Switch replacement for ATV winch

I went for a 4 wheeler ride yesterday with a younger cousin, I was the only one to ride my machine he was on his grandfather's machine. I stepped outside today only to notice that my winch control box was ripped off, I didn't notice it yesterday while I was riding, the only thing left is the wires hanging down.

I was wondering if I could wire a DPDT switch in place of the control box, and wire it in the same fashion that I did for my tilt and trim for my boat. It has the + and - wires coming from the battery to the control then the wires go from the control to the winch. Being the control is missing now I have no idea on how it was wired and what type of switches were in it, it did have to push button switches.

If I can get a DPDT switch to work it would be easy to mount it somewhere on the 4 wheeler.

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

In short yes it can be done. Did the pendent switches work the winch motor or relays? How many wires do ya have? 3? 4? 5? If relays no problem, if it ran the winch motor, then the switch you use will need to be sized for the job. (rated for DC voltage/amperage)

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

Depends on the type of winch..... Warn sells replacement switches and instead of re-inventing the wheel I would go with a stock one. Ebay sometimes has the switches.

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

rwise said:

In short yes it can be done. Did the pendent switches work the winch motor or relays? How many wires do ya have? 3? 4? 5? If relays no problem, if it ran the winch motor, then the switch you use will need to be sized for the job. (rated for DC voltage/amperage)

Click to expand...

It has 2 wires 1 positive and 1 negative coming from the battery to the switch box, then 2 wires leaving the switch box to the winch. So the 2 wires went from the switch box directly to the winch motor. I have a motor reversing solenoid that is no longer being used, but I would half to take it out of my boat. I also have a SPDT switch laying around.

Bob_VT said:

Depends on the type of winch..... Warn sells replacement switches and instead of re-inventing the wheel I would go with a stock one. Ebay sometimes has the switches.

Click to expand...

This is supposed to be a colemun winch, didn't even know they had a colemun winch until I bought this one a good while back. The first owner of it was going to put it on a SUV or a Truck or something like that but realized it was way to small. The reason I thought I would change this is because I got tired of not having a place to hang the controls, and always having the wires/controls in the way. As you can see I learned my lesson on not having a place to hang the controls.

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

Ayuh,....

A toggle switch will Never handle the Ampereage....

You need something like this,..
A current reversing contact relay... This 1 is rated at 100amps..

And,...
It can be found Here...

Other wise,.. You could build your own using Ford style starter relays...

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

Bond-o said:

Ayuh,....

A toggle switch will Never handle the Ampereage....

You need something like this,..
A current reversing contact relay... This 1 is rated at 100amps..

And,...
It can be found Here...

Other wise,.. You could build your own using Ford style starter relays...

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I have installed on my boat, I was using it for the electric steering project on the one trolling motor I had on there. I used the trolling motor with the electric steering for a while but I ended up putting another foot controled trolling motor on and doing away with the other project. I bought it from the same website, which they did pretty good on the shipping. I don't know if I'll ever buy another solenoid like that though, I only had to take this one apart 3 times to fix it, 1st time I had to take it apart was right after I bought it.

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

Ayuh,...

I was lookin' for the Easy way for ya,...

There's Always the Build it Yourself solution...

Other wise,.. You could build your own using Ford style starter relays...

Click to expand...

Re: Switch replacement for ATV winch

Bond-o said:

Ayuh,...

I was lookin' for the Easy way for ya,...

There's Always the Build it Yourself solution...
Other wise,.. You could build your own using Ford style starter relays...

Click to expand...

Easy way my a** . I would probably have that so screwed up lol, doesn't take much to boggle my mind now a days, must have to much on it :redface:.

Thanks for all the help everybody, I think I might be able to take it from here now. Just got to make the time to fix it, let's see rain today and tomorrow, fishing on Monday , maybe tuesday I can tackle it, but it is supposed to rain again .