Winch and Battery on antique ATV/UTV

[John_Mc]

I have old Coot ATV/UTV. That I would like to install a winch on. I've got a 2" receiver on the back, so will probably make up something to have a 2" receiver on the front as well to have the ability to swap it back and forth.

I'm wondering about the battery: The Coot is powered by a 16HP Briggs Vanguard engine (replacing the stock 12-14 HP Tecumseh). If I remember correctly, it has a 16 Amp alternator. The battery is the type you would expect to see in a riding lawnmower. Obviously too small for use with a winch. Unfortunately, the space for the battery is too tight to fight anything bigger in there. The Coot consists of two tubs, joined at pivot in the middle. Battery, engine, and transmission are in the front tub. I like keeping the rear tub empty for hauling stuff, but I could just put a deep cycle battery back there temporarily when I need it for winching, and remove it when need the cargo space.

I was thinking of hooking up the deep cycle battery in parallel to the stock battery when I'm likely to need it. I'm curious whether there are problems paralleling two very different batteries. I know starting batteries don't like to be deep-cycled, and deep cycle batteries don't like the heavy current draw of starting (maybe that's not too much of an issue, since it's just starting a 16 HP V-twin, and not a big diesel engine?) Am I asking for trouble connecting them together? I do know they need to be the same type of battery (i.e. don't mix a flooded lead acid with an AGM) and they should both be in a similar state of charge before connecting them together (to avoid the fuller battery "dumping" it's charge into the drained one at an unsafe rate). Just curious what others have done in this circumstance.

 

[leonz]

I would not risk doing that and just purchase the largest 12 volt battery you can afford and simply charge it as needed as you risk damaging the wiring from the higher amperage. The trouble with deep cycle batteries is that they do not last very long if they are not used often. I am on my third in my dump trailer and it is 6 years old.

 

[ovrszd]

I would fabricate a battery box for a full sized deep cycle battery. You most certainly have space for it if you search a little. Then your winch will actually be productive and be worth hauling around.

 

[jaxs]

Whatever you decide,get yourself a smart charger and leave it connected to starting battery or winch battery when not in use. That will assure 100% charge when need arise's but just as important,battery life will double or triple. The problem with connecting large battery to on board system is overtaxing charging system when large battery need's recharge.

 

[John_Mc]

I would not risk doing that and just purchase the largest 12 volt battery you can afford and simply charge it as needed as you risk damaging the wiring from the higher amperage. The trouble with deep cycle batteries is that they do not last very long if they are not used often. I am on my third in my dump trailer and it is 6 years old.

I'm not understanding how I will damage the wiring. The winch will be attached directly to the deep cycle battery. That battery paralleled to the existing battery. The alternator will only put out 16 amps, and the wiring there will handle that easily.

 

[John_Mc]

Whatever you decide,get yourself a smart charger and leave it connected to starting battery or winch battery when not in use. That will assure 100% charge when need arise's but just as important,battery life will double or triple. The problem with connecting large battery to on board system is overtaxing charging system when large battery need's recharge.

Already have several of them - with a desulfating circuit.

 

[dfkrug]

The battery is the type you would expect to see in a riding lawnmower. Obviously
too small for use with a winch. Unfortunately, the space for the battery is too tight to fight anything bigger in there..

I have a 2500# winch that I use to pull dead ATVs up into my PU truck bed. Rather than wire it into the
truck's battery, I just plug in an AGM 1280 battery, the kind you often see in burglar alarms and UPS devices. It
is smaller than most ATV and lawn tractor batteries. Works fine.

BTW, this is the same winch often found on ATVs, but I have the wireless remote. That came in handy
when I was rescuing a dead quad in a steep vineyard this summer. It took 140' of cable and
rope, plus one snatch block.

If this were a 10000# winch on a 3/4T PU, I would not use this kind of battery, of course.

 

[jaxs]

I'm not understanding how I will damage the wiring. The winch will be attached directly to the deep cycle battery. That battery paralleled to the existing battery. The alternator will only put out 16 amps, and the wiring there will handle that easily.

The smallest winch I have is a 2,500LB magnet motor that pull's 25 amps spooling cable with no load. At full load it
pull's 160 amps. 12 guage wire between batteries might be sufficient unless primary(starting battery) lost a cell. 8 guage would be the minium then. But as I said earlier,for the benefit of your 16 amp alternator,you shouldn't alow the two batteries to demand max output for very long. As desighned with the small battery,the alternator would only briefly be putting out 16 amps then taper off. After winch discharge's dual batteries,the amp demand can far exceed 16 amps. Ask your atv dealer or check your owner's manual regarding oversized battery,more so duals. I have isolators and overcurrent protectors on my dump and utility trailers for the very same reasons.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

I put a Sure Power 1314 Smart Battery Isolator on my CAN AM Outlander 800 and RZR 800 for the second batteries I run .

When the battery gets up in the 13V range the isolator closes and starts charging the second battery, if the draw is so much that it draws down the main battery into the 12v range then it disconnects and will wait to the main battery gains full charge.

Switches can be added to turn off the isolator and also one to force it to connect to boost start mode along with a status light showing the mode.

Wire it in with good wire and put a 30amp resetting or 50amp manual reset breaker in line to keep a deep discharge battery from dragging the system down.

David

 

[John_Mc]

The smallest winch I have is a 2,500LB magnet motor that pull's 25 amps spooling cable with no load. At full load it
pull's 160 amps. 12 gauge wire between batteries might be sufficient unless primary(starting battery) lost a cell. 8 gauge would be the minimum then. But as I said earlier,for the benefit of your 16 amp alternator,you shouldn't alow the two batteries to demand max output for very long. As designed with the small battery,the alternator would only briefly be putting out 16 amps then taper off. After winch discharge's dual batteries,the amp demand can far exceed 16 amps. Ask your atv dealer or check your owner's manual regarding oversized battery,more so duals. I have isolators and overcurrent protectors on my dump and utility trailers for the very same reasons.

Thanks, I was aware that the winch drew substantially more than the alternator could keep up with. I assumed the alternator (on a modern 16HP Briggs Vanguard engine) had some protection to keep it from damaging itself under a heavy or continuous load. I guess I should not assume that. The wiring between the two batteries would 6 gauge, because I have plenty of that (I also have some 4 gauge, but figured that would be overkill).

There is no dealer to check with. These vehicles (known as a Coot) went out of production about 40 years ago.

Thanks Jaxs & David_Kb7uns for the suggestion on the isolator and overcurrent protection. I'll look in to that.