What is tapping into a switched circuit?

Winch power.....supplied by an ign feed.

Keithy wrote:

Winch power.....supplied by an ign feed.[m/quote]

That reminds me, how do those pesky gen 4 blank buttons come out. Tried prising one out earlier, and it wouldnt budge. Maybe need some spinach i dunno.

So ive had a think, maybe ill just cut the spliced WACO 221 wire going to the winch, and add in a switch. If i buy some more cable i could run it up to the blanks. Thats as far as my noggin will go.

I think the majority are right here Andy, for a conventional winch set up you’d run a switched, fused feed directly from the battery. This way it’s operable with and without the engine running.

BUT your winch seems to be different, it’s comprehensively pre-wired. The main battery to winch cables aren’t switched. But because you’ve got a separate remote switch hooked up to a 12v ignition live. So my guess is that the winch is totally dead unless activated by this remote switch. (No risk of draining your battery). You could splice in an isolator to the battery cables feeding the winch, but it’s not really necessary. Your set up will be super neat the fact that the remote for the winch that hooks up to a connector inside the cabin, meaning you're not running a wire all the way from the winch to the drivers seat!

At the end of the day I’d follow warns instructions, they know a thing or two about winches. It looks like warn have created a really nice simple DIY install - that may be unconventional in comparison to more traditional setups.

That winch plate and grille look the mutts nuts!!! Do send us a link of where you sourced that.

Andy I stand by my original comment, having a winch no matter how cleverly wired patched into an existing ignition live is less desirable than having it on it's own dedicated and separate circuit. If not there is a risk however small that something shorts out and does damage that could be avoided by it being isolated and manually energised, a winch doesn't need to be in standby constantly on a daily driver car. When you are going to need a winch you are going to know it in advance and can turn it on then. I'm not meaning to switch the big feed cables I simply mean to switch on and off the electronic control system instead of it being fired by the ignition tumbler every time you get in the car.

I'm with Lambert
My entire switching panel runs direct from battery (with isolation key switch)
Overkill with 30 amp wire 10 amp fuse next to battery

Well said Lambert. Chris