I'm not concerned with someone stealing it as my bolts are inaccessible.
However at work one of those guys that can be to much fun wrapped my winch cable around a post and back to my jeep. He told me and everyone else about it in the locker room before I left, and we had a good laugh. But it got me to thinking that someone could hook me to another car at the store some day and I wouldn't know it.
I've hooked my relays up so they won't run unless the Ignition is on, but how to secure that cable I'm not sure of.

 

If you have D-ring shackles, run one through the eyelet where your hook attaches and tighten the hell out of it. Then if someone wants it off they're gonna need tools to do so. Best I can think of short of locking it with a padlock to your shackle mount.

 

Weld the hook to your bumper.

 

I have always seen people hook it to the bumper or a ring ect and tighten it down till it has enough tention to no come off unless you walked the cable out....

 

That would work. And just torch it when I go wheeling.
Thanks

 

You didn't say you needed to use it.

 

not much you can do if someone knows how to free spool it.

 

UNless your winch is totally unacessable. Normally if you tension your cable when you hook it up to your dring... you have to spool it out a touch before it will free spool.

Also wiring your winch so your ignition has to be on might not be the smartest thing. Reason why I say this is if you flip/flop your rig... Might not be the best idea to have key on during recovery.

 

could just as easily wire it to a toggle inside instead of the ignition, maybe a better choice. Or if you really want it to the ignition, wire it to accessory instead of key on.

 

I can operate my winch with the rear window sw. on the driver's door. I also have a radio remote on it. So with so much to go wrong I leave the winch free spooled in case it decides to start running on it's own while driving.

 

Resurrecting an old post.
This how I'm going to Lock my Winch.

 

i just disabled the free spool function on mine(aka it doesnt work)