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Trailer winch. How to power it?

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gmcjimmy88

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I wanted some input from those who have a winch for their trailer. I plan on hardmounting the winch to the trailer tongue mounted inside a tongue box. My question is how do you get power to it. I figured I would adapt a trailer plug to it and use my trailer brake power wire and the ground from the factory plug. Will this give enough power or not? Will this blow my fuses? Is there another way to wire it up? Any input would be great here. Thanks. For now It will be removable since I need to geta new/move the factory jack out of the way before installing the box. Pics would be great to see. Oh by the way it is a tag-along trailer.
 
I am thinking of doing the same thing. I have seen winches on trailer with a battery also mounted to the trailer, but I don't think that there would be much reserve power, though. I am thinking of mounting the winch to the trailer, and getting the power wires for a "portable" winch package. The ones you can use on a front or rear receiver hitch. Running the plug to the rear and mounting it to the hitch frame / bumper. Then, all you will need to do is plug in the winch when it's needed, and the trucks battery / alternator will run the trailer winch, too. When your ready to go, just unplug the winch & roll up the wires, and your off. I have also thought about mounting the winch on a removable mount, so I could use it in my receiver hitch, if needed. I may be wrong, but I do not think that a trailer plug/ wires will handle the juice needed to run a winch, but I am wanting a 6 - 8000 lb winch. Just my thoughts.:waytogo:
 
bodacious said:
I have seen winches on trailer with a battery also mounted to the trailer, but I don't think that there would be much reserve power, though. I am thinking of mounting the winch to the trailer, and getting the power wires for a "portable" winch package. The ones you can use on a front or rear receiver hitch. Running the plug to the rear and mounting it to the hitch frame / bumper. Then, all you will need to do is plug in the winch when it's needed, and the trucks battery / alternator will run the trailer winch, too. When your ready to go, just unplug the winch & roll up the wires, and your off. I have also thought about mounting the winch on a removable mount, so I could use it in my receiver hitch, if needed.
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I actually have both setups mentioned here. I have my winch on a multi mount (aka 2" reciever) and I mounted a 2" box on the front of the trailer so the winch can go on the truck or the trailer. I have the remote winch plugs on my truck to power the winch, but i also have a marine/deep cycle battery mounted on my trailer with a plug for the winch. This setup has worked very well. The trailer battery is required for the braking system, and it provides plenty of power to winch dead vehicles onto the trailer. I would not power the winch through the charge and ground circuits on the trailer wiring plug. They are not heavy enough of a wire. Typically only 10 or 12 gauge. The wiring i have run for the winch both on the trailer and the 18ft to the back of the truck is 4ga and it has worked very well. BTW, I am running a 12K milemarker just so you know how much of an electricl load I have there.
 
I still would not run it off of a trailer light plug. Warn makes a set of wires w/ plug for their 2500 - 3000 lb winches for their "portable" front/rear mount winches.
 
Thats what I figured about it being too much for the trailer wires. I just thought I would ask around and see if anyone has tried it. I have an optima battery in my blazer I could use for the time being I am sure. Thanks
 
mxfireman said:
Just a little curious why a 6k-8k winch? Won't a 2k-3k winch work?
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I really don't know, I just figure "bigger is better".:pimp: Seriously, a 2500 - 3000 lb. Warn ATV winch will work just fine, if not, I'll snatch block it. It just depends on the "deal" I get as to what winch I run. I am looking for a 3000lb Warn, like the one I have on my '02 Grizzly. HINT, HINT.:D :D
 
The only bad thing I have found on running the ATV winches is that they have usually about 50' of wire. So lets say your trailer is 20' right? You run a snatch block (2:1 mechanical advantage) you only have 10' of play. They are a little short IMO but the plus side is they are alot cheaper than a 6k-8k winch and you figure that even if your ride weighs in at 7k the ATV winch can pull it cause you have rolling tires (maybee). Then if you throw the snatch block in your 7k ride is now 3500 due to the 2:1 mechanical advantage.

Now lets get someone to answer this Battery charging question so I can figure out how to hook mine up.

Consider this though. I have electric brakes on my trailer. When my trailer brakes & lights are hooked up it charges my battery. What would be the problem with piggy backing your winch on to that battery that your electric brakes are tied too (keep in mind were using a decent auto battery 700 cca or so and not the motorcycle gel battery it comes with). The pull on that battery from your winch is not going to be very long. An ATV winch a decent auto battery fully charged should have enough juice to pull 50' of cable?

Anyone else have any experience or dealings with this?
 
I have a large truck battery on the tongue for winching and the breakaway. The charging line from the truck is not very big and runs right through the 7-way plug. the battery alone will pull something up on the trailer.

I pulled a truck up a couple of weeks ago that had no front axle. I let the towrig idle so that the battery was getting a small charge as I winched. I didn't do one continous pull because we had to adjust and reposition things as it went up. did it in about 6-7 short pulls.

the winched never showed signs of slowing down, the battery and wires never got warm.

you can see pictures here.

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178725
 
mxfireman said:
Now lets get someone to answer this Battery charging question so I can figure out how to hook mine up.

Consider this though. I have electric brakes on my trailer. When my trailer brakes & lights are hooked up it charges my battery. What would be the problem with piggy backing your winch on to that battery that your electric brakes are tied too (keep in mind were using a decent auto battery 700 cca or so and not the motorcycle gel battery it comes with). The pull on that battery from your winch is not going to be very long. An ATV winch a decent auto battery fully charged should have enough juice to pull 50' of cable?

Anyone else have any experience or dealings with this?
Click to expand...
Just disconnect your motorcycle battery, and wire the deep cycle battery in it's place. It will charge off the vehicles charge circuit, and give power to the brakes should the breakaway activate. Do not run the two batteries in parallel though. Always disconnect/remove/whatever the small breakaway battery when installing a full size battery onto the circuit.
 
I have a good suggestion considering I have this setup on my car trailer. On the tongue of my car trailer I have a big storage box that houses a spare battery that powers all the lights and a 6000 pound winch. Wired into the truck and trailer is a 7 pin plug. The middle pin is for the ground while the outer 6 pins are for the running lights, right and left turn/brake, trailer brakes and aux power. The aux power goes through 2 30 amp circuit breakers (much cheaper than constantly replacing fuses) one by the truck battery and one by the 7 pin plug. That aux power wire goes to the battery so the truck alternator is constantly trickle charging the trailer battery. I also have all the trailer lights on a relay system so they draw juice from the trailer battery. So the trailer is completely independant (except for the trailer brakes). The truck is ONLY needed to trgger the relays to light the lights. This system has never failed us and we have been running it like this for atleast 10 years.
 
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