4 WD Four by Four

Simplified from Warn – Basic Guide to Winching Techniques

You should familiarize yourself with your winch and each of its components: Practice using your winch before using it on the trail.

1. Motor Typically the winch motor is powered by the vehicle’s battery.The motor provides power to the gear mechanism, which turns the winch drum and winds the wire rope.

2. Winch Drum The winch drum is the cylinder onto which the wire rope feeds. The drum is driven by the motor and drive train. Its direction can be changed using the remote control.

3. Wire Rope The wire rope’s diameter and length are determined by the winch’s load capacity and design. Wrapped around the winch drum and fed through the fairlead, the wire rope is looped at the end to accept the hook’s clevis pin.

4. Fairlead When using the winch at an angle, the fairlead (or wire lead) acts to guide the wire rope onto the spooling drum. It minimizes damage to the wire rope while it goes through the winch mount or bumper.

5. Gear Train The reduction gear converts the winch motor power into a large pulling force.The gear train design makes it possible for the winch to be lighter and more compact.

6. Braking System The brake is automatically applied to the winch drum when the winch motor is stopped and there is load on the wire rope.The brake prevents the winch from paying out line, which in turn holds the vehicle in place.

7. Clutch The clutch allows the operator to manually disengage the spooling drum from the gear train, enabling the drum to rotate freely (known as “freespooling”). Engaging the clutch “locks” the winch drum back onto the gear train.

8. Control Box Using electrical power from the vehicle’s battery, the control box solenoids switch power to the motor, enabling the operator to change the direction of the winch drum rotation.

9. Remote Control The remote control plugs into the winch control box, allowing the operator to control the winch direction, as well as stand well clear of the wire rope while operating the winch.