I have an 02 650 Prairie. I picked up a winch that I am installing. The instructuctions state there is a red wire coming from the winch switch that is to be connected to a wire that is only hot when the key is on. The instructions just say to find a wire. I am a little concerned about randomly selecting a wire. Anyone have a wire recommendation? When I installed the winch I did see two wires on top of the radiator that are in a pouch with a tie strap around them. One looked like it was brown with a yellow strip. I have not opened the pouch so not sure if wires are just capped or connected, but is one of those wires a possibility?

 

On my Brute I used a test light to find one from the key switch, wire turned out to be a brown one. Not sure where the key switch is located on your Prairie, but it is probably easy to get to the wiring.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was able to follow the wires that came out of the switch. I found that there were three (brown, white, light blue). I don't have a meeter to check the wires and not used one before -- prob good time to learn. Thanks for the reply. Can you confirm its the brown? If not, I will see if a neighbor has a meter and can help.

 

On mine, the brown was on with the switch, white was a constant and the other a ground, but I believe it was yellow or black. I'd say try the brown. A test light is a really handy thing to have in the shop. They're very cheap too. No need for a meter for this.

 

Let me know if you have not found what you are looking for. I have an 02 Prairie and if you need I can go check the color and location I tied into my key switch. If I remember correctly I tied in through the access panel up front under the handlebars. Let me know and I can go out and check it out if needed.

 

If you would that would be very helpful. I found the switch wires thru the front access door under the handle bars.

 

Thanks for your help in wiring my winch. I purchased a test light and was hunting around for a hot wire when I found a wire not connected to anthing but was tapped to other wires at the base of the handle bars (lucky I found it as it was not very visable). Using my test light I found it to be connected to the key. Turns out it is the same color wire as one of the wires that was in the pouch I found at the top of the radiator. I suspect it to is a switch controlled aux wire. It has a connector on the wire so I just need to purchase the matching connector and good to go. Rest of the winch install was time consuming but pretty straight forward.