got winch gonna plan stuff...q's

[RootBreaker]

Ok so my patriot 15k ramsey came in....
really impressed with the beefyness... no one is gonna ask me... Where is the beef!!!!!

anyhow few q's

1.
what is the farthest distance from the battery would you put the winch?
I am planning on mounting the winch under my bed.
to start planning this I installed a drivers side second battery tray. mounted the battery too.... got my wires to do a diesel parallel setup (for now) 2 gauge wire (could have got the 4 gauge but figured why not.....

so from my battery to where I want to put the winch is going to be farther than 6 foot to which is what length wire they give you with the winch....

2.
once winch is mounted I realize I have another delema....
I realized that the electronics are not sealed as the cover merely just sits there.... do the electronics NEED to be kept dry and clean? If so I was looking at the pdf's on their site..... I am going to have to re-locate the electronics.... thus extending those cables 2'.... think there would be any problems with that? I believe those relays are just for in and out remote functions and minor voltage stuff....... am I missing something?

3.
Mount winch under the bed... so do you think the 8' distance from the winch (mounted under bed near cab) and roller fairlead mounted in the bumper is too far of a distance? if I had to make a non straight pull.. do you think that would put too much stress on the rear part of my frame? my neighbor brought that up and got me thinking... may need to mount it closer to the back of the truck????

thanks for the input....

 

[bugspray]

I would imagine 2 guage cable an extra couple feet wouldn't be that big of a deal. I believe people run the 2 guage or so quick disconnect for the receiver hitch mount setup. I would spend the $$$ and buy the 00 welding cables (mine cost me about $45) to run. It'll keep the winch cooler and running better.

As far as the electronics being exposed, I couldn't see them selling a product doomed from the get go. My M15000 is probably the same way, and no problems yet. If you are worried about it, maybe spray some of the stuff for protecting your battery terminals .

I don't know about the stress(s) from mid-frame, but I've seen someone get in a pickle and need to get pulled sideways up a hill. There wasn't ever any noticeable damage from that.

 

[Muddytazz]

We did something similar to my dads old '58 2.5 ton 18ft flatbed farm truck. We mounted a 8274 under the deck between the frame rails right behind the rear axle. Ran new LONGER cable clear up to the front original battery area under the hood and used cable about the size of a nickel(can't remember the gauge tho...maybe 0 gauge?). Never had a problem with it bogging down or draining the battery.



Anyways, as far as coating the electronics go, we did something to a buddies K20. He mounted a M15000 under the bed of his and left the control pack mounted to the motor. Goto the autoparts house and buy a couple (I think we used 3)cans of that rubberized undercoating spray for undercoating the bottom side of vehicles. Completely spray the control pack, motor and part of the drum support that the motor is bolted too(to seal the area where the motor bolts up). Once everything is all dry, carefully cut a slit around the cover for the remote so you can still use that. We did his about 8 yrs around and its been submerged in rivers, mudbogs and the likes many of times and it still works perfectly. He did just last yr spray another cans worth on it again just as an extra added piece of mind tho. Just a thought.

 

[Zeus33rd]

As far as the wiring goes...I bought 40' of 2/0 welding cable for $40 at the local Air Gas dealer. $13 for the crimp tool and $10 in copper lugs for the ends. Made all my cables that way. No worrying about cable size at all.