I recently purchased a polaris for plowing my drive. there was a winch already on and i purchased a plow. while using the plow the first time, after 6 or so passes and moving the blade up and down, my battery was completly dead. when i ride w/o using winch battery does not go dead. the winch has power wires only, they go to switch and then to battery. there is nothing inbetween. does this seem right? am i missing a relay or something??

 

your missing the solnoide in between. sounds like a hack job was done unless it is some way off brand or home made. i m guessing but the scramble charging system most likely only puts out around 300 watts of juice and wouldnt be able to stand up to alot of winch use w/out killing the battery i would think. if you have a volt meter check the output of the battery w/ it running and reved up some to see the out put. should be around 14 volts.

 

If it has the large about 3" turn switch it does not use a relay as the switch does the in / out. Ditto on fairly low charging system output & checking the batt voltage. May also have a weak battery.

 

i will check the battery out, the date stamp on the battery is 02/2007. the switch for the winch is a large yellow switch, about 3 inches long i quess.
would low battery charge make my awd stop working. after some plowing and running the winch a few times, the awd light goes out and awd stops working, i have no idea how the awd system works.

 

I'd probably start with putting the battery on a charger overnight and maybe get a battery tender. I put mine on for a charge after every time I plow. I go through alot of batteries, The charging systems are small and running too many amps will draw the battery down. I usually run fairly low RPM and that doesn't help either. In my opinion it's not that unusual. I'll sometimes need to run the machine up the road if the lights start to dim to get some juice in the battery
Maybe a fresh battery and keep it topped up.
I run two winches constantly a thumb warmer and a rear plow light , oh head lights as well. That's al ot of work for that little battery.
Deerkiller

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: gohawksgo

i will check the battery out, the date stamp on the battery is 02/2007. the switch for the winch is a large yellow switch, about 3 inches long i quess.

would low battery charge make my awd stop working. after some plowing and running the winch a few times, the awd light goes out and awd stops working, i have no idea how the awd system works.</end quote></div>

i would guess yes if you didnt have enough voltage that your awd might stop working as it needs a current to kep it engaged. imo.

 

I recently had to replce my factory battery it was junk after the first month of just riding I have had the atv for not quite a yr and only have 150 miles on it and the battery would not hold a charge for more then a day.My dealer wanted to sell me another but it was $150 I bought one at autozone for $85 it is a sealed battery and it has the same part #I would check your voltage output but if it is polaris it is prolly just junk like mine.Mine hade the same date as yours.I did wonder if the 3 headlight mod could have in some way caused this.Mine is the Deluxe version with the winch but the only time I use the winch is to tie it to the trailer.

 

what brand winch is this? make sure there isnt any exposes wires/cables rubbing on bare metal. if its a warn winch w/ the big grey **** it HAS to have a soinoide. how may cables does it have going or coming from the switch.

 

Every winch I had used a solenoid, or a heavy-duty contactor which does the same thing. Even the old Warn winches with the big rotary **** had solenoids. The difference between the big **** and a little rocker switch is that the **** has big wires to handle full vehicle current, and a rocker has small wires to handle a low voltage which operates the contactor.

P.S. The solenoid keeps any power from getting to the winch if the key is turned off. Without a solenoid in the system there may be a voltage drain even when everything is turned off.