We bought a winch for our trailer, and it came in today and we are now starting to install it.

For the electrical, I am assuming I will have to buy an ATV battery or similar to power the winch. What I am hoping is that I could have the battery wired into my truck plugin, so that it will charge when my pickup is running and plugged into the trailer.

Is this possible? How would I go about doing this?

There should be a feed wire on the 7 pin trailer connectors to charge off the trucks charging system. I have a 12K ramsey on my car hauler. and I use a deep cycle battery to run it. unless you have an atv winch for your trailer that battery wont last long at all. the bigger the battery the better off you will be.

My trailer winch (6K) runs off a marine deep cycle battery. The little extra money is well spent. In 4 years I've never needed to connect the battery to the truck's charging system, I just connect the wall charger every now and then when I get around to it. If I used the winch more often than I do I would probably take the time to connect to the truck. It's not hard to do since you already have the plug for it, I've just never felt the need.

I too use a marine battery that charges off the trailer plug. I also have a set of leads that go from the truck battery up front to the rear bumper with quick connects so i can plug the marine battery in for serious winching. I also removed the fuse that powers the trailer plug and now use a 30amp breaker that automatically resets itself. There are different breakers out there so look for one that resets when it cools, not when the ignition is cycled. I got mine from Napa for $5.

I've got an 8k lb Milemarker on my trailer. Rigs that roll easily aren't a problem with the deep cycle auto battery that is maintained by the #7 pin, but rigs that don't roll, or get dragged onto the trailer usually require more juice or take up so much juice that the trailer battery cannot recharge from that small maintenance wire. I plug in to a set of cable I ran from the truck battery to the rear of the truck in those cases.

This setup has worked with no problems for the past 2 years with use averaging at least once a week that entire time.

What do I need to buy to make this work?

Do I need some sort of converter?

How do I go about wiring it, if someone had a diagram that would be awesome

On my friends gooseneck we have a cheap 12 or 16K lb winch, we added 1 Caterpillar 4D 12V battery. It has a solar panel to charge it while it sits plus it's wired to the truck 12V so it'll charge / maintain battery on that. We've never not had enough juice to pull something on, even a dead Ram on 37s. I'd check out the cheap solar panel that are out there, they work great for maintaining the charge.

What do I need to buy to make this work?

Do I need some sort of converter?

How do I go about wiring it, if someone had a diagram that would be awesome

Wire your winch normally to the trailer battery. Take another wire (12ga or 10ga, I don't remember... I'm probably wrong actually:homer:) from the trailer battery and hook it to the charge pin on your 7 pin connector. Call it good. :D

Put an (inexpensive), decent sized car/truck battery from Costco (or similar) on the trailer.

Hook your winch to it.

Every-once in a while plug your portable battery charger into it for the night.

DONE.

Sure, its not being charged from the truck, but then again your not having to deal with isolators or overtaxing the trailer 12V circuit. When your getting ready for a big trip just make charging the trailer battery part of your prep. You can pull a LOT of dead cars up on a trailer with a good battery before you need to charge it. And if worse comes to worse and its dead from some reason, pull the truck battery and run jumper cables.

Now if your doing heavy recovery work, or use your trailer for hulk hauling... then a dedicated charging circuit would be a good idea. For the wheeler what wants to have a trailer winch. I've never bothered with the 12V truck hook up.

put car battery on trailer, hook winch to battery, run wire from trailer plug to trailer battery with a fuse/fusible link/diode/circuit breaker/whatever floats your boat.

We're talking 3 wires, no diagram needed.

Of course...if you want to go all out and make it complicated...

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f56/chevyman_57/trailer/DSC00725.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f56/chevyman_57/trailer/DSC00638.jpg

:laughing:

Put an (inexpensive), decent sized car/truck battery from Costco (or similar) on the trailer.

Hook your winch to it.

Every-once in a while plug your portable battery charger into it for the night.

DONE.

Sure, its not being charged from the truck, but then again your not having to deal with isolators or overtaxing the trailer 12V circuit. When your getting ready for a big trip just make charging the trailer battery part of your prep. You can pull a LOT of dead cars up on a trailer with a good battery before you need to charge it. And if worse comes to worse and its dead from some reason, pull the truck battery and run jumper cables.

Now if your doing heavy recovery work, or use your trailer for hulk hauling... then a dedicated charging circuit would be a good idea. For the wheeler what wants to have a trailer winch. I've never bothered with the 12V truck hook up.


Agreed - you can pull SEVERAL dead rigs up on the trailer before you will need to re-charge a decent battery.

I have a red top in my trailer box - I just take it in the shop to charge it every few months and it's never been an issue.

I also carry jumper cables in the trailer box - just in case the battery is dead a second vehicle can run the winch.

Wire your winch normally to the trailer battery. Take another wire (12ga or 10ga, I don't remember... I'm probably wrong actually:homer:) from the trailer battery and hook it to the charge pin on your 7 pin connector. Call it good. :D

Wouldn't this overcharge the battery?

Wouldn't this overcharge the battery?

Does your starting battery that's hooked up to the alternator all time overcharge?

Does your starting battery that's hooked up to the alternator all time overcharge?

:laughing::homer:

Seriously, run one wire from the plug 3' to the battery on the tongue, put one simple protection device inline, and NEVER have to worry about dragging a fucking extension cord and charger out to the trailer, or forgetting and having a 100# boat anchor on your trailer...

Mines been on for 3 years, rarely used, never used a charger on it, always worked when I needed it, no maintenance required. 15 minutes of running a wire/breaker, or spending 15 minutes to charge it every fucking time you need it to be sure it'll work...tough choice.

If you want to go a step further, do what I did, install a 350 amp shutoff, and a volt gauge for the battery. The only thing wired before the shutoff is the charging wire. When not in use, shutoff the battery disconnect. When you hook it up, turn it on, check voltage quick, shut it back off, hookup and go.

There have been too many last-minute grab-the-trailer-and-run things that have required the winch for me to think of not using a charging circuit, IMHO.