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| | Electric Winch Solenoids | |
| | Author | Message |
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Jas Admin
Posts : 1285 Join date : 2010-12-30
| Subject: Electric Winch Solenoids Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:33 am | |
| There was a small local 4x4 show in Wiltshire that I saw as I was driving in the area so I popped in to have a look.
One of the stands that caught my attention was the winch stand. Mainly because I would like one.
Due to many people I could not ask the stand attendant my question.
Why do different sized and types of winches have a different number of solenoids, and what are their purpose? One winch had 1, and there was another winch that had 4 solenoids. The brands were, Superwinch, champion Winch and Warn Winch.
If you know, let me know.
TJ | |
| | | Assassin Terrain Expert
Posts : 1227 Join date : 2010-12-27
| Subject: Re: Electric Winch Solenoids Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:48 am | |
| An interesting question and one with many answers, to a large extent it comes down to costs and reliability.
Winch motors are DC electrical motor powered, this means they have two wires to power them, in a single solenoid type it will have a central off position, once it is powered one way it will basically rock one way and connect both the positive and negative feeds through two sets of contacts internally, lets assume this is power out. If it is powered the other way, power in, the solenoid rocks the other way and connects two more sets of contacts, these are cross linked internally so the positive and negative contacts are the opposite way round and the motor goes in reverse.
These one piece rocking types are built for cheapness and not reliability and it you get a problem you are stuck.
With four individual solenoids you have a single acting solenoid, its either open and not working or closed and making contact and the winch is running, basically they only work on one plane and its only function is to open or close the contacts of an individual wire. Four solenoid models are flexible and reliable, if you have an issue winching in or out and you have a solenoid fault you identify the faulty unit and swap it for one of the others, most of the time you will use a winch for pulling and you can set it to freewheel for pulling rope out manually, so getting you out of the mire. | |
| | | Jas Admin
Posts : 1285 Join date : 2010-12-30
| Subject: Re: Electric Winch Solenoids Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:02 pm | |
| Thanks.
As I mentioned above the 1, 2 and 4 solenoids found in most of the winches looked like a small tin version of a fuel filter.
There were a few more pricey select models of Super-winch and Warn that had only one Solenoid in it. - But this solenoid was square shaped and was covered in a thick black polyurethane/plastic type casing, with several ports and pins on the exterior.
Would this be a new design? Or is it a water tight version of a solenoid, for those frequently submerging the winch?
Jas | |
| | | Assassin Terrain Expert
Posts : 1227 Join date : 2010-12-27
| Subject: Re: Electric Winch Solenoids Mon Oct 24, 2011 12:27 pm | |
| Basically its cheapness, almost none of them really come as watertight. | |
| | | Jas Admin
Posts : 1285 Join date : 2010-12-30
| Subject: Re: Electric Winch Solenoids Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:11 am | |
| This is the one from the Superwinchs. Instead of the 4 old round style tin versions that look like fuel filters they replaced then with 1x of these: Supposedly making the winch able to operate for long periods of time in water..... ??? TJ | |
| | | 4x4overlander Just got AT's
Posts : 202 Join date : 2010-12-26
| Subject: Re: Electric Winch Solenoids Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:51 pm | |
| Winch solenoid packs on our main motor is set up high in engine bay or on top of wheel arch in back of motor. That way we do not tend to dunk the solenoid pack in water.
Brendan | |
| | | Assassin Terrain Expert
Posts : 1227 Join date : 2010-12-27
| Subject: Re: Electric Winch Solenoids Sat Nov 05, 2011 1:53 pm | |
| As Brendan says, remote solonoids are mounted up high to protect them, many packs are "water resistant" and not waterproof, which is the major difference. Waterproof ones are available, but at a huge premium and are generally marine items which carry a sufficiently high rating for electric winches. | |
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