I'm very early in my boat electrics education and have a question for sparkier boaties.

I have run the positive cable to the winch from the battery selector (starter battery) and the negative back to the negative terminal of the starter battery. It works, but does anyone know if this configuration is okay? Should the negative from the winch be run straight to the ground on the engine, even if only to reduce the length of the run?

Also, some people recommend using the house battery and others the starter battery. Logic tells me to use the starter battery with the engine running, then run the engine for 'a while' after using the winch. Any knowledge on this?

When testing the winch I ran 30m of line and 30m of chain through the winch with a little resistance (from bow anchor locker, around vertical tube on pullpit and into winch). After this the winch motor was quite warm (not hot, as such) to the touch, as was the first inch or so of the negative cable coming from the winch motor. There was also a slight 'electric smell' (sort of like that AFX car smell but not exactly) detectable at close proximity to the winch motor. Are these normal? [I did notice that the nut holding the negative lug to the motor was loose at this point - not sure if that's relevant].

Cheers,

Rog

Thanks Bob.

Hi Dr Rog
I left u a link in what did I do to your boat today
In sure it's has a wiring diagram
Also I think u can put a hand control that would plug into near or into the anchor well
I'm going to fit a battery isolator on my anchor winch circuit
I have heard of cases where the solenoid stick
Which could be nasty

Thanks Charriot and HG (I did get your link - thanks, and I have wiring diagram from Muir).

I put in a 100 amp circuit breaker. Didn't use Muir one for $120 - went cheap with one like this for $29:

I put in 100amp breaker close to battery selector and have 8 metres (9 if you include solenoid to motor, that's 16 to 18 m return) of 2 B&S. I don't actually know how to calculate the needs of the system; I just went by the wire gauge recommendation for the length according to the Muir wiring diagram (well, sort of) and what two guys said; the guy at Muirs and a random marine electrician I happened to find shopping at Whitworths (but neither of them knew the whole system configuration). If the 100 amp breaker is wrong I can easily swap it but if the wires are undersized then... well, I'll either see how it goes or go to extra effort to run the cables more directly to shorten them.

Do you know if this is the correct amperage of breaker for this system, Charriot?

Hey HG, why do you always call me Dr Rig? :)

DrRog said..
So sorry Scruzin - this is an electric WINDLASS, not a winch. My bad. God knows I don't have the money for electric winches!

No worries. The same principle applies. It's better to power everything from your distribution panel, rather than directly from the battery.

HG: I decided on the VR-1250 for my 31 foot, 4.5 tonner. The heavier duty one rather than the one I could have got away with. Without the capstan. Those with capstans quoted using it for winching people to the mast top but I have steps to the top.

Scruzin: nothing is coming from the +ve battery terminal only -ve is going to battery. Positive is coming off the back of the battery selector, not off the battery. I haven't run it through the panel because that would involve a longer run and probably running it through a lower gauge wire than recommended. Regarding "a special circuit breaker that takes an additional wire from the winch that sends a signal to trip the breaker when the winch gets overloaded", the Muir circuit breaker and wiring diagram doesn't include that. I believe the trick is to choose the right amperage circuit breaker, which is what I'm not certain how to calculate.

Wiring diagram is page 15 of 24 of this manual: www.muir.com.au/shop/manuals/P25-MANSTM0850-2200_Small.pdf diagram# WIRE0086 with the 3-pole control box.

Thanks Charriot.

Yes the pic is 35 amp but I got the 100 amp one. :)