csramsey640

I am installing a 10,000 lb winch on my trailer. I am gonna run a heavy guage wire from the battery back to a quick disconnect, but what about the ground? I dont mind running back up to the battery, but would going to the truck frame be OK? It says that it will be sucking some juice at 10,000 so Im gonna use a heavy guage 0 or 00 welding type wire.

I wanna do it right, but if the frame will work, why not go that route.

Thanks

durasmack

frame will work fine.... make sure that where you bolt into the frame has a good contact patch. run a grinder over the spot lightly to get the surface clean, then bolt the eyelet with the wire onto the frame. should work with no problem.

-Trey

rockwithjason

When you are done, check the contact with a volt meter. You should lose less than one volt accross the connection to the frame.

torquefan

Make sure your frame is well grounded to the battery. That's not necessarily the case from the factory. The heavy ground battery cable goes to the engine, and it's usually just a cheesy little strap that goes to the frame.

NHDiesel

I wouldn't use the frame. It would work "O.K.", but i found with my 12,000# Tensen winch that it worked MUCH better with 00 gauge welding cable run from the positive AND negative of the battery. Better yet, buy a large truck battery and mount it on the trailer, and hook the winch to it. Put a switch next to the winch, and run a fairly large wire (10 gauge?) from the trailer battery up to the truck. When using the winch, shut off the connection from the truck so the winch doesn't try to draw from the truck, then turn the switch back on to recharge the trailer battery while you are driving. I found my winch motor stays cooler during use, and it definately has more power, with both wires run directly to the battery. To see why not to run to the frame, look at the ground connection from the battery to the frame...they are usually about 4 gauge wire. That won't handle the long periods of high draw of a winch. Why have a 00 gauge positive wire when you only have a 4 gauge ground?

My brother in law has a small dump trailer that uses an electric over hydraulic pump to dump it, and thats what we are going to wire up for him to keep the trailer battery charged. Just make sure to put a fuse on the charge wire.

Jim

JD730

We run either 0 or 00 welding cables right up to the battery and into the bed with a disconnect for our gooseneck trailers with a winch. We also have jumper cables setup for this too. I haven't opened the hood the jump something in years. The 9000lb. Warn has pulled many tractors onto that trailer.

All our trailers run a battery:
1. So we can run the winch for a short time if needed.
2. For the trailer brakes in case of a break away.
3. One trailer has hydraulic jacks.

CTD NUT

I would not ground the winch to the frame for a few reasons...

1) Frame grounded connections can deteriorate easily and cause extra heat and amp draw without you even realizing there is a problem.

2) If grounding to the frame, the battery grounding will have to be grounded again with the properly sized cable - 1/0 gauge will work fine.

3) Voltage drop along the frame will be noticably higher than any good thin strand 1/0 cable. More voltage drop means more amp draw!

4) You don't want a poor frame connection to cause the winch to pull it's grounding through a different circuit than what was intended to ground the winch - it can happen!!