Warn Winch Wiring

For those of you who already have the Warn XT 17 Winch...

Where did you run the main relay/power plug wiring on your bike?

Thanks.

The relay fits nicely bolted to the outside of the underseat storage box just in front or inside of the rear
shock preload adjuster where the box gets more narrow.
You can access the plug from just under the body panel, I have mine zip tied
to the subframe where I can still get to it.

Matthew

Mine is inside the abs box. All tucked away.

Mine too along with the remote receiver. The connector for the winch I have routed to where the shock adjuster is and secured with a velcro strap. That puts it at the middle of the bike and the winch can be used both at the front or back, left or right. (Left or right you ask? Yup, I use it to help lift the bike when I fall over. )

I have the exact same setup

Thanks for the suggestions.

Any pics handy?

It seems kind of tight mounting outside the storage box near the pre-load adjuster. The other side has more room but I am worried about the heat coming up off the H pipe even though I just had the exhaust pipes ceramic coated.

I am going to try and fit it inside the storage box above the alarm system. That is when I can get enough time between chasing the 11 month old around.

you guys put a winch on your motorcycle?

DD

+1?

You bet! I ride by myself and with this little baby I don't worry about what's around the next bend, I just ride.

http://www.warn.com/blog/2011/06/08/introducing_the_warn_xt17_portable_winch.shtml

Yep...

http://www.warn.com/blog/2011/08/11/using_the_warn_xt17_portable_to_cross__an_avalanche.shtml

Wow, didn't even know you could get these!

last summer I was playing around at big bear in SOCAL. There was one section that we absolutely could not get up. A winch would have been perfect. We had to cluster up and each push/help each other up the section.

It was steep with loose sand, gravel and enough turns that you could not keep any speed.

Good to know.

DD

I absolutely will not ride the big bikes off-road without one ever again. I ride by myself a lot and recovering a 500-6600 bike solo is typically not an option. We had one of the riders in our group go off the side of a cliff last year. Straight down with absolutely no traction. MAYBE we could have recovered it with 8 guys and a long rope (which most of us don't carry either) but we all would have been beat. Anything short of that would have involved a tow truck, 40 miles from the pavement and probably a $500 bill.

The winch turned this into a minor inconvenience. 30 minutes later we were back on the trail and none of us were physically wiped out so we could enjoy the rest of the day. Just brilliant.

From this:



Using this:



Back on the trail in 30 minutes. Can't beat it.

When operating the xt17, do you typically have the bike that is supplying the battery power running? Any issues with loading on the alternator on the BMW R1200GSA?

We find it best to keep the bike running if possible. Helps keep the battery full. A high Idle will give you more amps for faster battery recovery. If it's under water though, do what what ever you can to get it out out of the water.

If you used too long and too much it would be like trying to start your bike over and over again in the cold. Eventually, you'll have a dead battery if your bike won't run.

Battery should hold long enough for a few heavy duty pulls, but that depends on your batter condition to start with.

I see no reason why the GSA would give you any problems.

Many thanks. Do you find that the stock battery is sufficient or would you go with a higher amp-hour battery such as the shorai? Or would that just give you more chances to not run the battery to far down since you have more to work with :)

Carry battery jumper cables - so you can charge the winch flattened battery off someone else (bike/4WD etc). That gets around the battery capacity problem .. provided you have another vehicle handy...

That's where something like a kaoka throttle control helps. I just accelerate it a bit, set the throttle control and then I don't have to try to operate a whole bunch of stuff with just 2 hands. I also have both the remote and handle bar controls.

Not a lot of fun to have to call the wife to come rescue ya all the time, LOL.

Just bought the winch, plate, cover from Black Dog. Kurt was great to work with and has very fair pricing. Help them out and get yours from them.

One question for those that have used it...what RPM range did you set the idle to when pulling? I was thinking 1,500-2,000

If it does not have it already,, consider Kevlar line instead of wire rope.. You can get 3x the line on the winch and when hauling stuff out of a hole length matters.. Also for recovery purposes,, you can fit a bunch of kevlar rope in a really really small space. I carry a couple hundred feet of electrical pull cord (1500lb test) in my jeep for do or die recovery.. The other advantage is safety, the kevlar does not stretch enough to store energy, so if it does break, it just drops on the ground instead of whipping..

Cheers
Dave