Ok, I am going to buy a winch and mount it to the front of my trailer. So as far as getting power to it...should I just get another battery and put it on the trailer with the winch? or... hook up some cable to direct to my pick-up battery and feed it to the back of my truck?( I am not concerned about the cost of the cable) If I use the truck battery,what would be good way to connect the winch power cable and the cable from the truck together? Anyone have any pics of either set up? Thanks in advance-Brad

I'd put a battery on the trailer and MAYBE run a cable to the alternator on the truck if you just have to have it recharge itself. The reason is, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong (oh wait, this is POR, I didnt have to say that), current flow is diminished by distance so you'd lose a lot going that far to reach the battery. You still lose it going to the alternator but you're only using excess current anyway for recharging so the loss wouldn't matter as much. Also, you wouldn't have to fool with an in-line connector this way since you could just curl up the alternator wire inside the truck when you take the trailer off.
What's the winch for, how often do you expect to use it and is it a full size or a ATV size? The answers to those questions could affect how you rig it too.

I thought I would get a full sized (6000# or bigger) but prolly would only be used a few (8?) times a year or so.

I just hook up jumper cables to my trailer winch when i need it. So far a buddy just pulled up next to it and your in business. Only had to use it twice.

Get some 00 welding cable and quick connect lugs two mail and two female.. It is best to have a battery in your tow rig that has both side and top post.. Use one set of the post for the vehicle and use the other set to run the winch.. For hookup run one piece from the + post to a convient area at the back of the truck (mine are right next to the trailer plug) and put one of the female plugs on the cable.. Next run the - cable to th back and put one of the male plugs on it.. now run some more of the 00 cable from the winch or battery if you have one on the trailer for the winch and give yourself a couple of extra feet over what the distance from the winch to the truck is.. put a male connector on the + and a female connector on the - .. The reason for putting the connectors on in that manner is to keep one of your drunk buddies from hooking them up wrong and blowing the battery up and burning the cables up..when you buy the cable you will understand why you do not want to burn it up...

FOR a winch I would seriously look at
the imitation ramsey winch that harbor freight
sells cost about 350&
Then I would mount it on a recever hitch
then weld a revever to the trailer this way it would be removable
and in emergency you could use it in the
field or on any vehicle that has a recever.

Originally posted by 92xj
SNIP... current flow is diminished by distance so you'd lose a lot going that far to reach the battery.
Just how do you expect someone to hardmount a winch to the back side of their rig if the current flow is such an issue?!? I take it you have never seen one done like that before. They make the cables to run from the engine bay back to the bumper and even make them with a quick connect/disconnect power port.

IMHO, I would run my power connection that way. Then I could either power my rear winch or I could easily hook up my trailer winch instead. No extra battery or cables to carry around or have danglin in the back of my truck. You can easily make a lockable box to place over the hardmounted winch on the trailer. Outta sight ... outta mind for the :mad3:thieving types:mad3:.


And LandCrusher has a good idea on a cheap winch fix too. Or hunt around for a good deal. You're not really gonna need a H/D model cuz you're not tyrin' to pull yerself out of a "stuck"!! :D

Originally posted by tigger4x

Just how do you expect someone to hardmount a winch to the back side of their rig if the current flow is such an issue?!? I take it you have never seen one done like that before. They make the cables to run from the engine bay back to the bumper and even make them with a quick connect/disconnect power port.



Yeah, I've seen rear mounted winches. I've even seen rear mounted batteries where everything has to travel that extra distance. These setups work, sure, but you'll get less winching time out of a battery if I'm right on the current loss. I'm still not sure of that, or how significant it is, but if you'll notice in auto design the high-draw stuff tends to always be placed pretty near the power source for some reason.

For this particular case, given fairly infrequent use, I wouldn't bother wiring anything, just use either jumper cables to the truck battery or carry along a marine battery, which is good backup gear to have anyway. I also like the idea of mounting the winch on a hitch so you can move it around, you can still rig a way to lock it to the trailer for security.

Thanks for the ideas and input everyone.:D