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Trailer Winch Question

Started by solodan, April 16, 2006, 07:39:58 PM

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solodan

Just wondering the best way  to power my trailer winch.

I just run jumper cables from my trucks battery, but there must be a better way.

Can I pull power from the 6 pole connector?

I know they sell wiring kits for trailer and rear mounted  winches, but the trailer plug already has power to it. :-\

james

the hot wire on your plug in is way to small probally only a 10 guage or so you want a 4ga or better #0 or #00 prefered for that long of a run for the kind of amps a winch draws running too wmall of a wire can not only burn op the wireing but your truck and winch as well
james

stumpy

I gaught some #4 welding cable and made a short lead connected to the battery permanent and the other end(about 3' through the front grille and bumper)has a square quick connect bought at a WW Grainger.  I then made a longer one that would reach from the front of the truck back to the trailer.  You need pretty large wire so as to not over heat or cause a voltage drop.
Woodmizer LT30, NHL785 skidsteer, IH 444 tractor

Dan_Shade

if you have a winch of any size on your trailer, you may want to consider putting a deep cycle battery on the trailer, and use one of the smaller wires in the connector to keep it charged up.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

logwalker

I use a set of connectors that anderson makes for that exact pupose. They are two-pole and only go together one way. They come in at least three sizes. Up to 350 amps that I know of. You can do a search on ebay in electrical for anderson and they will pop up.

Do you know what size you would need to use. Get your amp rating and pm me and I can help you select a size. I have some of the 50 amp type. You need a pair to make a connection. LW
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

Gary_C

The best way to run a trailer mounted winch or hydraulic power unit is with a deep cycle battery on the trailer and then use the hot wire in the trailer plug to recharge while you are driving.

Most vehicles have both a fuse and an ignition switch relay on that hot wire to the trailer. Even with the battery on the trailer, you should NOT run the winch with the truck running and connected or you will blow the fuse. If you put in a larger fuse, as I did, you can overheat your alternator, also as I did.

One of the problems with these new vehicle alternators that have special voltage regulators and static supressors to protect the radios, cell phones, CD players, and the on board computers is they do not tolerate overloads very well. I have crashed my 2002 Ford F-350 alternator twice and most rebuilders will not rebuild them. When you put a new alternator on you are supposed to charge the battery with a battery charger, not the alternator.

So be careful when you use a high current motor in a winch on your trailer or you will have electrical problems on your truck.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

mikeandike

I put a regular cranking battery (high amps) on then front of my
trailer for pulling logs into it. Also we built a heavy triangular ramp
with rollers at the middle and the top to get them up to the trailer.

The battery easily fills the trailer without a recharge. I have made
2 trips without a recharge. 10,000 pound appr. Warn winch. I
haven't tried the snatch blocks yet.

If I'm going after anything that that winch & trailer won't bring home,
then I'll just bring the Mack with the Prentice loader.    ;D
Looking for a slabber
WMLT40HD

ohsoloco

Solodan, check out the "snatched a BIG one" thread that's on the same page as this thread, we've been talking about this sort of thing for the past few days.  I ran 2/0 welding cable from my battery through a master disconnect switch, and then zip tied the cable to my frame as I ran it to the back of the truck.  I used a pair of welding cable connectors for my positive wires, and thought I would be grounded well enough to leave it at that.  No such luck  ::) so I simply drilled and tapped a hole in my truck bumper to hook the negative wire to when I hook up the winch (9000 lb. Superwinch).  Never had any electrical problems with the truck, other than melting those lead terminal connectors  :D

I gotta take some more pictures  ;)

solodan

I  do need to put a new breakaway system on the trailer, so a deep cycle in place of the small breakaway batery may be better. I still like the idea of running cable all the way back to the rear bumper. Has anyone ever used the winch wiring kits, or a similar setup with the big 2 pin connector.

DR_Buck

I use a deep cycle battery mounted on the winch that is wired parallel with the break-away break battery to charge it while on the road.  When I am loading more than a few small logs I have a pair of welding cables fitted with quick disconnects that I plug in parallel with the truck batteries and I leave the truck running.  I have never run down the winch battery using this method.
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

solodan

I like that idea.  :)
That way I can use the deep cycle for something else or another winch, like a poratable one, and still have the break away system operational. What size deep cycle is needed for a 9000# winch? and for the guys using welding cables, how much line drop do you get? With a crewcab lb + the tonge I have about 27 feet from the batteries to the winch. :-\

slowzuki

Heres the catch, a deep cycle is good for running a small winch a long time sucking it down low but it doesn't like short high peak loads a big winch puts on it.  That type of load is better suited for a cranking battery.

Deep cycle batteries have thick plates and high internal resistance.  They can survive multiple deep discharge cycles.  Cranking batteries have thin plates and are designed to provide high amps for cranking but don't like deep discharge.

So if you are running a winch intermittantly and charging between uses from the alternator or truck, go cranking battery with an isolator to limit the load drawn from your truck alternator to save burning it up.

If you are running the winch long and hard with no charging, get a pair of deep cycle batteries if the winch is fairly big.  Using a big winch under highload on an insufficently sized deep cycle just makes the voltage drop and you can burn up your winch motor brushes and windings.

getoverit

I have an 8000# blue mountain winch on my trailer, and I also have a deep cycle battery mounted on the trailer. I use a solar battery charger (trickle) to keep it charged.  I wish I had a bigger winch..

There are times when I have run the battery down on the trailer, and I use a long set of jumper cables to charge it from the truck battery. I really need to run something more permanent to the trailer for this purpose, but right now the jumper cables work fine.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

solodan

I was thinking of a deep cycle and a solar charger too.
I have not heard anything bad about the solar chargers and the price seems right. What is your opinion on them. Also how long does it take before your battery is drained. Can you load a full row of logs at least?

RoadKill

If you can justify the cost, the best battery for this application is spiral wound Optima battery.  They have great deep cycle ability and great high current delivery.  The "yellow top" series is made for this type of combined use and is very rugged, although expensive.   You still need to mount one at the winch or run heavy cables from your truck battery to carry the load without excessive voltage drop or connector failure.

You can estimate the solar charge rate by figuring the output of the solar charger and comparing to the amp hrs used in loading.  For example, a Warn 3700 uses 300 amps at full load, so if you use at 200 A for a total of 15 minutes, you use up 50 amp hrs (at 12V), or about 600 watt hrs.  A $100 solar panel for charging 12V batteries from northern toolhttps://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=position"> Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company puts out 15 watts, so it would take 40 hrs of strong sunlight to recharge 15 min of moderately hard use.  Plus some for inefficiency. 

Everyone I know who uses a trailer mounted winch for loading vehicles onto the trailer uses a trailer mounted battery.

Yah, born in da UP, but 20 yeahs heah neah Baahstin.

rebocardo

They are only for topping a battery off, the ones I have seen for under $200 only put out 1 amp if that. They are meant to prevent a dead battery over months of inactivity.

getoverit

I'm pretty sure my solar charger puts out about 2 amps. I dont use the trailer every day, so it gets plenty of time to recharge beore it is used again. I usually only get one tree at a time, and at most there would be 3 logs (BIG logs)

I have depleted the charge on my marine battery several times doing this. It seems that when the truck is running and I have it jumpered off to the trailer battery, I have plenty of power to load the logs.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

scsmith42

Like others, I have batteries on  my trailer which stay charged though the trailer connector.

As a backup, I have a set of 30' jumper cables that I made from 2/0 welding cable, and these will reach from the batteries at the front of the dually to the battery on the trailer tongue.  The welding cable will handle the current w/o a problem.

On the plus side, if you make jumper cables instead of a dedicated wiring run, you can use them for other purposes (such as jumping off equipment).  On the negative side, 60' of 2/0 welding cable is not cheap...

RE the solar chargers, the best one that I am aware of is made by Battery Minder.  Once the battery is charged it goes into a pulse "desulphanation" mode, which keeps the sulfides from building up on the battery plates.  I own several of the 120Volt versions of these chargers, and am getting two to three times the life out of my batteries as a result (8 years on motorcycle batteries which typically  last for 2; 10 years on my generator battery, etc).

Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Nate Surveyor

This is where my winch question should have gone. Mr Moderator, if you moved it here, it would be appreciated.



Nate
I know less than I used to.

LedlieLogs

I have the battry on the trailer. Deep cycle, marine, Neverstart from Wally World. Not the worlds best battery for sure. My winch is a Superwinch 3000. To small really for this kind of work but I'll use it till it blows or I find a bigger one for the right price. I have an on board charger on the rig. It is weather proof and you just pulg it in when you get home and it will not over charge the battery. About $20.00 at cheapo freight. I have only run two loads in a day, about 6000# per load. Battery held up fine for those loads. May go hydro in the future.

Wildlife Action, GA. A great place for kids. No lights, no phone, no motorcars, not a single luxury. Just the GREAT OUTDOORS and the reason I am learning to mill and build small log cabins.

solodan

What I ended up doing was putting a deep cycle on the trailer and keep it charged through the trailer connector.  Then some one went into my log yard and cut the 8000# Warn winch off with a battery operated saw. They also made off with the battery and the box that it was mounted inside. >:( >:(  Well now I am going to put a 2" receiver tube where the winch was and use a smaller 4000# that I have mounted to a 2" receiver. I can move the winch from my Rhino, front or rear and put it right on the trailer. I think I will always mount all of my winches this way from now on. :D

LedlieLogs

solodan, sorry to hear about that. I hate a thief more than anything. That is why god put Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson on this earth. It is our duty as citizens to continue the eradication of there breed here in this country.
Ledlie
Wildlife Action, GA. A great place for kids. No lights, no phone, no motorcars, not a single luxury. Just the GREAT OUTDOORS and the reason I am learning to mill and build small log cabins.

solodan

I agree,  problem is they seem to breed in larger numbers  :o ??? ::) >:( :D

olyman

just do as some have said--battery  on the trailer--run heavy wire to the charge wire in the trailer connnector----and as garyc said--truck off when running the winch--toooooo much load on alt---did you know---all alts--are only meant to run 100% duty cycle-----at 60% of the amp rating--or they overheat big time--i rebuild them---seen it----then with winch off--when you start truck--it wont overload---but slowly charge batt----

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