For recovery in the dark: LED light for the winch

[El-Dracho]

I recently watched a very good Youtube tutorial about winches some days ago. They mentioned an idea I thought was good and I did it right away on my rig: A small LED light above the winch to see the drum in the dark.

The LED is wired so that it is always on when the winch solenoid is powered. This means I can now easily see how the rope is spooling even if it is dark. Small cause, big effect. Nice side-effect: in case I forget to switch the power off for the winch, I will realise it because the lamp is still on.

By the way, I used a mini license plate light for this:



For those who are interested in the mentioned video. The video is available on a German offroad Youtube channel. It's in German but maybe a translator does the trick.

 

[The Salty Kiwi]

I recently watched a very good Youtube tutorial about winches some days ago. They mentioned an idea I thought was good and I did it right away on my rig: A small LED light above the winch to see the drum in the dark.

The LED is wired so that it is always on when the winch solenoid is powered. This means I can now easily see how the rope is spooling even if it is dark. Small cause, big effect. Nice side-effect: in case I forget to switch the power off for the winch, I will realise it because the lamp is still on.

By the way, I used a mini license plate light for this:

View attachment 287917

For those who are interested in the mentioned video. The video is available on a German offroad Youtube channel. It's in German but maybe a translator does the trick.

Thats pretty cool, I just use a Headlamp for that.

 

[RalphJeepGuy]

yeah grab a magnetic work light and just clamp it to the winch or bumper. way cheaper than anything fancy and does the job. ive got one on mine that was like 30 bucks and it's bright enough to see what you're doing when you're pulling somebody out at night. beats trying to use your phone light or whatever

 

[grubworm]

that is when you get the wife to hold a flashlight...

if you're stuck at night, you know you are going to be catching hell from the passenger seat. get her outside holding a flashlight...even if you don't really need it...her constant shrieking will repel mosquitoes and all small/large varmints, pretty much everything just shy of a really hungry polar bear will flee the area. also, the incessant fussing will give you superhuman power to extricate the vehicle in record time...