Printer Friendly Forum Posts - winch fuse setup amp draw

My winch switch crapped out, since I hated the way the original switch was designed I am building a new remote switch using a 15' remote and two SPDT relays (basic 'up'/'down' reversible switch) and I wanted to double check on the amp draw.

I've never seen the fuse setup like they have on these winches. Here is a basic MSpaint pic to show what I'm working with - basically there are two fuse boxes that bridge the metal plates (one side of the plate (top plate in the pic) connects directly to positive battery terminal, while the bottom plate is the 12v supply line to the winch).

posted_image

Can someone set me straight on this fuse setup? Basically I've never seen two fuses bridged like this. On one of the little fuse boxes it is labeled as 40A, so I am assuming that there are TWO 40 amp fuses that bridge the connection between the battery terminal and the supplying line to the winch. However, if you have two 40A fuses setup like this, is the total fuse protection 80A? I can't find any identifying marks on the actual winch motor to say what the amp draw is (and it is currently about 3 hours away).

Again I am guessing, but it seems reasonable that the amp draw from a winch is closer to 80A, rather than the labeled 40A; but I just wanted to double check before I setup my two relays:

Hence the question I am trying to answer - do I need 80A relays or 40A relays to setup my reversible switch?

Thanks much in advance!

What is the capacity of the wench? Is it on a truck or a 4 wheeler? If it is on a truck, i would think that it needs way more than 80 amps worth of fusing. But that is just a guess. Nevermind it has to be on a 4 wheeler a Warn winch polls 70 amps of current with NO LOAD, that is just to wire the cable back in. I do not know where you can find some 80 amp SPDT relays, but you are going to need 2 of them.

Yes 2 40 amp fuses set up as they are in the picture will yield an 80 amp fuse.