Water and winches

[dickybird Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dickybird]

After a water crossing on the weekend, our newly installed Aldi Chinese winch doesn't work. :cry:

I assumed a 4x4 winch would necessarily be watertight as 4x4s so often go through water. And reading the forum I see that even some expensive (Warn) winches can have a problem with water. Do I ask Aldi for my money back and get a TJM winch? The need to dismantle the Sovereign bar to get at the winch doesnt help.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Water and winches

After a water crossing on the weekend, our newly installed Aldi Chinese winch doesn't work. :cry:

I assumed a 4x4 winch would necessarily be watertight as 4x4s so often go through water. And reading the forum I see that even some expensive (Warn) winches can have a problem with water. Do I ask Aldi for my money back and get a TJM winch? The need to dismantle the Sovereign bar to get at the winch doesnt help.

Aldi do have a great return policy so I have been told so give it a go and see what they say.

I would then look to a more known brand as a replacement.

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Bugger !!!

In the case of WARN, most times water enters the control box solenoids which stops the winch operating correctly. In this case, if you are up Kucca ck, you can always make a direct link to the battery to get you homa again.

I would question the motor sealed claim of any winch, same as axles, the thing needs to breath and expand under use. The control box should be sealed though. After multiple deep water/mud crossings water does get into the motor, if you use your winch this is OK it just turns the grease into milky slosh. if you don't use your winch for a couple of months/years the water begins to rust the gears and will seize up.

I'd go back to Aldi get my money back and go for a WARN ED9000 or a 9.5XP or an OX, PowerAuto (thomas), Superwinch X9. In the end i think you get what you pay for.

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

I have a chinese one,
about 2.5 years now.
It sees plenty of mud and water on the trips we take, so far so good.

Yes you will get water ingress to motor and gearbox but that shouldnt stop it straight away like you mention, at a guess I would say the solenoid/s didnt like it. that can happen with even the big names.

Pull the soleniode cover off and give it a blow and a knock, might just be a bit of foreign matter inbetween the contact surfaces.

But as quality control might not be as good as your bignames it could be a faulty winding etc,etc...

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

I have had both my Warn M8000 winches (and control box of the front) submerged pretty well and they both work like the day they were new.



-Ben

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

I can testify that a warn winch definitely will work under about 2 foot of water, even with the battery under at the same time.

i guess my point is that if you are dipping it regularly just pull the control box and winch motor down maybe once a year or so. They are both fairly easy to do. The hardest bit is getting the thing out of from behind the BB.

I like things to be well greased - probably my greasemonkey heritage.

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

... or is that Ben's Yellow submarine :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Chippy

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Was that photo when I was driving? It's so much easier to take someone else's car into deeper water than my own :twisted: . Oooh, I meant to say, I would treat everyone's car with enormous respect and Ben, you are welcome to take mine for drive at the GTG . Sadly, no deep water within half-a-continent of there.

LFaR.

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

LF&R,

I think there is video of the pass you made. I'm in the passenger seat (drivers side for you guy's). paddling my way to shore.

That was before we discovered the high RPM's was because the rear end was floating.

-Ben

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

Better Chippy?

BTW I rock at Photo Shop!!

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

Better Chippy?

BTW I rock at Photo Shop!!

Love it :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Chippy

[dickybird Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dickybird]

After some delays I got onto the firm looking after Aldi's after sales service. Seems they are not really full time. But when eventually I drove out to see them at Minto (only 50 minutes from Sydney) they proved quite helpful. At first glance they thought the motor was not connected directly enough to battery negative but also gave me a replacement solenoid box in case that was the problem. Motor connection turned out NOT to be the problem so I got the solenoid boxes swapped and the winch now works again.

On looking into the faulty one it was clear that lots of muddy water had been in there. No waterproofing to speak of. So be aware that the Aldi solenoid boxes need silicone sealing as a minimum and best to mount them as high as practicable in the bar if you are taking them 4WDriving.

[pico Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pico]

Soverign Bar

Guys, does anyone know which winch will go into the toyota soverign bar. I know the bar will have to come off to get the winch on, but which winch?

Cheers
Pico.

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

any winch like warn, tjm, ironman, tmax, supawinch will fit, the mounting bolt pattern is a, std across all winches

[dickybird Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dickybird]

The winch gets mounted in a steel cage ( $450 or so) which fits in behind the sovereign bar. The cage is a tight fit in the bar and the control box with the solenoids can't be mounted above the winch as usual. My Aldi winch (same as T-max etc) got mounted rotated 90 degrees with the control box behind the winch and very close to one of the heat exchangers (I think the air conditioner). In this lower position it can take on water in quite shallow crossings (unless it is sealed up watertight) and I think is more likely to because the metal "bottom" of the box is vertical and the top is no longer an inverted cup which might be less likely to take on water. I want to try to mount the control box on a cross member of the cage just above and on the left of the winch but i have to devise some kind of bracket to clamp it on to. Apart from the ingress of water, the control box is now so close to the heat exchanger it will be pushed into it if the bar gets shoved back 20 mm. :shock: