Food for thought !
Submitted: Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 10:18
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Frank
Hi,
Just a warning for those of us with
winches on our 4x4s. How many people have isolation switches on their
winches.
Most people mount the solenoid box on the front of their bull bars so they can access the plug for the remote control. Most are wired direct to the battery, so they will work anytime you plug in the remote control cable. All easily accessed.
Think about this.
I was reading an article from the states, where
young hoods walk up to a vehicle in a car park. They manually unlock the winch, they run it over the top of the vehicle and attach the hook to the rear tow bar. A short wire loop is then pushed into the plug socket on the solenoid box. The winch starts to run. The thugs then have time to walk away before the slack is taken up. After a few minutes, your vehicle starts to cut itself in half.
Another thing is they can hook the winch up to another car or tree and watch your 4x4 screech across the car park or street for the length of the cable.
Worth thinking about and installing an under bonnet winch isolater. I have.
Regards
Frank.
Reply By: Member - Bradley- Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 10:41
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 10:41
It also happens here Frank, The best set up i have seen is having the solenoid box up high in the engine bay with an isolator switch as
well so its all out of the mud and water, and then having the control harness and plug routed into the cabin with the plug housing mounted on the lower dash on the drivers side, this way you can easily operate the winch from the drivers
seat or from outside and no-one can mess with your machine. There are too many bored scumbags who can't keep their hands to themselves unfortunately.......BradLife is short- but there's always time for a yarda.
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Reply By: GUPatrol - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 10:53
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 10:53
The new Warn
winches have a safeguard against this problem.
You can no longer jump two wires, you need at least three jumped and one of the is earth.
Will
AnswerID:
35789
Reply By: Tony - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 11:57
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 11:57
Gee PTO looks like the way to go, cause it wont be long before the buggers work out the new wiring system.
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Follow Up By: Duke-Attie - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 13:42
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 13:42
What if you have a stalled vehicle?
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Reply By: Outnabout David (SA) - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 12:47
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 12:47
No doubt it has happened and could happened but I would be a very rich man if I got $1 for every one that I have heard off. Be honest now how many do you know of personnally. ie your vehicle, your best freinds and that you have seen with your own eyes.
However there is cgood reason to locate solenoids up high or isolators either to keep out water and salt, mus etc.
I put an isolator on mine because I was washing the car one day bumped the cables and got massive shorting out. After a lot of corrogated driving the bracket holding the solenoids had broken and the main power lead was shorting on the body of the solenoid box. Also a lot of winch cables I see rub on bull bars etc.
So I guess what I am saying is don't get paranoid about the vandals worry about something that is more likely to happen.We have so little time to enjoy our land
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Reply By: Member - Jack - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 14:12
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 14:12
Saw two such occurrences in
Cairns about 18 months ago. Squashed the roof down completely. These happened in the same
carpark, and within 24 hours of each other.
JackNo trees were harmed in the making or sending of this message. However a
great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
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Reply By: Drifter007 - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 14:47
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 14:47
Hi
I have an Ox Winch fitted to my GU with the connector/solenoid box mounted behind the bullbar. The control cable has a 4 pin round plug with a small notch (read very small) to locate it, sometimes when plugging the cable in I have accidently shorted the terminals and started the winch. It usually starts in rewind and can make it very hard to unlock the winch. I shall be fitting an isolator for this reason.
Cheers
Drifter007
AnswerID:
35808
Reply By: wazza - Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 17:56
Friday, Oct 31, 2003 at 17:56
I disconnect mine on the +ve side of the battery under the bonnet. Also stops the lead earthing out when (if) it is crushed in a frontal impact. Hook it up again when I do the oil, water, etc checks before 4wding. Disconnect again at the end of the day when airing up the tyres or when I get
home. Best of all, doesn't cost a cent.
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