How to Install the RC4WD Winch Kit on a Traxxas TRX-4

As the scale market just continues to explode, there are a lot of people looking to add more and more accessories to their scale vehicles. One of the more popular is the RC4WD Winch. We have been hearing a lot of people are unsure about wiring it up, and what it takes, so here is a little ‘how to’ article and video to show some of the steps to make it happen. It’s actually easier then you might think, you just need to take your time, follow the steps and your good to go.
The goal of this project was to install the winch and have it usable with the single battery that also powers the vehicle. It’s a little easier if you want to use a separate power source, but where is the fun in that?

We decided to throw our winch on the TRX-4 Bronco, but the bumper that comes stock on the Bronco does not really fit well for a winch. We ended up taking the front bumper off of our Defender. It’s a much more proper fit for the winch.

We used the RC4WD Wireless Remote and Receiver Control Set since all of the channels are already used on the TRX-4.
Next we needed to put some holes in the Defender bumper to mount the winch. We just used a body reamer to make the holes once we got it lined up where we thought it should go. Screw down the winch to the bumper, and you are ready for the next step.

Now we have to deal with power. We wanted to use the same battery that runs the vehicle to run the winch. We popped out the two wires from the TRX-4 Traxxas battery connector. To keep things simple, we are going to just solder our receiver power wires to the wires in the battery connector.
Take the power connector with the Tamiya plug end out of the package and cut off that connector. Strip the two ends so you have some wire to solder up, then make it happen. Red to Red and Black to Black. When you are done, make sure you put the red and black wires back in the CORRECT way in the Traxxas connector. Red is positive (+) black is negative (-).

Back to the winch, connect the white connector from the winch to the other white connector that goes to the receiver box. Then take the black connector (that is on the other end of the wires you just soldered up) and plug that into the receiver box.

At this point you should be about done and ready to test. Plug in a battery, find the RC4WD Warn remote and give it a test.

If you got lost in those directions, make sure to check out the video. It’s a pretty simple project, and as long as you are ok at soldering it should take about 15 minutes start to finish. you may want to click over to Youtube so you can see the video in a larger window.

Special thanks to RC4WD for helping make the Winch and Wireless Remote how-to possible.

Good luck with the project! Did the video and the instructions help? Make sure to hit those LIKE and Subscribe buttons, and we will do more how-to guides in the future.