Zorba's Jeep
In-Cab winch control.
Custom switch panel as supplied by "12 Volt Guy". Note cut off yellow wire. See text.
Yellow wire extended and spliced into the +12 line from the main power switch.
Very nice documentation, albeit oddly printed on 4X6 index cards! Note hand drawn template.
I wanted to locate it here, on the left vertical, or even sideways facing the camera view.
Panel would fit fine, but the depth of the switches and their connectors wouldn't. See text.
Said template cut out and taped in place where I decided to put it instead...
Hole cut and panel installed in the under steering wheel kick panel.
Compact, and fully functional!
Over all mounting depth way more than I'd like. See text.
Kick panel back in place.
Pilot hole drilled in firewall for 5/8" punch.
Supplied grommet installed.
Control cable initial routing.
Inside view of winch solenoid box.
Temporary wire pigtails made and installed, and control cable plugged in.
Had to tape the fast-on connections - see text.
Now installing protective loom onto the control cable, working it back towards
the firewall and tying everything down as I go. Probably overkill, but nice!
Extracting the previously connected yellow wire mid-way. See text.
Taped up the cable's jacket...
... finished up with the loom and connected the yellow wire to the winch's main power solenoid on firewall.
Loom all the way back to the firewall grommet, and caulking applied!
Operational. Neat LED when the system is turned on.
Replaced one of the two cigarette lighter receptacles with a dual USB charge port.
FRS radios plugged in to charge.Lots of pix for a pretty straightforward installation. The main caveats here had to do with wiring up the previously installed winch master power solenoid, and the location I ended up having to install this control panel. Most winch installations do not have a master power solenoid - but I wanted one as previously detailed. I purchased this control panel and an optional wiring kit from a guy that calls himself the "12 volt guy". His product is OUTSTANDING. While certainly not anything that someone couldn't piece together themselves, he's done all the grunt work, the panel is already figured out, the wiring is already figured out, the panel is engraved with your choice of verbiage, and it comes with very nice and completely accurate documentation. What more do you need? Totally worth the cost.
The only nit I'll pick with his product is that he used a 4 conductor cable to run out to the winch's control solenoid box, but only needs 3 of the wires. The fourth wire, a yellow one, was cut off short on both ends. That's not good/accepted practice, once should always leave an extra conductor full length and secure it out of the way in case someone wants to use it in the future. I wanted to use it to control my non-standard (winch) main power solenoid; in order to do so, I had to fix the wire where it had been cut off short. No big deal - but a nit!
So I tied the now extended yellow wire to the output of the panel's main power switch, and then extracted the wire mid-length from the cable to connect it to the solenoid in question. Boom, done.
The problem with installing just about anything in a Jeep is lack of room. I had wanted to install this panel in the front center console, in front of the 4WD shift lever. The panel itself would have fit, but I would have had to have destroyed the little storage cubby immediately behind it to do so. I keep an FRS walkie-talkie in that cubby, I didn't want to eliminate it. I then though about turning the panel sideways and installing it in the same area. That might have worked, or might not, and I didn't want to find out the hard way! The problem was, of course, the depth of the thing. Standard switches are fairly deep, then the wiring projects out further, its pretty hard to get away from this - so I ended up installing it in the kick panel that wraps under the steering column. Much like the cruise control cancel button, that I had previously installed in this location on the other side for the exact same reason: I couldn't install that button where I wanted it either because it too was too damn deep! No getting around the laws of physics!
I made some temporary jumpers for the solenoid control box to be able to plug in the control cable, but then made new ones the next day as I didn't have the correct fast-on connectors to do it right the first time. It worked for testing. The entire installation went very smoothly because this product is very well thought out and very well documented. The supplied cut-out template was hand traced - I think because that ensures accuracy without having to worry about printer scaling issues. It was nice and it worked. He's a one man operation and it takes QUITE a while to get your product from him once ordered, but he tells you that upfront. Unfortunately, there is no way to contact him directly - he doesn't answer emails. Not the best business practice, but his product is worth the wait!
In any event, it worked correctly the first time it was tried! I even had my granddaughter running it so I could re-spool the line a bit better than it was after the winching failure previously mentioned.
New jumpers for solenoid box - color coded to match the supplied wiring.
Installed. Better wire, better connectors, and the connectors match incoming wire colors.
Steal of a deal on a brand new Viair air tank for my eventual on board air system.
Remote drain valve.
150 PSI safety valve.
Perfectly horrid video attempting to peek inside the thing...Read on for the next part!
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