Regular 2500 with Ram Power Wagon Electric winch


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Posted by Dylan Robinson [162.158.255.78] on Saturday, June 04, 2016 at 17:48:57 :

Awhile back I came across a deal on a slightly used 06' Ram power wagon winch. I decided to buy it for my 05' regular (non-PW) Ram Hemi 2500 5spd truck. I had to use it the fall before last to pull the truck out of the ditch. It wasn't stuck real bad, just bad enough I couldn't get it to move more than a foot or two either direction. So I hooked the cable to a tree, and engaged the clutch on the winch. It seemed to pull ok, for the first foot or so, then the charge gage went to 0 and the check gages warning system chimed at me. I let it sit running for a few seconds, and it eventually went back to normal. Eventually I got it out, after several repeats of what seemed like the computer shutting off the charging system cycles. Later on when I got it home, I replaced the battery with a good interstate group 65 (I had been running the original), did the cable upgrades with 2/0 welding lead wire with soldered, crimped, and heat shrinked all copper lugs, and upgraded the alternator to the 160a unit out of a loaded Durango. Well I hadn't used it at all since I did the upgrades at least a year and half ago, but Fri I was pulling my camper up my pretty steep driveway, and it buried itself on the unusually soft shoulder on the downhill side. I figured my best option was to hook up the winch, and drag the whole mess the rest of the way up the hill. After stringing the cable out anchoring to a big red fir across the road, I engaged the winch. This time it would allow me to run the winch for maybe 10 seconds before shutting down the charging system, then like before, it would automatically reset itself and the needle would move back up towards the middle. At no point did the winch stop itself, so I'm assuming that I'm not encountering the infamous Thermal protection snafu (or maybe I'am, I just don't know it?). When I finally got everything up the hill, I was able to put tension on the line and pull the cable on good and straight, with the engine off, restarted the engine and drove away. This is the third Dodge truck I've had with an electric winch on it (the others were older, 84' and 98') and I've never seen that before. Curious if this is a normal thing? Maybe I'm not supposed to run the winch with the engine running (seems odd to not be able to assist with the wheels) Maybe a regular 2500 electrical system tells the computer to shut down when it sees a draw that big?? (Find that odd also since there are tons of Cummins guys here with electric winches on their trucks)
My truck is an 05' SLT Hemi 2500 4x4, crew cab, 5spd short box.

Thanks



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