I have a warn Tabor winch installed on my 4runner. The other day out in the backcountry I had to wincha guy out - powered out the line. When I went to power it back all it did was click when it was under load. So I hit reverse & got a ton of mud on his ride and I got him out.

So I was thinking connections to the battery are dirty? and not allowing the load amperage through?

Anybodt else encounter this. The battery is only about 6 months old & haven't had any problem starting it. On a side note I have started to hear that alternator whine through the speakers - and I never had it before. Could these be related?

 

ground!

generally the postitive goes right to the windings, but the ground has to make its way through castings or fittings or whatever to get to the motor.

if you encounter it again try a jumper cable from the battery neg to a location on the winch and see if that helps.

 

I have both the negative from the winch & the positive going to the battery (I think, I will look when I get home). I think there are the two wires on this one so it isn't grounded through the mount. It would spool under power after, just not under load

 

How far did you power spool out? Could have heated it up running steady that long (even under little load). Doesn't it free spool out?

 

I only spooled out about 15 feet. Yes it does free spool but I didn't feel like getting too dirty getting to the switch. It spooled back in with no problem so I don't think it overheated

 

Was the truck running at the time? Could be that the battery is going, and could supply the power to run it with no load, but couldn't supply the additional required for pulling the load.

I have had bad batteries (and alternators for that matter) create alternator whine. Take it to Sears or whatever and have them both tested.

 

Truck was running, Battery is only 6mo old & alternator is about a year old. Voltage is good & no problem lights. Started in -30*C no problem.

 

Bad grounding somewhere.
My winch problem was bad grounding through the bolts.

 

Remember a winch only pulls it's full capacity with all the cable spooled out(leave at least 5 wraps). Is it possible you stalled the winch trying to pull too much weight?

 

You should check that your connections to the battery are not on the side posts, but rather on the top posts. I've had problems in the past with side post winch connections.