Hey guys just had a potential problem with the factory winch, the Warn Zeon Platinum 10s. The winch is remote operated with a wifi pairing system. The problem is that the winch can potentially NOT pair with the remote and then you have to reboot the system. The only way this can be done is by turning the winch off and then back on again which then allows for the winch to pair with the remote and thus be operational again. The problem is when you have the winch hidden, access to the on off switch is impossible to reach through the grating of the bull bar or other mounting systems.









There are a couple of options that can be done. First Land Rover has a method of rebooting the car itself which involves a multiple of strange restarts that I refused to try as my luck with British electronics is not good. Alternately, a remote placement of the control can be done placing the switch in the engine bay either using a Warn factory kit or a custom switch of your own design. I decided to cut a small window in the grating to allow for a simple manual reboot using the standard switch in its current mounted position.




Now I can simply reach in with my left hand and access the switch.


I hope this helps some people out there with this problem. Glad I found out about it prior to me having this problem on the trails!

 

I just can’t understand how the incredibly well-thought-out and easily installed OEM winch kit could possibly have any kind of a problem.

Seriously though, glad you arrived at a solution.

 

I've had to reset mine a couple of times. The fusible link is easily accessed under the hood, disconnecting it, waiting about 10 seconds and reconnecting it will do the trick.

 

Yes I thought about this as well, I figured this would be a common occurrence and I wanted to just access the power button but that is another great idea thanks for including it!

 

Just so I understand, please. On the OEM installed wireless winch, it is designed to always be live (have power supplied) and the wi-fi link between the winch and winch control is to always be active?

But, sometimes the wi-fi link fizzes out (not sure what is the techical term)? If so, is there a warning on the dash or elsewhere that the wi-fi link has gone asunder?

 

In the hidden cradle mount, access to the power button is not possible. As such it is always on, you can install a custom switch or the Warn control pack relocation kit and have it mounted in the engine bay but this is not what is normally done by the dealerships. Because the remote is wireless it can power down very easily and then lose connectivity via the wifi and an error can occur that somehow prevents the wifi from pairing to the remote and the winch. This usually looks like on the remote when accessing the winch icon the remote won't access the icon and it simply wont allow you to use the winch. You press on the winch icon and nothing happens. You then try to pair the 2 using the wifi and it doesn't work and freezes. Only a reboot of the winch itself will allow the pairing to take place, which requires either disconnect from the power source or rebooting the car itself or simply turning it off and on which is impossible with the bull bar and hidden cradle mounts without cutting a hole in the grating. Hope this helps

 

A wifi winch remote... what could possibly go wrong. JLR truly has a bunch of former elementary school teachers in charge of the Defender line.

Why couldn't they just include this? Or is it an option?

 

race7117:

Thank you, yes this helps in understanding. It sounds similar to my home internet and my networked computer, which sometimes over the night just decide to take a break from one another -- until such time as I reboot the router and / or reboot the computer. I can never tell which will help, so just do both.

I think you made the right choice to cut a manual access hole to the hit the on/off button on the winch -- maybe its cleaner and safer than disconnecting the fuse?

But, yes, either will work it seems. So too will adding a remote hi-amp power switch under the hood, as others on this site have done -- and/or or putting in a non-wifi winch and just using the wire displayed by stillruns.

I opted for both the latter options, a switch and a wire controlled winch -- cause I figured the switch would help remind me to always have the engine started before I turned on the main power switch (to not over amp the cars wiring-- something the OEM install starter/winch cut-out does automatically) -- and because using the wire avoids wifi (something I am too old to trust solely).

it's very interesting living on the cutting edge of wireless Defender connections !! So it goes. Enjoy the adventure !!

 

any other trick needed? I undid that fuse, waited, and reconnected. Unfortunately all it did was break the connection to the remote completely. Before it showed X when car off and no bars of signal when on. Now it’s X all the time and re-pairing on remote times out

 

Question for those of you with the LR winch. Is there a way to just plug in a Warn wired controller to it? Or no. Guessing no. ???