I spent the weekend trying to wire up an in cab winch control, but I am a lost as to why its not working. I followed the "EXACT" instructions as given in the September Wire article on "In Cab Winch Control" as well as the details off the Jeep link in that article. http://www.outdoorwire.com/4x4/tech/winch/remote/


The winch is a Warn HS9500i. I spliced into the green wire(in) the black wire out(out) and directly connected the white wire to the power terminal in the winch as per the instructions. All connections are solid and the wiring is correct as the winch works perfectly with the supplied Warn Remote, and I checked the connections in the winch with a voltmeter to make sure the wires(green & black) were receiving power when given the correct switch signal. The one "Different" thing about this the HS9500i is that it has a 5 pin connector as does the supplied remote, whereas both articles only referred to a 3 pin connection. The jeep article said that the 5 pin connector world be wired the same because the 2 extra pins serve no purpose except maybe to add strength to the connection. I believe this may be "INCORRECT" as the 2 pins have wires coming off them in the winch. I can only assume these two connections complete the circuit some how because for example when I hook the remote up and test the green wire(in spliced area) the voltmeter reads positive and the winch winds "IN" as would be expected , but when I supply direct power to the splice via a hot wire or my in cab switch, the winch does nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated before I fry this thing. TIA

Inquiring minds want to know? Does anyone have suggestions. I have been thinking about the same mod so I look forward to answers to the questions.

Course another option is just get the winch remote. opperate winch from inside. outside... behind.... front... underneath... under ur gf... opps... sorry.. shhhhhhhh gurl.... or he will get mad.... from 50 feet away... etc.

I'm by NO means an electrical engineer, nor do I possess any electrical skills beyond the fact that I haven't electricuted myself or anyone else in the few electrical projects I've done in my life, BUT.....


I think your answer may be found in finding out whether or not your winch motor has a permanent magnet or an electro-magnet. The two have to be wired up differently. I wish I could help further, but it's at least a starting spot.

I'm sort of in the same boat. I bought a winch that is a hodge-podge of different wiring harnesses and winch parts, many wires are cut or in need of replacement and I don't know where to begin. I may try to emulate the wiring diagram in that website and try it out.

Matt

I had the same problem and ended up just plugging in my spare controler normaly with some diastolic grease and ran a couple wraps of electirical tape around the conection then running the wirethrew the grill and firewall then cutting the handle off and mounting the switch in the dash i ran thsi for over 2 years with out any problems.Half assed sor sure but it worked and it was easy:flipoff2:

Trailhawg

Your winch uses a five wire control system which controls both the power and ground for the winch solenoids. The three wire used white(power), green(direction 1), and black(direction 2). The two other wires (red and brown if I remember) are a simple ground loop. So you can do is either loop the two wire together at the winch (please note that Warn added the ground loop as a safety feature that you will bypass by doing this), or run the wires to your switch (you will need a six pin switch) and wire them so that the circuit is completed when the switch is in either on position. You will need to not skimp on the wire size, as this being a loop circuirt the current is making two trips back and forth to the switch, so if too much resistance is built up your solenoids will not fire.

Here's a wiring diagram for you from Warn....

http://www.jeepclub.co.uk/articles/winchrefurb2/wires.jpg

I used a 6 terminal milspec switch I got from OnboardAir.com. Here's the diagram I went with to do my HS9500i:

http://www.dehesa4x4.com/bkilby/temp/winch-switches.gif

Paul

Paul, I found the brown and black wires reversed on the far left solenoid on my winch. Once I took that into account, the mod worked. Thanks for the info.

I just dug this post up on a search...what guage wire should I use to do this? Also what kind of connectors do i need?

Thanks,
Steve

from the writeup on 4x4wire...

20 feet of 3 strand, 16 gage wire (orange extension cord wire works great for this application)


http://www.outdoorwire.com/content/4x4/tech/winch/remote/wiring.jpg

Thank You all for your help on this one. It all works now with the 2 added wires.

If you have a 5 pin connector you cannot use a standard extension cord as it is only a 3 wire cord, unless you want a ghetto rig up that has 2 wires coming out of it. I mean the reason we are going through all this trouble is to have a clean professional looking hookup right. You will have to go to a hardware store and get a 5 wire cord and a 5 pin connector harness for your quick disconnect. I couldnt locate a 5 pin, so I just used a 6 pin harness I found at Thrifty Auto. I also just bought another Warn Remote and cut it, wired it to the quick diconnect and used it as my in cab. I really like that setup as the remote sits wedged between my seat and my center console. Its out of the way but the extra 2 feet of chord allows me to use the remote in cab in varying positions like when I get "Tippppay". I then took the cut off end of the Winch remote(part that plugs into winch) and wired it to the same 6 pin disconnect so that I can use my in cab as an out of cab remote should my other remote fail or whatever. In any case, I think its imperative that you use a on off switch that controls power to the in cab remote. I cant tell you how many times I have had people(usually women;) pick up my remote and push on it saying, "What does this do?". Kids are the worse, and hell I bump into the remote at times too. Thank You all.

Has anybody bypassed the safety and run a three 3 prong switch with an M8000. It may just be because I am tired, but I am having trouble figuring out how to complete the ground loop at the selonoid (sp.) I have run the hot lead to a safety on-off swith that is lit so I know when its on and then from there to the center of the momentary on-off-momentary on switch. Then I ran a lead from the green out to one prong on the momentary switch. Then a lead from another selonoid to the last prong on the momentary switch.

This diagram is what I used to decide what pin on the the selonoids to connect to:
http://www.4x4wire.com/tech/winch/remote/schematic2.jpg

Now I read that I need to "complete the loop" and ground out something. Just not sure what. I tried a few things, but I'm not an electrical guru.

I was hoping somebody had done this on an M8000 or any warn winch with a 5 lead remote and a 4 selonoid set up that is not in line.

Having controls at the winch works to.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e333/knuckelhead/winchcover2.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e333/knuckelhead/tjwinch.jpg
These are powered at the master switch in the cab…
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e333/knuckelhead/switchtj.jpg

Figured it out myself. Heres how:

I read that the plug in remotes ground as well as send 12v power to the selonoids. After trying to ground out the wires to the 12v(-) to the battery and failure, I went looking for how the remote did it. There is a red wire coming off the remote that I followed to a bolt on the selonoid bracket. Then I followed the brown wire which leads to one of the inside 4 selonoid contacts. When I say inside I mean there are 4 small posts that are on the outer edges which are the positive leads and then there are 3 small posts that are on the inner edges that are (-) posts. I connected a wire to one of the inner posts and ran it to a bolt on the bottom of the selonoid bracket.
Then I used the same instructions as the 3 wire remotes use. I liked the idea of using an old extension cord since I would have black, white, and green leads and could match them up to the same colors on the selonoid.

I used a lit on-off switch to brake the positive lead and used a momentary on-off-momentary on switch for the winch controls. Now it works great!! I also replugged the remote to make sure I did not effect its funtionability.

I DO NOT recommend this way for anybody else since I bypassed the safety (-) lead designed by warn. but since the old 3 pin connectors did not have this safety I felt for myself that this was not a bad idea.
Below is the wire diagram I used for the 3 wires other than the ground.
http://www.4x4wire.com/tech/winch/remote/schematic2.jpg