Trailer Winch & Battery Recommendations

[LesStallings]

I'm in the process of setting up our 34' enclosed gooseneck trailer and looking at installing a ~3000# winch to make loading our classic cars easier than driving them on. The amperage draw on the winches I'm looking at obviously need a battery directly attached with fairly large short cables.



I'm wondering if I can keep this battery charged from the tow vehicle by tapping into the trailer power lead. How will this affect the break-away battery? I'll be tracing out the wiring to see how everything is hooked up, so I'm trying to get a handle on what to expect and what to avoid.



The trailer is a new Pace American and I assume most manufacturers set up the wiring and break-away switch in a fairly standard way.



Recommendations? Suggestions?



Thanks!

 

[bombero]

I have installed several winches on front of trucks. Always hooked up directly to the truck battery. Now with you trailer, you can mount a battery and hook it into the seven pole plug for charging. I am not sure that thats what I would do. You probably will never load the cars without the trailer connected to the truck. I think that I would hook the winch up directly to the truck batteries with a plug at the hitch. Yes you need to run heavy wire, but you eliminate the extra battery and all the other stuff. Just food for thought

 

[GerryDrake]

Battery

If there were room for a larger battery on the trailer, I would consider doing that and tapping off of it for the winch AND the break-away switch. You definitely DON'T want to remove the battery from the trailer, as you wouldn't have the safety feature of the break-away switch and I am sure would be illegal. With the bigger battery at the trailer, it would be close to the winch, and yes, you can charge it from the plug in to the truck...

 

[y-knot]

To bad you didn't get the trailer set-up from the factory to properly accept the winch and battery. Most get a winch box installed, where they cut a box into the trailers floor, which is lined and made of heavy steel. Under it they also weld a steel plate between the floor joist, for adequate support. Some models have the winch mounted in the bottom of the box, with a floor level roller fair lead to guide the cable. Others have the winch so it pulls out above floor level for use. A removable top covers the whole thing. Some gooseneck and fifth models have the winch mounted up front behind the kick-up of the trailers tongue. There it is accessible from the front outside door where the jacks are. They simple weld a plate between the supports to secure the winch to, and use a door or wall mounted roller fair lead on the inside to access the winch. I think it you are not using the front area for anything special, the front mounted winch works the best.

The battery could be mounted in the same front compartment as the winch, just on the bottom. You can use the trucks 20A power circuit to charge the battery, but I would fuse the lead at the trailer before the battery. That way if the battery is low, and you use the winch it will not blow the trucks fuse and leave you without trailer power. You will not need a huge winch, your load is rolling and doesn't require much to pull it in. I would go with a 3000lb to 4000lb SuperWinch, they make a line just for trailers with their S series. These winches have plenty of cable (60') and come with 30' long pistol-grip controllers, this makes their use very easy. They also have power-in and power-out for easy controlled loading and unloading. For power I would I would install a Optima Yellow top battery, make sure you get one that will still work in your truck (size), just in case.



Use good power cables, #2 welding cable is great. it can be bought at farm supply stores or welding supply houses. If you want, you can remove the small break-away battery and run a fused line to the new battery, it should be a 20A fuse. Good luck.

 

[jrobinson2]

When I use the +12 circuit in the 7pin trailer conector to charge an extra battery I usually use a 30 amp auto reset circuit breaker (its a 40 amp circuit on the later trucks) in the charging wire to the trailer, that way you dont need to change a fuse if the battery gets low and draws too much from the truck.

Jared

 

[LesStallings]

Excellent recommendations! Exactly what I need.



And yes, the trailer was equipped with a mounting plate, accessible from the front access door, so that seems like the best place to mount the winch.



Using a 20-30 amp fuse for the battery will solve my concern about exceeding the current flow limits of the truck/trailer 7-pin wiring. All this is good advice and I appreciate your sharing your experience.



Thanks!

 

[gbm]

LesStallings,

There are battery isolators made just for charging "house" batteries. The bennfit of a quality isolator is that they limit the amount of current rush the circuit sees. A quality isolator will also prevent a bank of low house batteries from draining your truck batteries.

I have had exceptional luck with Hellroaring isolators.

http://www.hellroaring.com/

Hellroaring Isolators will also let your charge the batteries completely. The old diode type isolators have a large voltage drop across them, and will not allow for a good charge.



Hope this helps,

Geoff

 

[LesStallings]

Nice setup. Now I need to figure out if the cost justifies the peace of mind and the fully automated system! Such is life! Thanks Geoff

 

[jelag]

We have a service trailer that has a dump box on it and uses a battery to power the dump box... .



We ran a heavy 00 cable from the battery to the back of the truck. . and used a plastic connector like you'd have for a battery on a fork lift... . the lead to ground... .



Than on the trailer we ran the same connector to the trailer battery... we can pass enought power through that heavy cable to run the pump even when the trailer battery is low on charge from sitting... .



Look for the connectors at your local Grangers. . or McMaster Carr... . or someone in town who handles electric forklifts... BTW - I also have a set of jumper cables that connect to the same connector... . great for backing up to someone and giving them a jump... .



Jim

 

[JFitzgerald]

Two suggestions: Optima yellow top, and Warn for the winch. I know this is not an off road application, but I've seen a big difference in other brands on the trail.