Heading to pick up cables now. But what’s the difference if I have them direct connected vs through the bus bar if they are all tied to the second battery anyway? Also, hot lead to the rocker switch coming right from the winch solenoid too?
Without knowing what the winch manufacturer recommends for wire size or installation techniques, my guess is you are just starving the winch of available amperage. So its pulling all the available amperage from your buss bar, causing the rest of the accessories to malfunction.
If the battery is properly sized for your working load and in good working order, it should handle all the load of the winch and various accessories. Provided each accessory receives enough amperage to make it work properly. So what limits available amperage ?? Generally the size of the wire being used and the quality of the wire.
If the size of the wire going to your buss bar is smaller than the size that came with the winch, it can be a problem. Then throw on the rest of the accessories and the problem gets worse.
In addition, your ground wire should be of equal or one size larger than the power wire. It just works better. I like to use a circuit breaker (or fuse) rated for the stall/maximum pull load of the winch on the main power wire. My 2500 Warn winch requires an 80 Amp. I like to mount them as close to the battery as possible just for safety.
The power feed wire for the rocker switch should work off the buss bar, once you connect the main winch power wire to the battery.
Hope other more knowledgeable folks will "chime in".
