Off Roading Which battery for the winch?

[Patriot_RAM]

Hey,



I'm in the middle of installing my new MileMarker E12000 winch. Which battery should I hook it up to, or does it matter?



Thanks!

 

[Loren]

David,



On my 1995 and 2000 trucks the two batteries are wired in parallel via large cables. It shouldn't make any difference which battery you hook the winch to.



Loren

 

[JGheen]

Mine is wired into the driver side battery, but it would probably be better having them wired in parallel to both of them as Loren stated.

I had to use mine one time to pull out a jeep that was pretty stuck and I had to keep the engine revs up as I was winching, cuz the battery volts had dropped significantly with the engine just at idle.

I have also heard stories when winching something really heavy or stuck to bump it steadily or the cable will weld itself to the battery and fry the battery up. Never seen it, but just something to keep in mind. It takes a lot of juice to power a 12000 pounder.

 

[Patriot_RAM]

Yup, they can pull over 400 amps. I can certainly understand a cable welding itself to the battery if the connection wasn't good. Any high current electrical circuit with a poor connection can create a tremendous amount of heat. House fires start that way also.