What is this?

[martwizz]

So i got a 2001 L200 single cab. Its awesome. Runs like a dream, everything looks in good working order.

 

There is (was) a small box on the back of the cab which houses two small drums and a bunch of wires. The wires dissapear under the bed of the truck. Until today, i had assumed that they were for towing lights, and i was going to just fix the box and leave it alone. This was until i took a closer look and noticed that they only seemed to be connected one way. Alot of the wires were loose/severed, so i decided to follow the trail.

 

 

To my surprise, they went across the underside of the chassis and towards the engine. I popped the hood and traced them up to the battery. One of the wires was connected to the battery, the other terminated in some strange box thing which was just dangling.

 

 

 

Can anybody enlighten me as to what the hell this is? Ive been searching online and i cant seem to find anything similar. Im not really a mechanic sort of guy, let alone an electrician. From what i can see, it doesnt serve a purpose, so i'd rather remove it than have it connected and exposed as it is, but i want to double check before i start messing about with it!

[Rupe]

It looks to me like a power supply that might have run some equipment in the back of the truck in a previous life. Quite high powered stuff like hydraulics. Im guessing the truck was never a tipper but did it ever have a winch fitted there? A winch for pulling in motorbikes/quads would be my guess, or a boat onto a trailer.

[martwizz]

There are 6 holes drilled into the base of the bed by the cab which i suppose could have been used to mount a winch, i assumed they were drilled as standard. Is it something that looks like it might be worth keeping/repairing? I cant imagine mounting a winch there myself.

 

Otherwise, I guess I should be OK to remove it?

[Rich2484]

Look like control relays for the above, guessing for a winch system or hydraulic motor.

 

Should be able to remove with damaging anything. Is ther a switch inside the cab that does nothing?

[Rupe]

Looking at the picture I would guess that the cut wires include the switch wires, so its unlikly there will be a switch in the cab that does nothing, so all you have there is the large red and black ones bring power direct off the batter, then the four cut ones are power for the winch (or whatever) and two switch wires to control the "whatever" .

 

The box by the battery will be a fuse, and as that is already disconnected it would be totally safe to removed the whole lot and bin it, or ebay it, someone will want it!

[Rupe]

Ignore that, the switch wires could of course have gone into the cab, the fact they are cut does not mean there isnt a switch somewhere in the cab!

[martwizz]

Thanks guys! Looks like i have a little project for the rest of the morning

[Rupe]

10 minutes more like!

[Rich2484]

I would keep it on. It's not just winches that can be run off this type of thing, anything that need a 12 volt supply can run off it. Keep the relay and big wires, could also use it for jumping other machines.

[martwizz]

the unit is bolted from the opposite side of the ladder rack, which looks like it was removed and rewelded at some point

 

Not sure if its going to be a ten minute job I'll wait till i have access to more powertools

 

Rich, i'll see if i can salvage and keep the relay and i'll leave the wires tied up underneath the bed somewhere, having a winch on the bed seems like a cool possibility if i ever wanted to start hauling some big logs up or something.