i have a 98tj and installed my warn xd9000 winch, that i used to have on my xterra...i wanted to keep the front of the jeep looking clean so i bought some 4 gauge wire and moved the selonoid box onto the fire wall....i had to use the winch yesterday and it had very little power....i want to know if the box being farther away from the winch could effect it....or is the jeeps alternator just not strong enough.....this winch would pull my lifted xterra with ease...thanks in advance

4 gauge wire is too small, 2 gauge is the absolute smallest and what is used for the winch power cables. However, I'd bump that up one gauge larger to compensate for the longer run's added electrical resistance. And it's not the alternator that provides the winch's big amperage it draws, it's the battery. No alternator made for Jeeps can put out more than maybe 30-40% than what a loaded winch can draw.

thank you...i went with 4 gauge because that is what was on there...ill upgrade the wires....do you recommend getting a battery for a larger truck that is still a 12v...also i plan on adding a few lights...

Surprising that yours has 4 gauge wiring, my Warn HS9500i came with 2 gauge wiring. Any time you have a winch connected to a battery, the battery needs to be pretty hefty. A winch can draw down a standard battery pretty quickly with a heavy load which can actually damage a conventional battery badly enough that it will never hold a charge as well again. Personally, I believe in AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries since they are shock & vibration resistant and work well with winches... like the new Sears Diehard Platinum 34/78, Exide Orbital, or Optima Blue Top or Yellow Top though I'm slowly losing faith in Optima's quality.

After optima batts moved the manf. to mex a few years ago. they kinda went to hell.

After hearing that odyssey is making sears diehard batteries i looked at the group 34 for comparison. It's the same battery IMHO.

Size: Group 34 *(Sears P-1 and Odyssey PC1500)

Diehard Price:$189.00

Odyssey Price:$289.00


Specs:

Odyssey:CCA: 825A at 0ºF
Reserve capacity: 125 minutes

Diehard: Cold Cranking Amps (CCA at 0 deg.F): 880
Reserve Capacity (RC):135 min.

Donn

No need to make a case for that Donn, the partnership between Odyssey and Sears to make their Diehard Platinum batteries was formerly announced several years ago via a Press Release.

Did you install the winch on the Xterra yourself? If not, maybe the shop swapped the wiring on you.

no the winch was on the xterra when i bought it....im now having a problem with the solenoids...when hit the button for in or out i can hear it click but the winch does nothing

When you lengthened them did you make sure you had them the right way?

I'm with Jerry on this one. I only use my rig for wheelin. That means the only time the battery see's use it's in stupid places. It's one thing that I don't want to chance and always use a good battery.

Optima did have some bad batches for a couple years, but the last couple I've ran have been good. But I'm not sold on putting the Blue Tops in a standar vehicle.

yes i carved an A B C D on the connecting bar of each solenoid and taped and labeled each wire one at a time so i wouldnt mess it up.......where my remote plugged in was broken so i hard wired the remote directly to the solenoids

also im using amplifier wire....would this effect anything? its thick just more flexible....

Yeah this was posted a couple years ago but thought I would repost for the more uninformed.

Donn

well i replaced the wire with 2g and rewired the remote and everything seems to be good