Winch trouble. No pulling power!

Just installed a new Superwinch LP8500 behind the stock bumper of my truck which was a 2 day ordeal in itself. Got it done last night and hooked my truck up to a tree in the yard. The winch will pull my truck in neutral but when I apply the brakes it doesn't budge it and the winch bogs right out. This is on wet grass. Only thing worse than having no winch is having one that doesn't work.

So I'm looking for possible causes. I did relocated the solenoid as it was mounted to the side of the winch. I used all quality 2AWG wire for the relocation and the wires aren't more than 5ft long. As far as I know my battery and alternator are in good condition as I've never had issue with them. The battery is not that old either. My lights do dim down quite a bit when using it, I'm sure some is normal but it seems to be drawing a lot of power. I checked all connections and they are all tight and clean. The only issue I can see it I didn't ground right to the battery but instead used a short 4 inch piece of wire to ground to the winch plate which is welded to the support I made in front which is bolted to the frame). I realize I probably should have grounded right to the battery and will do once I get more wire. I did try booster cables from the winch ground to the battery ground and it didn't change anything performance wise.

Any suggestions on what to look for?

 

Could you be running the winch backwards?
In "power out" mode many winches are paying out line while overcoming the "load holding brake".
If the line is wound the wrong way on the drum then the winch will be trying to "pull" and overcome the brake at the same time. This would result in the perception of low pulling power and high amp load. Additionally this generates serious heat to the drum and can damage synthetic rope.
Just a thought.

 

The cable is under wound so that appears to be OK. Also when I pull the truck in neutral the winch holds it in place when stopped so I think that's working as it should

 

Well then, reaching at straws here. You could un-spool and remove the cable in "free wheel" then run the winch in the pull direction for a bit. Now feel the bare drum and if it is hot there may be a problem with a stuck, malfunctioning or dragging brake.
Other than something else binding, that's all I got.

 

I'll keep that in mind. I guess the first thing I should do is run a proper ground cable right to the battery to ensure I'm getting the best ground possible. Other than that I guess I could try removing my bumper and grill and put the solenoid back on the winch as it came to see if there is any difference. I find it hard to believe adding 5ft of wire would cause that much of a voltage drop with 2awg wire but I don't know what else it can be.

 

No clue here. I'm running quite a bit of wire (atleast 4 ft) on my warn m8000.
The solid ground connection might be the issue.
Wjay about the lock/freespool lever, is it fully engaged?

 

Lever seems to engage and disengage properly. The winch doesn't seem to be slipping, just acts as though I have a little atv winch hooked up to my truck. 8500lbs should be able to damn near pull this thing up a tree I would think. It certainly should be able to pull me across wet grass with the brakes on.

 

To add to the problem I can't even return the winch to the big box store I bought it from if it is a issue with the winch itself. I got it on the clearance table (final sale) because someone returned it saying there was no mounting plate included. I guess the manager didn't realize there was no plate meant to come with it in the first place. I'm 99% sure the winch wasn't used because there was zero signs of it ever being installed or even really taken out of the box for that matter.

 

lol. That's the first thing I did when I got mine installed. Litterally..pulled the front end up a tree.
My next suggestion would just drop it off at a local 4x4 that services winches.
The only other thing is to get a meter and check polarity under power and not under power on each cable. If it's not a mechanical issue you are def dropping power somewhere in one of your lines. Good luck.

 

Not that it matters alot but you arent using synthetic rope are you?

 

Nope just steel cable.

 

The more I play with it the more it leads me to believe the ground is a problem. Whether or not it will solve all my issues I'll have to wait and see. I unspooled all the cable to be sure there was a nice tight wrap on the drum. I reeled the cable back in giving the winch little breaks in between. I noticed that the winch would vary line speeds and sometimes sound like it was struggling more than usual. At one point it stopped working completely and all I was getting was 1 single "click" from the solenoid. I took a set of jumper cables and hooked it to the winch ground and the battery ground and the winch fired right back up again.

Earlier in the day I did try using just the jumper cables for a ground and didn't notice much of a difference if any in pulling power. Maybe because the jumper cable is only 6awg and obviously not the best connection? First thing tomorrow morning I will go pick up some more 2awg wire and make a proper ground. Hopefully that will give me better results.

 

Good chance that will do it. It initially threw me off when you first mentioned the jumper cable. From the factory there is no intentional ground path from batt to frame. The brake lines are about it.

 

I was able to hook up a proper 2awg wire from the winch to battery ground this morning. I didn't have a chance to test the winch as I had to go to work. Keeping my fingers crossed for when I get a chance to try it tonight.

 

Subbed. But I bet it'll turn out to be the ground.

 

I'm curious as to what you find, I would bet it is the ground since you said the varying speed of winch in speed.

 

Well it seems as though the ground wire has solved the problem. I'm still not sure if the winch is working to its full potential though. The winch will now pull the truck with the brakes locked up but it's a slow pull and seems like its working hard. Maybe I'm just expecting too much out of it? I know it's a budget model winch and line speed is not as good as other ones on the market. I don't mind slow, but I'm still hesitant on whether it will pull me out of a real sticky situation.

This weekend I think I will put the solenoid back on the winch just to try it and see how it performs. If it has more pulling power like that than I guess logic would say my wires have to be bigger than 2awg.

 

Yeah def do that. That would be my next guess

 

Do you have the motor running? For me to get max power out of my winch I have to have the motor running and rev up to a couple thousand RPM.

 

The motor is indeed running. I've tried revving it and it doesn't seem to have a great effect on line speed.

Maybe it is working as it should. It was pulling at a steady rate. I'm just used to my atv winch but in that case we are talking about a 3500lbs winch on a 700lbs machine and it pulls it around like nothing is there.