Can-Am Maverick Forum banner

Can Am 4500 HD winch causing engine to cut out when in use

10K views 25 replies 13 participants last post by  Fordpower88  
#1 · (Edited)
I recently installed the Can Am 4500HD winch on my 20 X3 XDS RR with the Can Am wiring harness. Everytime I hit the winch in/out it causes the engine to cutout ever so slightly. The RPM's drop as do the volts which is to be expected but the engine cuts out at idle or if I'm holding the RPM's at a constant say 3k RPM. Has anybody who has this winch or has one on an XMR/ XRC ever noticed this when using the winch?

I've installed half a dozen Superwinches and have never had this issue. You would feel a dip in RPM but never a quick cutout. Is it possibly due to the winch contactor being mounted directly to the bus bar vs the battery(per BRP instructions) or just nature of the beast with this style winch?


I've attached a couple videos of whats happening as well. Might have to turn up the volume to hear the miss/cutout.


 

Attachments

#2 · (Edited)
probably too much draw on a small low battery
the 900 only has a small charging system 625w or about 45a@14v
a 4500 winch is about 850w or 60a@14v
so that winch could easily kill the motor
add all the watts being used
headlights 100w
fans
radio
fuel pump
not much left for charging
a 1.5hp motor can draw over 1000w
 
#3 ·
Normal, wait until you actually need the winch and put a load on it and see the funky stuff that goes on:alien:

rpm’s drop, voltage goes down, doesn’t take much winching before your winch just cuts off because of lack of power then you got to let it idle for 10 minutes so you can get 15 seconds of winching and then it cuts out again, rinse and repeat.

if you plan on using it much you really need dual batteries or at a minimum a snatch block.
 
#11 ·
For a winch, to the battery. Draw is to high to have on the bus bar. I tried the bus bar first. Couldn’t even get enough to run the winch with most normal items on, went to the battery and fixed the issue. I know I do run a high electric load and will be getting a alternate upgrade this summer.
Actually any cable I have hooked up bigger than a pencil will be going into a distribution block off the battery when I redo it.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I have my front and rear winch hooked directly up to the second battery. I run 2 full throttle batteries which are like 4x the size of oem batteries with a utv wiring dual battery kit. I would imagine you would want to wire directly to the battery but that’s my opinion.

as for 1 large battery I have no knowledge of that. 2 batteries are the way to go if you ask me so if you drain one you have another to start the engine.
Image
 
#10 ·
I did some testing tonight with a voltmeter and found that at the contactor and junction block the power drops from 14.2v idling to 12.8 which still shouldn't cause the miss. I can run the RPM to a steady 3k RPM and hit the switch and everytime it would cause a slight miss when the button is pressed. I'm thinking the draw is too much at the junction block and pulling at initial button hit away from the ignition. I'm going to wire the winch directly to the battery next and see what happens.
 
#13 ·
Air separator, radio, gps, aux lights. Would turn for about a second then flash. After I moved to the battery post (positive) ran just fine. That’s also a 5000 warn. So a tad more draw.
At night, light bar would kill my heater, so I separated those also. Still a trial and error as I wire it up. But those were the only 2 issues I’ve come across so far for electrical.
 
#14 ·
Air separator, radio, gps, aux lights. Would turn for about a second then flash. After I moved to the battery post (positive) ran just fine. That’s also a 5000 warn. So a tad more draw.
At night, light bar would kill my heater, so I separated those also. Still a trial and error as I wire it up. But those were the only 2 issues I’ve come across so far for electrical.
That's quite a bit. Is all that being run off the stock battery?
 
#24 ·
It turns out that I have a short somewhere in the winch harness. When I try to reel in, the ground off the battery negative to the frame melts the insulation. This was the cause of my low volts. I replaced the ground and need to find the short. My winch motor functions properly with an external source.
Anyone have any experience with this?