning winch switch location. Well, I actually haven't had any recognition for that switch besides the credit I have given myself. But, I really do like the small winch switch in combination with the contacter. I would do it again exactly like that if I got a new P700.

 

Nyroc, do you realize that you probably only have a 200amp service for your entire house. 200 amps would fry a person to a crisp considering it only takes .5 milliamps to kill a human. based on this, be very, very careful when working with this winch. and make sure noone is trying to operate it while you have the hot conductor in your hand while standing in a bucket of water wearing all of your gold mr T chains.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
later sparx

 

you get what you pay for

cycle country has a cheep-*** switch
northen tools carry sealed switches that are marginal

get the best one - it needs to work, in the deepest of goop
it needs to be sealed, it needs to last

I have been real stuck, riding alone, and needed my winch -
aforementioned cheap-*** switch failed within a month of installation
unsealed plastic, cheap connections internally = stuck like chuck in the muck

Luckily, I got it working ONE LAST TIME,
bailed myself out and learned a valuable lesson

you get what you pay for

 

sparx, reason the house uses less current than your winch, is that the house uses 110v (or 220v), so every amp used in the house provides roughly 10 times (or 20 times) the power of an amp used on your 650. Completely different animals here. The starter motor on a truck may sometimes use 600 amps. The reason it isn't very big is that it has a low duty cycle. the battery voltage also drops quite a bit if it has to provide that much current. A starter would burn up fast if used continuously.

Sparx, you always hear "It is the amperage that Kills you". Scientifically speaking, that is true, but that statement by taken itself misleads people into a misunderstanding of electricity. In order for currernt to pass through you, you have to conduct. Your skin usually has a high enough resistance that it does not normally conduct electricity enough to pass any current at 12v. So you can lean against the car battery for a while. If you become sweaty, you may feel a tingle if you lean against it enough. But, never put jumper cables in your mouth. You could be hurt bad.

My skin is very dry. When I touch 110v, I only feel a tingle. I do not do this on purpose. But I did by accident once, and it made me nervous, and I began to sweat. At that point I was smart enough to get the power turned off, since sweaty hands can allow you to get a big shock from 110.

The ignition system willl shock the crap out of you since it puts out a very high voltage. It will go through a lot of things, even jump a small distance through air. It only puts out a small current, and it is enough to kill if it was able to shock you in the right place.

 

nyroc, the tingle is common when touching a hot conductor, it is when you ground out to a conductive material when the pain really starts. i am not trying to bust your chops or anything like that but in my last reply some of that was factual info. and some was an attempt at having a sense of humor. when voltage jumps through the air this is known as "arc" somewhat comparable to arc welding, same principle yet in a more controlled situation. i guess the point of all this is, it is amazing to get 200 amps from a 12volt battery. when the current cuts through your heart, like if you have your hand on the hot conductor and your other hand or arm,elbow on another conductor and the current crosses your heart, that is what kills you. a flourecent light uses a ballast that bumps 120volts up to 600 or more volts depending on the gas just to ignite. 600 volts would sting pretty good but with minimum current not likely to kill you.
later sparx

 

If you take a second to think about it, 200 amps flowing into an ATV winch isn't very spectacular or amazing. It is because of the low voltage, it isn't a whole lot of power. Power=Volts*Amps, and also Power=resistance time the square of amps. That is all high school stuff.

At 12 volts, 200 amps provides 2400 watts. That equates to 3.2 horsepower of electricity. If the motor was 94% efficient (which it surely isn't) it would provide 3 horsepower at that current. I don't know the horspower of the motor, but the final power output of the winch including mechanical losses is .54 horsepower (calculated from 2500lb pull at 7.1 feet per minute). I use mathcad for easy units conversion, it would take you a lot longer to follow this on a calculator.

Early automotive desingers used 6volt systems because it is safe and made batteries simpler (only 3 cells). Imagine needing 1000 amps just to start your volkswagon. If you ever saw a 6 volt system on a car, you would notice that the wires and fuses are all a lot bigger than the equivalent 12volt car (the 6volt systems didn't work nearly as well either). The automotive industry migrated away from 6volt systems due to their need for larger wires and also due to problems associated with electrical resistance caused normal corrosion of electrical contacts and connections. 12volts seems to be a happy medium between being safe and less problems.