The guy at Superwinch says they are very sealed (extremely good customer service with them) but I am on my third one- they keep getting wet inside (in the winter they freeze up).

Mine is mounted next to my battery, where my dealer installed it. I realize that this is in direct spray from the tires, and is often submerged when I'm riding in the summer.

I was thinking of getting a project box from RadioShack to mount this new box in. Are they supposed to be 100% waterproof?

Ty

 

I've never had a problem with the standard style one for my warn 2000 lb winch, you could try sealing any openings with silicone and coating all electrical connections with di-electric grease.

 

I have the new one in my hand, and the seam between the two halves is already full of sealant, it looks to be 100% sealed like the guy says. But every winter, my solenoid freezes up because it has water in it. I'm thinking a waterproof box may be the way to go.

 

"Waterproof" is sort of like "bulletproof". Get a bigger bullet and things fly apart. Same way with water resistant electrical devices. A "waterproof" box may help but you will still have leakage problems where the wires enter and around the lid and mounting bolts.

You might consider the silicone sealer suggested by another poster. Putting a quarter inch of this stuff over the entire device, including the wire terminals, is about as water resistant as you can get. Haven't tried this on my quad but it works on my boat to stop saltwater problems.

 

Maybe I'll silicone seal it, then put it in a project box and seal that up.

I have to commend Supewinch -- out of warranty, they've sent me a winch cable (kinked my first one, totally my fault) and this is the third solenoid (dealer installed 1st one wrong, and the second one just froze up on me). All at no cost to me, no questions asked. Even though I've had some problems with the contactors, their service is amazing. The guy I talked with on email sent me his number and extension, I called him Tuesday night with my problem and my new solenoid was at my door when I got home this afternoon.

 

Good to hear about the service from Superwinch. Thanks for passing that along.

 

That's refreshing to hear that a company takes that good care of its customers. I just got my '05 Sportsman 400 with warn winch and while I hope to have no problems at all, in the even that I do, I hope to have the excellent service that you got.

 

I just had an 05 prewired winch installed on our 500-- looking at the solenoid, it is mounted up above a protective bracket and is in a rubber boot.

There's an idea. On RC cars, people often take balloons and stretch them around the sensitive electronics to water and steam proof them. Maybe I can do something similar with my new solenoid. I'm not going to install it until I have a good plan on how to protect it.