Warn winch fail

[Rbohno]

Question Folks,

I have been using different models of winches on trucks for 40+ years and have used my Warn several times and today got buried at the back of our property. I was winching out at a snails pace and decided to change my anchor point and went to tighten up the winch to pull some more and it was dead. It would spool out but not back in.
I went and got neighbors tractor and pulled myself out and thought let me try it again and it worked?????

It seems like it burnt up, I went to dealership, talked with them and they are ordering me a new one. I have always been under the impression that Warn was one of the top guns regarding winches.Anybody else had any issues????

 

[IRSmart]

These trucks come with a thermal breaker to cut power if it overheats. You may have overworked it, and once it cooled down it was working again. Replacing it won’t solve this problem in the future, as they’ll be putting the same feature in as the old winch had.

 

[56PW17]

Could it be your connection to the remote? mine went bad and would only spool one direction. Cleaned the connections with a pipe cleaner and added electrical grease. works fine now.

 

[WY.Ram]

I winched three jeeps out last week, ya three of em with one being my wife's jeep. My winch never completely stopped but lets talk about snails pace, geezus.
It was pulling a massive load, zoom in to the end of the cable and check out the snow depth on the back of the red Jeep, but holy crap did it take a hot minute, especially since we were beyond full cable and there's no clutch / free spool mechanism. My flippin Can Am has free-spool and I think its a Harbor Freight winch.
The unspooling was the most painful part Mine very well could have been a code-18 (18 inches from the controls sits the problem ) but I crawled around down there for a bit and I didn't immediately see free-spool, so I sat in my truck and held the button.


2016 RAM 2500 pw | 392ci w 6spd | CAI w ARH long tubes & Solo | Diablo T2 w HF tune | 5.13 AAM w 35" Mickey MTs | Custom Graphics w illegal tint | Dodge Off-Road

 

[Low_Sky]

IRSmart nailed it. Your winch is working exactly as it should.

To expand on that, while it sounds as if your thermal switch worked as intended in this case, they do fail on occasion, leaving you able to spool out only with a cold winch.

You can bypass the thermal switch and the Low Voltage Interrupt (LVI), but these are modifications I only recommend for an experienced user that can recognize and mitigate the thermal overload and low voltage risks on their own.

If this sounds like you, the mods aren’t hard to find with google.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[olyelr]

I winched three jeeps out last week, ya three of em with one being my wife's jeep. My winch never completely stopped but lets talk about snails pace, geezus.
It was pulling a massive load, zoom in to the end of the cable and check out the snow depth on the back of the red Jeep, but holy crap did it take a hot minute, especially since we were beyond full cable and there's no clutch / free spool mechanism. My flippin Can Am has free-spool and I think its a Harbor Freight winch.
The unspooling was the most painful part Mine very well could have been a code-18 (18 inches from the controls sits the problem ) but I crawled around down there for a bit and I didn't immediately see free-spool, so I sat in my truck and held the button.


2016 RAM 2500 pw | 392ci w 6spd | CAI w ARH long tubes & Solo | Diablo T2 w HF tune | 5.13 AAM w 35" Mickey MTs | Custom Graphics w illegal tint | Dodge Off-Road

Um, yea there is most certainly a free spool lever LOL. Does anyone even make a winch without one?!

 

[Low_Sky]

Um, yea there is most certainly a free spool lever LOL. Does anyone even make a winch without one?!

I watch an Aussie program called 4WD Action and the hosts NEVER freespool. Not sure if the winches they use don’t have it, or if they’re buried inside bumpers with no easy access to the freespool controls.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Low_Sky]

I winched three jeeps out last week, ya three of em with one being my wife's jeep. My winch never completely stopped but lets talk about snails pace, geezus.
It was pulling a massive load, zoom in to the end of the cable and check out the snow depth on the back of the red Jeep, but holy crap did it take a hot minute, especially since we were beyond full cable and there's no clutch / free spool mechanism. My flippin Can Am has free-spool and I think its a Harbor Freight winch.
The unspooling was the most painful part Mine very well could have been a code-18 (18 inches from the controls sits the problem ) but I crawled around down there for a bit and I didn't immediately see free-spool, so I sat in my truck and held the button.


2016 RAM 2500 pw | 392ci w 6spd | CAI w ARH long tubes & Solo | Diablo T2 w HF tune | 5.13 AAM w 35" Mickey MTs | Custom Graphics w illegal tint | Dodge Off-Road

Look the right of the fairlead for a shiny thing that looks like a freespool lever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rbohno]

I am in a conundrum, dealer took my word and is ordering me a new winch under warranty. Do I call them and say forget it or let them put a new one in since I have 32k miles on my truck so my warranty will be up in 4K miles????
Kind of irritates me how FCA does their recalls( I know different topic but we discussed both items while there today) that’s why I mention this. I get an email about steering linkage nuts coming loose and they (the dealer today)told me well it could be a couple of months before we get the parts.

Kind of like the recall for water pump bearings on my 2016 3500 CTD. They said it will be a few months before we get them ( ew water pumps)in and I said “No problem so what will it do just start overheating” service writer says “ No, the bearings seize and lock up throwing the serpentine belt and then you loose power brakes and steering, so I wouldn’t drive it.

I Love FCA, but they are the worst with handling recalls

 

[Bock]

I had the same promble went to winch my self out, nothing unplug it and back in it worked . I think your promble is the contact in the plug. Clean and electrical grease the plug. And yes there is a freespool leaver on the right side on the 2017

 

[56PW17]

I am in a conundrum, dealer took my word and is ordering me a new winch under warranty. Do I call them and say forget it or let them put a new one in since I have 32k miles on my truck so my warranty will be up in 4K miles????
Kind of irritates me how FCA does their recalls( I know different topic but we discussed both items while there today) that’s why I mention this. I get an email about steering linkage nuts coming loose and they (the dealer today)told me well it could be a couple of months before we get the parts.

Kind of like the recall for water pump bearings on my 2016 3500 CTD. They said it will be a few months before we get them ( ew water pumps)in and I said “No problem so what will it do just start overheating” service writer says “ No, the bearings seize and lock up throwing the serpentine belt and then you loose power brakes and steering, so I wouldn’t drive it.

I Love FCA, but they are the worst with handling recalls

If you are in the mood and trust the service department have it replaced. Its a brand new one compared to a 32k mile winch. When your warranty is up it will cost you a couple of grand.

 

[WY.Ram]

Um, yea there is most certainly a free spool lever LOL. Does anyone even make a winch without one?!

LOL, figured there was, I was just too big a ...... to find it, but I really wanted someone to Say It was there, thanks.


2016 RAM 2500 pw | 392ci w 6spd | CAI w ARH long tubes & Solo | Diablo T2 w HF tune | 5.13 AAM w 35" Mickey MTs | Custom Graphics w illegal tint | Dodge Off-Road

 

[WY.Ram]

I am in a conundrum, dealer took my word and is ordering me a new winch under warranty. Do I call them and say forget it or let them put a new one in since I have 32k miles on my truck so my warranty will be up in 4K miles????
Kind of irritates me how FCA does their recalls( I know different topic but we discussed both items while there today) that’s why I mention this. I get an email about steering linkage nuts coming loose and they (the dealer today)told me well it could be a couple of months before we get the parts.

Kind of like the recall for water pump bearings on my 2016 3500 CTD. They said it will be a few months before we get them ( ew water pumps)in and I said “No problem so what will it do just start overheating” service writer says “ No, the bearings seize and lock up throwing the serpentine belt and then you loose power brakes and steering, so I wouldn’t drive it.

I Love FCA, but they are the worst with handling recalls

Let them get you a new one. You Were honest with them, if they cant troubleshoot a situation as well as these guys here, that doesn't land on You.
Also, your winch may not be in perfect order, I pulled those three Jeeps up that entire road, did the e-unspool, and never tripped the breaker on mine. Maybe Yours is pulling a high load due to some factor that is needing to be replaced.
You can just have mine, apparently I don't know how to operate it correctly. Lol


2016 RAM 2500 pw | 392ci w 6spd | CAI w ARH long tubes & Solo | Diablo T2 w HF tune | 5.13 AAM w 35" Mickey MTs | Custom Graphics w illegal tint | Dodge Off-Road

 

[olyelr]

LOL, figured there was, I was just too big a ...... to find it, but I really wanted someone to Say It was there, thanks.


2016 RAM 2500 pw | 392ci w 6spd | CAI w ARH long tubes & Solo | Diablo T2 w HF tune | 5.13 AAM w 35" Mickey MTs | Custom Graphics w illegal tint | Dodge Off-Road

Its to the right of the winch, right here....

 

[WY.Ram]

Its to the right of the winch, right here....

View attachment 154698

you all rock and thanks for the photo because I popped a quick squat in the parking lot before driving home, and I didn't see any shiny thing next to fairlead that looked like a free spool mechanism. I just saw those ********* winch mounts, but I did not look where you are pointing, I'm really excited because the e-unspool sucked, so thank you! O.P. thanks for the winch post, didn't mean to hijack it in the least but I did a bit. I'm going to go outside, 11F w no windchill, find and yank my lever at least once (winch free-spool lever, really)

 

[olyelr]

If I remember correctly it twists to the passenger side to free spool, and then back to driver side to lock it back up.

 

[6.7CumminsDrvr]

Um, yea there is most certainly a free spool lever LOL. Does anyone even make a winch without one?!

Warn does actually...........the new Zeon S doesn’t have one, well a lever anyway. The clutch is engaged/disengaged via the remote electronically!

Actually thought it solved my problem of putting a winch behind the bumper on my 1500 PW style and not having to worry about this very problem.

 

[Shawno]

I used my winch in my 2018 this for the 2nd time this last weekend. I got stuck in the snow and was yanking myself out and it just quit... boom no warning! Everything stopped. No spool in or out. It was like the whole thing was dead... then I heard a solenoid and the winch started working again for about 5 seconds... then dead again! We waited for about a minute then tried it and it was just enough to get me out of that mess but it quit working again.... does anyone know what would cause this? Seems like motor overloads that reset automatically...?

 

[Low_Sky]

I used my winch in my 2018 this for the 2nd time this last weekend. I got stuck in the snow and was yanking myself out and it just quit... boom no warning! Everything stopped. No spool in or out. It was like the whole thing was dead... then I heard a solenoid and the winch started working again for about 5 seconds... then dead again! We waited for about a minute then tried it and it was just enough to get me out of that mess but it quit working again.... does anyone know what would cause this? Seems like motor overloads that reset automatically...?

There is a thermal protection switch and a low voltage interrupt. The thermal switch kills winching in, but still allows winching out. If you were losing winch “in” and “out” that may have been the LVI.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DarthMegaHD]

I am in a conundrum, dealer took my word and is ordering me a new winch under warranty. Do I call them and say forget it or let them put a new one in since I have 32k miles on my truck so my warranty will be up in 4K miles????
Kind of irritates me how FCA does their recalls( I know different topic but we discussed both items while there today) that’s why I mention this. I get an email about steering linkage nuts coming loose and they (the dealer today)told me well it could be a couple of months before we get the parts.

Kind of like the recall for water pump bearings on my 2016 3500 CTD. They said it will be a few months before we get them ( ew water pumps)in and I said “No problem so what will it do just start overheating” service writer says “ No, the bearings seize and lock up throwing the serpentine belt and then you loose power brakes and steering, so I wouldn’t drive it.

I Love FCA, but they are the worst with handling recalls

Dibs on your old one