Electric Winch on Trailer?

Hey guys, I have a 21 foot trailer I use to haul my tractors and the occasional car around. I'm thinking it would be nice to have a 12V winch on it to pull a dead vehicle aboard.

I'm guessing the power draw would be too heavy to simply tap into the trailer's light circuit, so would it make sense to have a battery box to keep a hot battery in to power the winch?

Also, any tips or advice on types and brands of winch would be appreciated as I've never owned one. I've looked at a couple at China Freight and Sears. Thanks!

Kent,

I use a 12-v deep cycle battery with my Ramsey 12,000lb winch. The tie into the vehicle system will do little more than provide a trickle charge. If you want to tie directly into your car/truck battery use 00 cables and a long lead.

Joe

Yep you either need an extra battery or a set of long heavy lead and a special plug just to it. If I remember right #8 or #6 wire would be just fine. I have been toying with that idea may self I even have the winch sitting here on the table just haven't got around to it yet. But if and when I do that would make 3 of them on board already have 2 on the truck
Hobby farm

Kent I had pretty much the same set up for years, and youre correct, the trailer lights wiring is too small to power a decent sized electric wench. I installed a deep cycle RV marine battery on the trailer near the wench n it worked fine. I kept it charged from the vehicle while driving via the plug n connectors AUXILIARY terminal which I had wired to my truck battery with 10 gauge wire and a 30 amp circuit breaker at the trucks battery.

Piece of cake n it works fine and anytime you drive youre charging the trailer battery. of course, I had the trailer battery inside one of those protective boat type batery boxes and I also used its power for my break away safety trailer electric brake system.

The breaker at the truck will trip out if you pull more then 30 amps back to the trailer and if I was gonna use the wench a lot Id unhook the trailers electrical plug to the truck so as not to run the truck battery down from prolonged heavy wench use. If you wanted to get fancy you could wire up a relay such that the trucks battery was only connected to the trailer when the truck was running to avoid and truck battery discharge problem but I simply unhooked it if I was gonna use the wench a lot.

John T

Some of the car haulers and scrap tow trucks I know use electric winchs- a 5000 lb pull rating is the minimum used with extra pulley- the 10,000 Warn or equivelant is better. One trailer has a Harbor Frieght winch at front about 8,000 pounds rating and a pulley for the heavy loads, 2 old car batteries at tongue- used to haul scrap cars, sometimes has to drag wheelless car out of dirt - needs the pulley for a 2/1 pull. Batteries get a trickle charge about every 2 weeks when busy. Another trailer has 10,000 pound winch, heavy duty batteries that also handle electric brakes, trickle charge off towing vehicle, cost about 3 times as much but will drag a medium wreck out of ditch with straight pull of cable. For occasional use the car used batteries and pulley block rig can handle most simple rolling loads cheaply and effectivly. I use hand puller(I'm Cheap) on my 19 foot flat bed but I don't use it much for cars, the car on it now is waiting for shop space. RN

Don't know a lot about 'em (never stopped a lot of folks from posting on other topics), but I understand there are 2 types of geared systems and depending on your usage, it makes a difference which one you need.

Here is an idea to consider when mounting your winch. When I put an electric winch on my trailer, I mounted the winch onto a piece of solid 2 inch square stock. Then I mounted a receiver just in front of the cross support on the trailer. That way the winch just plugs into the trailer receiver and doesn't interfere with the loading area.

The main variation to this is that when I mounted the winch on the 2 inch square bar, I left a piece sticking out on each end. That way, I can just pull it off the trailer and plug it into the receiver on the truck when I need it there. Works great.

As to a source for the winch, I got lucky and found one on Sam's Club Auction. I guess when they get to the end of a run on something they market the leftovers on the internet. My 7,500 lb winch cost less than $200 delivered to my door.

I figured the batteries would be a PIA so I hooked my winch to a 5hp briggs and stratton with a gear reduction. Put stabil in the gas and so far it has always started.

I did the same thing but also added a receiver to the front of my truck and it comes in handy.

I would insist on power in and power out, as some are free wheel w/ brake on the way out. Also a remote is nice.

I have a big Warn winch on my trailer, have not found anything it will not pull, loaded an IH M this winter with one flat tire and a locked up brake. I put a set of welding cables along the frame to my batteries, then put welder cable connectors on the cables at the trailer, hooked ground to frame and a jumper cable clamp on front to hook to battery when I use it. works great!
Jim

I have an 8000 lb winch from Costco (probably the same as harbor fright) on my gooseneck flat bed, along with a marine starting battery mounted on the trailer. Works great. I had some qualms about the quality, but so far the only problem I've had is the cheap plastic cover on the control head connector coming off. I normally use a snatch block when loading anything heavy, both to slow down the speed and reduce the load on the winch. I've never tried to load anything the winch wouldn't handle. I've also never run the battery down trying to load something, including a dead and uncooperative Farmall F-30 with a huge loader on it.

The battery can do double duty as the breakaway battery for the brakes as well as power the winch. Using the trailer battery as the breakaway battery is common practice on RV's. If you truck is set up to tow an RV, there will be an auxillary 12 volt line at the trailer connector which is only hot when the truck engine is running, and is intended to charge the trailer battery. If not, its easy enough to install a relay that only connects the trailer battery when the engine is running.

Keith

I just made me about a 30 Ft set of jumper cables. Raise the hood of the truck and clip them on. Can use the cables with any vehicle pulling the trailer. Also cmes in handy for a lot of other things line running one of those little 12 volt compressors to pump up a tire. I have a long bed crew cab so they are long enough to cover that distance.

We have a Warn with 3700lb 'pull' mounted on our 23' dovetail trailer.

It is not permanently mounted on the trailer - we install it only as needed.

We take the 'hottest' battery available off one of the JD tractors.

Connect the battery only when ready to pull.

It has pulled 3 of our JD A's and 3 of our JD B's.

<a href="http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/jameslloydhowell/John%20Deere%20Equipment/Easy/?action=view&current=IMG_1298.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

<a href="http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/jameslloydhowell/John%20Deere%20Equipment/Easy/?action=view&current=IMG_1302.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

Both JD 640 hay rakes, JD #16 delivery trailer, and the Brillion cultipacker.

Hope this helps.

Lots of good ideas here on your new winch. But one thing you might do is put a spot of weld on the nuts of the mounting bolts underneath, as I know some fellows have had their winches removed from the trailer when the trailer was parked way back in a trailer parking area at these shows. The welded nuts can be easily torched off if you decide to move it to another trailer down the line.

You can mount a electric winch on you trailer with a battery and then mount a Battery Isolater on your tow vehical to charge the battery on the trailer through deacated(SP) wire in your trailer light hookup umbilical. I do this all of the time.

Kent

Thanks guys! As always, lots of good advice.

kent, i use the $49 Harbour Freight cheapie winch on my trailer...it comes with a mounting plate that is supposed to slip over a trailer ball, I just welded it to the tongue of the trailer. It also comes with long wire leads with jumper cable style clamps- long enough to go to the tow vehicle.
It's a cheapie, and light duty, but handy as heck for $49 bucks...