Any Members in Arkansas?

You talking about something like this?:

Voswitch JL100 8 Gang Programmable Switch Panel Power Control System Compatible with Jeep Wrangler JL JLU 2018 - Current and Gladiator 2020+

https://www.amazon.com/Voswitch-Programmable-Control-Wrangler-Gladiator/dp/B07VVN9T4X

If so, the box with all the relays and fuses under the hood basically makes up a wiring harness for each accessory. Those fuses in the box under the hood will be between the positive of the battery and each relay. Those are essentially fuse blocks with relays, but it has the advantage of a nice switch panel with one cable to run through the firewall instead of a cobwebbed mess of switch wires. There shouldn't be a need to put a circuit breaker for the entire box, though. As long as each accessory's fuse is appropriately sized, you'd be fine.

If that's not what you have or talking about, then I may be speaking way out of turn.

 

Its more as a protection for my battery. If anything were to cause the box itself to short there would be nothing between the battery and box. Perhaps I should rephrase my question; what amperage of circuit breaker would be adequate for a voswitch box that is used for controlling a winch or other high load accessory?

I may be overthinking this...

 

Picked Chip up on the radio this morning from about 6 miles out. I had my 6db ant. and he had his Ghost 3db. It was a little scratchy at first but cleared up at about 5 miles. Guess I'll have to work on getting on the Saline repeater.

 

I gotcha. Certainly, without there being a manual circuit breaker between the box and the battery, accessories could be left on by accident and drain your battery. Obviously, it's less of an issue if you were to go dual battery or something like that as all accessories could be dedicated to the "house" battery. However, the box is rated for 100 amps total and 30 amps per accessory. That's plenty to run lightbars, tire inflators, a fridge, disco balls, and so on. But, that isn't sufficient for the high-amp load a winch uses. I would wire the winch on its own using high quality/high amp rated materials and use a marine-grade disconnect like this one:

$81 Blue Sea Systems 3001 Heavy Duty Battery Switch with Alternator Field Disconnect, On-Off, Beige

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Sys...24539375&sprefix=blue+seas+dis,aps,174&sr=8-5

You'll want to ensure that the rated amperage for the disconnect switch is more than the max amp draw of the winch, just to be safe. For reference, max amp draw on a Warn M8000 is something like 435 amps, and the manual HD blue seas switches are 500 or 600 amps. And you could use one of these switches to manually cut power to the voswitch box if you really wanted to, but the danger is leaving accessories on without the truck running. Obviously, draining a non-deep cycle battery frequently will shorten its service life significantly.

Any real danger would be potential shorts in the wiring/accessories, and that would be stopped with the appropriately-sized fuses within the box.

I have a little experience with 12v, but I don't have a winch installed; so, you know, grain of salt and all that..

Hope that helps though.

 

Your winch should be wired straight to the battery, that votswitch box only handles 100amps...a typical 9500 pound winch can draw up to 500 amps if it's pulling hard.

 

Solid advice from AA-ron here. I definitely would NOT try to run a winch through anything except what they supply it with and keep it separated from everything else.

 

$39 Blue Sea Systems 7187 285-Series Circuit Breaker, Surface Mount, 100A

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051P01BW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8

I use one of these with a six circuit Blue Sea fuse box. I'd hope that the fuses in the box would do their job, the breaker is a nice extra layer of protection but it's also great for cutting power to the fuse box when adding accessories.

 

I'm dumb lol. Of course the winch wouldn't be powered from the box. But I can run the controller through it.

This is what I get for planning so far ahead even though I don't have anything to install. I find myself down the rabbit hole of preparation. Thanks for the advice, guys.

 

Shouldn't the controller be tied directly to the winch and not run through the box?

 

I've seen people use theses momentary programmable switch panels for interior winch control. I'm sure that there was some cutting and splicing to make it work. I'm confident that I can figure out how to maintain the use of standard style controller as well as being able to control it from the drivers seat with the voswitch. I would assume that I could use the winch plug end off of a controller to cut and wire to the box. I would also have an extra controller for exterior use.

Keep in mind, I have never had nor wired a winch before, so there may be something that I'm not aware of that would prevent me from being able to do this as I would like.

 

Get a wireless winch controller? Might be your ticket.

 

Your best bet is to isolate the winch by using a switch as Aaron suggested, but it needs to be a min of 600A, but double check how many amps your (new) winch pulls before, and exceed that with plenty of buffer. Pete just installed one of those fancy switch boxes, but you could relay a momentary switch for in and out. Most winches have wireless controllers, so may be a dollar waiting on a dime.

Edit: Dave convinced me some time ago that a winch switch between the battery and winch was a good idea. Those are AWG4, and a short would cause a fire and ruin your day pretty quick.

 

They're is most definitely a reason to run something as a breaker on winch leads. I don't but I've had a wireless remote short out on my winch causing it to run. Had it not been in free spool it likely would have cooked the battery. I'm pretty sure there is something on the market for this purpose other than a manual disconnect switch. I just always leave mine in free spool.

 

I'm a noob. I know nothing about radio or antenna. I did some basic reading. But couldn't find an answer. I have a

$160 Midland mxt275 MicroMobile® GMRS Radio – 15 watts Two-Way Radio with Integrated Control Microphone – Overland Caravanning Tractors – Detachable External Magnetic Mount Antenna - 8 Repeater Channels

Midland mxt275 with the stock antenna mount on top of the roof. If I get a 6db antenna and mount it on the truck bed. The top of the two antenna now is about the same height. Would the two antenna have the same transmitting/receiving power or performance (or what ever the term is)?

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for helping.

 

Pretty sure the antenna transmits from the coil, which on the 6dB is in the middle of the antenna. That would put the transmission point a bit lower, but I am not sure where your current coil sits, and I could be wrong in my assumption. If you are using a 3dB now, it is probably a wash.

 

Your 6db should out perform the little stock antenna regardless of where you put it, but it will work better when it has a plane to reflect off of, like your roof.

 

The coil of the 6db is in the middle of the upper half of the rear window (approximately) and the coil is lower then the stock antenna. The stock antenna has no coil, it's about 2db. I'm just trying to understand how antenna work base in mounting height, antenna height, db gain, etc. I haven't purchase the 6db antenna yet. At the moment I'm trying to learn more before upgrading. I'm trying to find out if the stock 2db mounting on top of the roof would be the same as the 6db mounting on the bed basing on the information of the higher the antenna sit the better it is.

 

Even if it's lower then the stock 2db? So higher db antenna will out perform a smaller antenna even if its mount at a lower location.

 

A 2db basically has zero gain and radiates evenly in all directions, so yes, theoretically a 6 db will out perform a 2db in receiving and transmitting regardless of location on the vehicle. A 3db vs a 2db, not so much.

 

That is a very long antenna.