deere nut

I'm going to install a 6,000lb electric winch on my goose neck trailer. I plan on having a battery on the trailer to power it. Is a deep cycle battery better for this or should I use a high amperage conventional battery?
Also, what is the best way to run wiring to keep this battery charged? Diagrams and wire size if you have it.

Grand Geek

Deep Cycle is the best.. go from one battery under your hood to the battery on the gooseneck. go from positive to positive and ground to ground. four gauage good 2 gauge better. Warn makes plugs for these sizes of wires.This has worked on the farm for over ten years and this is how i am setting up my new trailer in a month when its built...

Grand Geek

Oh ya one other thing.. I keep the truck running any time i can when the winch is in use.

pappyman

Same here I have 2 9000lbs winches that run off batterys mounted on my trailer....but I also have a power plug for battery power from my truck and unless its a quick use of the winch I always hook into my trucks batterys and keep my truck running

I used the same setup that big rigs use for liftgated trailers.....its not advised to travel with this plug hooked up because if it shorts out it will kill the battery or cause a fire....the trailer plug has a special bracket its stored in because its raw battery power

When I ran the cables for my truck battery power I used welding cable ran inside heater hose to my rear power plug at the rear of my truck with a 100 amp breaker in line

This setup has worked well with 3 enclosed trailers I've had and my winches have never ran outta battery power

Eskimo

deep-cycle battery is a myth.

A winch is nothing more than a starter motor attached to a drum of cable. It behaves as such.. high current draw for a short period of time. If you call Interstate batteries (Optima's parent company), they'll recommend the same thing. Deep cycle batteries aren't meant to be kept on a float charge...

Pappyman has the hot ticket there... a 6k winch shouldn't draw over 300 amps.. I'd run #2 wire to the battery with disconnects like he did. With that setup, you really don't even need a battery on the trailer, but it's nice to have.

If you don't want to do that, a #10 to the constant 12v+ line on your trailer would do.. using a resistor to limit the current flow from the truck would do the trick, but you wouldn't get any assist from the truck if you needed it.

roadranger

I've got a 2000lb winch on my trailer.
(just a baby! )

The winch runs on the same circuit with the electric brake battery on the trailer.
It's a gel cell, and won't take a hard current draw.

The trailer battery gets recharged from the +12v coming thru the trailer plug, on a #10 wire.

I keep the truck engine running when winching my stuff up onto the trailer.
So, it's actually the #10 wire and truck battery doing the work.

I CAN rewind the cable free, back into the winch, with the trailer unhitched from the truck, or the truck not running.

Just my setup....

gandrews

Pappyman -
"a 100 amp breaker in line"

What make & model?
How did you hook it up and where did you mount it?

Thanks,

George

pappyman

Go to a (big rig) truck parts store they either can order everything or they may have it in stock....they should know what you'll need....if not tell them its for battery power for a trailer lift gate setup

The 100 amp breaker is in my engine compartment mounted close to the battery that I tapped to run my hot line to the rear......hooking it inline is ez just come off the battery to the breaker lug then the other lug goes to the rear plug

I also ran both neg and pos cables from my battery to the rear truck plug.....these plugs look like a 7 way plug but they only have one pos termial in the center

ta3834bbl

I have a Ramsey tow truck winch mounted on a reciever type drawbar that I can slide into the trailer mount I made, or put it on the rear of my truck in the reciever or in the front of my truck in the reciever I welded in on my plow rack between the frame rails. I ran one positive cable, 2 gauge, from the battery to the rear of the truck inside some plastic pvc tubing to a quick disconnect at the rear bumper. I also ran a ground wire from this disconnect to the framerail for ground. Also, I ran from pos and neg at the battery to a quick disconnect mounted on the plow rack. No extra battery is needed for the winch, either on my truck or on the trailer, it runs just fine off my starter battery.

I also made a set of jumper cables that I can use by just plugging into the front or rear of my truck. Never have to open the hood to jump anyone and can pull up or back up to them to jump them. Just hook up the cables on the dead vehicle then plug into my truck. In a pinch, friends can borrow my trailer with the winch on it and use my jumper cables and a spare battery to operate the winch since it also has a quick disconnect .

My buddy loved this setup so much that he copied it for the rear of his chevy so he can use the winch on the back of his truck , or use my trailer too.

Sorry for the long winded reply. If you want, I can get a few pics of the setup.

smwwoody

You can also find the breakers at car audio shops.

Woody

deere nut

Thanks for the replies guys. Since I won't use the winch often I will go with a reciever set up so I can remove it when not in use. I will also use #2 welding cable with quick connects to go to the winch cables (also with welding cable quick connects). I'll just use clamps to attach to my battery. This is also a pretty cost effective way. Should be able to get averything for around $100.

gandrews

Thanks Woody and Pappyman -

My set up is similar to what ta3834bbl has. On the truck I have a front and rear hitch receiver. I have a 12k winch mounted on a winch cradle that slips into a 2" receiver. Also have a winch receiver on the flat bed trailer. I have run #2 cable (both positive & negative inside of wire loom a/r) to the front and the rear of the truck and terminated them with Warn “power lead quick connectors” at the receivers. Warn sells a "power interrupt kit" which is nothing more than a low voltage switch to control an old Ford starter solenoid (which is what I used). So the cables are not energized unless I am using them – However it would be nice to have a breaker between the cables and the battery. When you use the Warn connectors it gets a bit pricey – I looked for a less expensive alternative but could not find one. There is a bit more than $100 in cables, warn connectors, etc. But it is sure a lot more convenient.

I used welding Depot for cable and clamps http://www.weldingdepot.com/
Overall the setup works great and it is a fun and useful project (also highly recommend the jumper cables with battery booster clamps on the one end and warn quick connect on the other).

Good luck,

George

Iron Horse

I rember one of those car shows they showed all the time on TNN (before spike TV) where they put a battery in the tounge mounted tool box, and put a small solar panel on top of the tool box to keep the battery charged. I believe they used a yellow top optima for the battery.