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winch install question about attaching cables to battery

TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Full disclosure: this is my first time installing a winch.

Today I was finally able to clean the corrosion off my battery terminals, so now I'm ready to complete the installation of my winch. I had envisioned completely removing the nuts from the battery connections, sliding on the winch cables, then reinstalling the nuts and tightening them down. Easy, right? Well, I can't do that. The taper of the nuts, combined with the shape of the winch cable ends, results in not being able to create a solid, snug, flush connection for either cable.

I guess what I need to do is find another set of nuts that will fit my battery terminals, then install the winch cables between these two nuts. Is this correct? And should I also install some sort of lock washers in there, are would those not be needed?

BTW: my battery only has top posts, and my terminals are OEM (meaning they don't have any fancy provisions for bolting on other items).

What should I do here?
 
UNSTUCK

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
If the bolt going through the cable terminal is long enough to add the winch cable terminal and another nut, do that. If not, get a longer bolt so you can do that. You really want to separate the two connections.
 
R

rholbrook

Well-Known Member
Location
Kaysville, Ut
Make sure that anywhere that your cables go through the grill or where ever you route it that you somehow protect the wire so it does not wear through to bare wire. It can cause you lots of problems.
 
Spork

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
Location
Saratoga Springs, UT
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
UNSTUCK said:
If the bolt going through the cable terminal is long enough to add the winch cable terminal and another nut, do that.
Click to expand...

This seemed like the best approach, and the bolts are long enough to accommodate this setup. I fished around my random collections of nuts and bolts until I found two matching nuts of the correct size. As a bonus, one side of each nut has an integrated washer/flare shape, which (in my mind) will help them form a better connection.

Here is what I ended up with:

batterm1.jpg


batterm2.jpg


rholbrook said:
Make sure that anywhere that your cables go through the grill or where ever you route it that you somehow protect the wire so it does not wear through to bare wire.
Click to expand...

No doubt. Thanks to my body lift, it was easy for me to route both cables under the grille and around the radiator. They are situated such that they don't actually touch the radiator at all, and they are safely away from any moving parts. The cables also do not rest against any sharp edges, so I think I did pretty well here.

Warn was kind enough to install convoluted tubing on the positive cable. This covered almost the entire cable; there was only about 8" or so at the terminal end which wasn't covered. Deciding I can't overdo the safety aspect of this part of the install, I went through my garage and found a matching spare chunk of tubing to install over the remaining part of the cable. (You can see that in the first photo above; my piece is a little dirty compared to the shiny new one provided by Warn.)

The negative cable had no tubing on it at all. I did install another 8" chunk onto that cable at the part where it hovers over the edge of the battery tray even though it doesn't actually touch that edge--you know, just in case.

Once all that was done, I pre-tensioned the cable. Now the winch is finally ready to be used. :)
 
gijohn40

gijohn40

too poor to wheel... :(
Location
Layton, Utah
now you need to put some stuff on your terminals to keep them from corroding again... you can use a few different things but do it fast!

We need to get out and compare winches...
 
thenag

thenag

Registered User
Location
Kearns
rholbrook said:
Make sure that anywhere that your cables go through the grill or where ever you route it that you somehow protect the wire so it does not wear through to bare wire. It can cause you lots of problems.
Click to expand...

I'll share my story.

I had the engine out of the bronco for some reason and was putting it all back together I turned on my battery switch and smoke started coming out the main wiring bundle. (not near the short)

made me glad I had one of these to kill the batteries
http://www.racereadyproducts.com/battery-switches/cole-hersee-dual-battery-master-switch/

and I emptied my fire extinguisher on it after turning off the batteries, I couldn't imagine trying to quickly un-bolt two battery terminals while smoke was pouring out of my bronco. I had my winch wired to the dual battery switch.

Does anybody run any kind of fuse or circuit breaker, I know you can get some high amp stuff but it would also suck because it would blow when you need it most.

(this is on my mind since I am thinking of putting my commercial grade wrecker winch that was on my bronco on the xj...)

I also made all my own battery cables out of welding cable and these
http://www.remybattery.com/Straight-Terminal-C1460.aspx

Thanks

Nathan
 
UNSTUCK

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
It was nice that you had the cut off switch. You wouldn't want to waist the time to unbolt one of the terminals. Only one would need to be disconnected to brake the circuit though. I make sure to have a pair of cable cutters near by.
 
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