Well there's the problem (winch)

[SCRubicon]

I did a little unwanted modification to my winch today. I noticed the rubber cap was off of the power socket as I was going into the house. It was packed with all kinds of road goodies and quite a bit of rust. Upon closer inspection there were 3 little extras on the pins. What were the extras you ask? They just happened to be the barrel connectors out of the winch remote - as in the ones that slide onto the pins to make electrical contact. I cleaned the crud out and decided to plug in the remote to see if it would work. Sure did, worked great until I went to unplug the remote. (good thing the garage wasn't full of acetylene ;)) Oh the wonderful sparks! Hopefully that was my final derrrrp moment of 2011... Anyhow, the last time I used the winch was October when I was on Golden Spike. Have to email Sh*ttybilt to see where I can get replacement parts to fix er' up. Good times! I'll contribute more tech stuff to the thread when the fixin' commences.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/SteveChabala/Random%20Junk1/phpVzu2ZRPM.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/SteveChabala/Random%20Junk1/phpjjmH5fPM.jpg

[Brody]

Nice!

You may be able to find the pins needed at Radio Shack, but I wouldn't bet on it. I wired in a regular X number of pin trailer plug (both sides) into my Warn when the same kind of thing happened and it worked great. I later cleaned up the Warn plug with Radio Shack goodies and redid all of the wiring more because I had a long remote I like to use on either Warn winches if I have to.

[Chris]

Good opportunity to bring the control to the dash!

[Patrolman]

Yep, just a regular trailer plug is the way to go. That is what my 8274 uses as well as my older Ramsey. Generic parts, easy to find, and actually made to see weather.

[Mporter]

Good opportunity to bring the control to the dash!

Thanks for reminding me! Yet another thing on the to-do list.

Sorry to hear about your winch Steve, hopefully it's an easy (and cheap) fix.

[mattzj98]

how do you like your winch other than the plug problem?

[SCRubicon]

how do you like your winch other than the plug problem?

I like it a lot. It is pretty decent for being a 8K pound rated - budget minded winch. You can get them for $299. For $200 more you can get the 12k rated model. Apparently Smitty changed the plug and remote over the years to something better. If you're looking for a winch check out http://www.winchdepot.com - they have good deals and free shipping.

[Fordguy77]

Every once in a while the 12k smittybilt goes on sale on amazon for 329$ Id say about once every 3 months for about 2 weeks it happens. Just have to be lucky and catch it.

[Brody]

That is a steal for $264 for an $8k winch, Chris!

[SCRubicon]

$264 wow, and did I see free shipping too? That is a great deal!

[Chris]

That is a steal for $264 for an $8k winch, Chris!

Vs $300 for a used Warn?

[Popsgarage]

There's a new winch company called Engo that has a 12k for $449 with steel line and $499 with synthetic line at https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/categories.php

[mattzj98]

If you're looking for a winch check out http://www.winchdepot.com - they have good deals and free shipping.

not looking for one as I got one a few months ago when I got a bumper installed but I never really got to use it except for just fun that's why I wanted to hear about yours. I got a bulldog, was reasonably priced its an 8500 lbs I think.

Thanks a lot for the info though, I'm gonna get back to the website when its time to upgrade!

[Heather]

Such good info! Hope your fix is easy and cheap, Steve.

[Chris]

That is a steal for $264 for an $8k winch, Chris!

Yeah, I've looked at that numerous times. I might have to go that route!

[SCRubicon]

And we're back...

After going back and forth with Smittybilt I followed Brody's suggestion and went over to Radio Shack. (that place has changed a lot - remember when the Shack was pretty much a build it yourself parts supplier?) Way in the back corner bins they had 3 pin connectors...yeah baby. Turns out their XLR panel-mount audio connector ($6.49) was like a direct replacement for what Mr. Bilt put on his winches...


Wires out of the control box to be stripped

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/SteveChabala/Random%20Junk1/DSCN5191.jpg

Old connector, new connector and remote cable

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/SteveChabala/Random%20Junk1/DSCN5189.jpg

Took the remote cable connector apart and doodled down the wire color placement

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/SteveChabala/Random%20Junk1/DSCN5190.jpg

Eric came over with his iron and extra set of hands to solder the wires on for me...good times, quick, easy

New connector in place - the rubber gasket seals so much tighter on this plug :thumb:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/SteveChabala/Random%20Junk1/DSCN5196.jpg

Now, the remote is the male end and the control box is the female end. Everything works and is ready for the trail!!! :woot:

[Popsgarage]

Nice fix. Radio Shack is good for small parts like that.

[glacierpaul]

Nice Steve, got r done!

[Cr33p3r]

Good to see you got it fixed Steve, now I'll have to remember this thread so if I have this problem with either one of my Smittybilts.

[Funrover]

Glad you got her fixed!

[Brody]

Glad that you got it fixed! I liked the old Radio Shack a lot better. It was more geared to people who fixed, repaired or built ****. Now it seems to be geared toward people who can only match plug ins...which most monkeys can do.

At least there is still enough interest in the repair/building that they still stock some stuff.

[Chris]

Where did they get the name Radio Shack?

[Brody]

It started out as Tandy. I remember getting radio and stereo parts from Tandy mail order when I was a kid. Same with buying leather products from what was then known as Tandy Leather.

In 1970, Tandy Corporation bought Allied Radio (both retail and industrial divisions), and began to merge the brands into Allied Radio Shack. However, after a federal government review, the company sold off the remaining Allied retail stores and resumed using the Radio Shack name. The industrial division (Allied Electronics) continued as a Tandy division until the 1990s, when it was sold.

Radio Shack had another big hit with products designed to take advantage of the Family Radio Service, a short-range walkie-talkie system. Since the mid-1990s, the company has attempted to move into the consumer small components markets, focusing on marketing wireless phones.

In 1993, Len Roberts became president of Radio Shack. He had previously spent more than 20 years in the food industry, beginning with Ralston-Purina, where he served in various management and marketing positions.

In 1994, the company introduced a service known as "The Repair Shop at Radio Shack", through which it provided inexpensive out-of-warranty repairs for more than 45 different brands of electronic equipment.[9] The company already had extensive parts warehouses and 119 regional repair centers, and hoped to leverage these to build customer relationships and increase store traffic. Len Roberts estimated that the new repair business could generate $500 million per year by 1999.[10] As of May 2009, this service is still being offered. The service was also offered in Canada.

In early summer 1995, the company launched a new logo. "Radio Shack" was subsequently spelled in CamelCase as "RadioShack".

More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadioShack#Tandy_Corporation

[Chris]

Isn't the web wonderful? The version I heard was that Radio Shack is what the radio room on top of mountains, aircraft carriers, etc are known as and thus the source of the name.

[SCRubicon]

I sure miss the aisles full of capacitors, piezo buzzers, breadboards, resistors, dc motors, VU meters, diodes, speakers, lights, potentiometers, electronics manuals...bla bla bla...yackity schmackity... Nowadays the punk kid register jockeys only want to sell you a crappy cell phone. :frown: