Winch power cables

I finished fitting my winch today by wiring it up - works as designed. No worries.
I have some concerns though and that is to do with the power cables running direct from the battery. I fitted "BS -0" cables which are bloody big and capable of carrying a large amount of current. I have fitted them with grommets where they pass through metal apertures and fixed them to the bar and themselves with zip ties no further apart than 150mm to prevent movement and chaffing. I am worried that if something were to wear through or come loose then it would be possible to create the mother of all dead shorts and at least kill the battery and at worst disable the vehicle completely or a fire.
I am considering fitting some sort of disconnect to the +'ve lead so that it will only be live for the times that the winch will be required.
So.......typical of all my questions........has anybody else done this? What did you use that would cope with the amperage?

You could, for peace of mind, install a high-current fuse near the battery. Farnell is a good distributor of these things in Australia, here's a link to one fuse you might consider: ANL 400A Industrial Fuse ... these are also used in marine applications. Can't see why it won't be suitable here.

Thanks Tony but under load a winch can spike up to 700 Amp and so this might render it useless (?) correct me if I'm wrong.
Have been a googling and decided that it might be best to fit an isolation switch in line near to the battery instead of a disconnect.



Just a little dubious about having such a big live cable attached to the front of the vehicle

That 400A fuse probably won't blow until it tries to pass a lot more current. Might be best to get a sparky to give the exact figures - I had read somewhere that these things will allow much higher transient currents.

There are 700A fuses, but the one I found had a $243 ex GST price tag on it.

Then again, you have to consider what the cost of NOT having that fuse there could be.

Old.Tony said:

Then again, you have to consider what the cost of NOT having that fuse there could be.

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Yep definitely considered that when this dumbarse blew the side out of a 13mm ring spanner when touching it from live to ground when checking all connections were tight.
Have I mentioned I'm accident prone?

I know of a few people out there who have melted isolator switches installed in winch power cables. The typical kind (with a big red plastic key) just don't have the load rating.

Also worth considering - the thousands upon thousands of vehicles out there running around every day, winch fitted, not a worry in the world.

My advice - if you are worried about it, disconnect the power cable from the battery. Don't use a switch, a fuse, a circuit breaker etc - they cause more problems than they are worth.

Are the cables in that corrugated plastic sheathing? May help mitigate the chances of an earth.

ants_oz said:

Also worth considering - the thousands upon thousands of vehicles out there running around every day, winch fitted, not a worry in the world.

My advice - if you are worried about it, disconnect the power cable from the battery. Don't use a switch, a fuse, a circuit breaker etc - they cause more problems than they are worth.

Click to expand...

You are right - but if it was going to happen it would happen to me. I am Schleprock.
An 8mm wingnut on the terminal might be the best way out

How about running the wire through some flexible conduit that electricians use.