Winch wiring

6839 · Mar 28, 2013

Newbe here. Looking for suggestions on how to power a winch on a equipment trailer (10k, 18'). Separate battery won't work as the trailer won't be used that often. Direct wiring is a little expensive. Heard a suggestion of splicing booster cables together to go from tow vehicle to winch mounted on trailer. What gauge wire will be needed? Can I ground the winch to the trailer & run one wire to + side of tow vehicle battery. Anything will be helpful.

Semper Fi

Diamondpilot · Mar 28, 2013

I use my jumper box. Have for 10 years and it works great.

Short of that you will have to run a heavy gauge wire the entire length of the truck, 4ga or better.

A dedicated battery and cheap solar charger will be the cheapest way in the long run, about $100.

Chris

radioman · Mar 28, 2013

Honestly -- a heavy gauge wire can be expensive to be run all the way to tow vehicle, esp it you gotta use it with your tractor. most on road vehicles is setup anyways with thinner wire to charge the battery to trailer and this is easy and cheap to do on a tractor as well. I really like diamond pilot suggestion too - a portable jumpeer battery to be used in a pinch but also keep a solar trickle charger on all the time.

ovrszd · Mar 28, 2013

I'm with Diamondpilot. Have done that several times with success as most pulls are short and not extremely heavy load.

6839 · Mar 28, 2013

Diamondpilot said:
I use my jumper box. Have for 10 years and it works great.

Short of that you will have to run a heavy gauge wire the entire length of the truck, 4ga or better.

A dedicated battery and cheap solar charger will be the cheapest way in the long run, about $100.

Chris

Thanks, for the suggestions. I'd probably won't use the trailer 2-3 times a year, so that's why I was looking for a different set up than a battery. Wouldn't you have to get the jumper box charged up also?

6839 · Mar 28, 2013

Kind of new at this. I think I just sent a reply to myself. Wouldn't you have to keep the jumper box charged at all times? Isn't there a battery in those? This trailer is for farm use. Getting tired of paying 200-300 when I need to move the tractor. Thanks for the suggestions.

Semper Fi

ovrszd · Mar 28, 2013

Yes, they have a battery in them. My jumper box sits in the shop for months at a time between uses. It holds charge very well and I only charge it after heavy use. I rarely use my winch too. That's why the jumper works so good.

6839 · Mar 28, 2013

Thank you. Someone suggested a JNC950 I think it means a jump n carry 950. What do you have/use/recommend I consider?

6839 · Mar 28, 2013

Anyone heard of a JNC950 from Jumpstarter.com? Tried the website but couldn't pull it up. Saw a Jump-n-carry 950, but not sure it's the same thing.

Semper Fi

Diamondpilot · Mar 28, 2013

6839 said:
Thanks, for the suggestions. I'd probably won't use the trailer 2-3 times a year, so that's why I was looking for a different set up than a battery. Wouldn't you have to get the jumper box charged up also?

Yea. I keep two charged up at all times. One at home and on at the shop.

Chris

schmism · Mar 28, 2013

extra battery, just used for winch duty.... kept in the shop on a trickle charger.... or your trolling motor battery.... or your RV battery.... or ......

same idea as a jump box, just larger capacity.

94BULLITT · Mar 28, 2013

schmism said:
extra battery, just used for winch duty.... kept in the shop on a trickle charger.... or your trolling motor battery.... or your RV battery.... or ......

same idea as a jump box, just larger capacity.

That is what I do. I have a few old car battiers I use.

Willl · Mar 28, 2013

If you want to do a run from your main battery, running ground thru the frame works fine.

Used a Anderson powerpole 175 amp connector between truck and trailer.

CliffordK · Mar 28, 2013

Your choice of connections would depend a bit on how much you wish to use the winch with the trailer.

I added a receiver to the front of my Blazer.

Made with a piece of channel iron, and a receiver tube.

It is more securely connected to my winch than my winch is connected to my bumper or frame.

Anyway, so all I do is insert a drop hitch.
Pull up to the trailer and hook on.

The advantage of the hitch is that I now have control of the trailer.

And I have a great multi-purpose winch.

I haven't used it with a tilt trailer though.

Soundguy · Mar 28, 2013

i put a bat on the trailer that is charged when hooke dup to the trailer plug. works great for a electric winch.. wireing is easy.. 90% of it is already there..

Oliver1655 · Mar 31, 2013

I hooked mine up like Sound Guy. The battery operates a 12,000 winch & the hydraulic pump for the trailer tilt. I have the winch mounted on a 1/4" plate welded to a section of 2" x 1/4" wall square tubing which slides into a standard receiver hitch & have wired it with short lengths of #2 copper wire with welding lead connectors to make placing the winch into operation a snap. The battery on the trailer has matching cables attached. (The positive (+) is a female & the negative (-) is a male to help prevent it from being connected backwards. I also have a heavy set of battery cables which have a pair of the welding connectors on one end to allow me to use the winch anywhere I have a battery available.
Some of the ways I use my winch: Skid logs with tractor, load vehicle on trailer, mounts on boom on loader & can pull up well pumps (The boom reaches 29' in the air), vehicle recovery, stretching fence, ...

2458n · Apr 1, 2013

My warn winch (12000) has always worn the battery jumper box down before getting the load on the trailer. I use a 1000amp top post autozone battery with the harbor freight solar battery charger always hooked up. This is sometimes not enough. Out comes the 24 ft jumper cables to the two batteries under the diesels hood. This is exactly why commercial rigs run PTO or Hyd. winches.

Oliver1655 · Apr 7, 2013

2458n - That is Weird! On a full charge, my 1000 CCA battery (has dual terminals) when not hooked up to a charging source will run the hydraulic pump to tilt my trailer, run the 12,000 lb Badland winch from Harbor Freight to load a full sized van, lower the trailer to transport position, Re-tilt & lower at delivery point, run the winch for a controlled unload (though most of the time I just let the vehicle roll), & still have battery to spare. Have you done a load test on your battery to check for a bad cell?

Diamondpilot · Apr 7, 2013

Oliver1655 said:
2458n - That is Weird! On a full charge, my 1000 CCA battery (has dual terminals) when not hooked up to a charging source will run the hydraulic pump to tilt my trailer, run the 12,000 lb Badland winch from Harbor Freight to load a full sized van, lower the trailer to transport position, Re-tilt & lower at delivery point, run the winch for a controlled unload (though most of the time I just let the vehicle roll), & still have battery to spare. Have you done a load test on your battery to check for a bad cell?

Same here. My winch is only 4500# but I have loaded 3 cars in a 2 hour period using my jump box with no sign of slowing down.

Chris