Trailer winch wiring ??

skyhighZJ

skyhighZJ

Gov retirement < needs to live
Joined
May 31, 2012
Location
Aberdeen, NC.
So I got a winch for my trailer. I have a weather proof box to put a marine battery in it. Can I run a small “charge wire” into my wiring distro block on the neck of the trailer so the battery will charge when connected to the truck similar to the break away battery? If so is it straight forward or is there electric magic and relays/ switches that need to be added to isolate the truck when winching??

Thanks!
 
I’ve been thinking about doing the same…. If I’m understanding, I can just add another wire from the breakaway charging circuit to the winch battery + and ground it?

Def overthinking it too!

Want to rewire my entire trailer when I do it!
 
I'm also going with a junction box when I rewire my trailer.

Been considering running a quick connect from the truck to power the winch and skipping the extra battery, etc.

Haven't looked in to it yet, but if there's a 12v battery charger that I could power off the 12v hot wire in the 7 pin, I might would go that route, but I wouldn't be pulling anything on to the trailer without it hooked to my truck anyway.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
I'm also going with a junction box when I rewire my trailer.

Been considering running a quick connect from the truck to power the winch and skipping the extra battery, etc.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't skip the trailer battery personally, if one or two is good then three or four is better 😁

Croatan_Kid said:
Haven't looked in to it yet, but if there's a 12v battery charger that I could power off the 12v hot wire in the 7 pin, I might would go that route, but I wouldn't be pulling anything on to the trailer without it hooked to my truck anyway.
Click to expand...

Something like this?

purkeys.net

BOSS™️ Dump Trailer Charging System - Purkeys

purkeys.net purkeys.net

Duane
 
CLRracer said:
I wouldn't skip the trailer battery personally, if one or two is good then three or four is better 😁
Click to expand...

The reason I say that is the trailer sits far more often than anything else and I hate killing batteries and/or trying to maintain them. I especially hate buying new ones and more so when it's my fault they crapped out. I figure if I were to power it from the truck, it would alleviate those issues and it'd probably be cheaper and easier in the long run.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
I'm also going with a junction box when I rewire my trailer.

Been considering running a quick connect from the truck to power the winch and skipping the extra battery, etc.

Haven't looked in to it yet, but if there's a 12v battery charger that I could power off the 12v hot wire in the 7 pin, I might would go that route, but I wouldn't be pulling anything on to the trailer without it hooked to my truck anyway.
Click to expand...

I have a quick connect on my winch and a long set of cables for it with jumper cable ends. It's worked great for me since I can use it with any tow pig. I do have a pigtail made up to mount permanently to the battery with a quick connect to match. I just have not added it to the current tow rig.
 
Quick connect and long leads seems like a lot bigger cable for the length.

Wiring straight from the vehicle 12 volt supply from a dedicated trailer hitch should be regulated right along with the vehicle 12 volt circuit. Not as high a charge rate like straight off the alternator but plenty for maintenance.

Edit: each has a disconnect switch wired in for a safety feature should the trailer battery get stupid or what it is feeding. A inline fuse isn't bad either on the supply side from the truck. Should it try to over draw. Little redundant since most truck circuits have one in the tow package area of the fuse block.

More work but I plan to start rotating my camper batteries to my hauler as needed. Less batteries in the fleet and the solar unit on the camper keeps them pretty topped off year round. Between equipment, lawnmowers, and vehicles I don't want any more to keep up with.
 
I think the wire through the pigtail is plenty, unless your winching non stop. Even a cheap solar charger. The one we use, I put a good battery in it. Have never charged it even without a wire going to it. It’s not used very often but even when it is a battery will naturally rebuild its self back up some.
 
justjeepin86 said:
Well, I had a surplus of welding cable, so it was a no brainer. The only cost I have is the quick connects. And it works great.
Click to expand...
Curious as to what size you used?

I've always been fascinated by the different construction of battery vs welding cable.

Very handy stuff for the flexibility and current carrying capacity.
 
Both options have their place IMO. My bumper pull and gooseneck each have a group 31 marine battery with a solar charger and the feed wire from the truck. Both batteries stay charged enough to winch dead vehicles on the trailer, and the gooseneck's battery is at least 5 years old. My roll off dump trailer has two group 31s, and they will last maybe 10 jobs before being too dead to work the winch or hydraulics. The wire from the truck just doesn't replenish fast enough. It came with a quick connect so I wired up one to the truck and now any time the trailer is hooked up it gets plugged in, haven't run out of juice since.

Duane
 
The best option, IMO, is to have a battery on the trailer that will run the winch, with max load. A far as charging, yes you can run the power wire from your trailer wiring constant power as a source to recharge your battery. But, consider draw. If you pull enough amps from the battery, it will continuously increase the amps being pulled from the charge wire. It's exceed the rating and or fuse for the charge wire, and blow a fuse and/or, melt the wire. You need a breaker system to keep that from happening.
If I were doing this job, I'd run a dedicated cable for both power and ground from the truck battery to the rear of the truck, to the same wire size as you have running from your trailer battery to the winch, using quick connects(Anderson connects) That way, draw isn't an issue, for multiple or heavy loads, you won't starve the winch for power which is a electric motor killer, and, it'll also have the best source of being charge/recharged you can ask for. A solar maintainer is good insurance to have a constant fully charged battery.
I hope this makes sense.
 
Really just depends on how much it's going to be used. If it's a once in a while thing, one battery on a trickle charger is plenty. If it's multiple pulls per day every day, you need beefier cables tying the trailer battery to the alternator in order to recharge the trailer battery quickly. The +12v in the trailer plug will charge it, but due to the size of the wire and voltage drop, you won't see enough power at the trailer. It helps, but will take all day with the truck running to charge the battery.
 
shawn said:
Really just depends on how much it's going to be used. If it's a once in a while thing, one battery on a trickle charger is plenty. If it's multiple pulls per day every day, you need beefier cables tying the trailer battery to the alternator in order to recharge the trailer battery quickly. The +12v in the trailer plug will charge it, but due to the size of the wire and voltage drop, you won't see enough power at the trailer. It helps, but will take all day with the truck running to charge the battery.
Click to expand...

This. 100%.

The 16’ dump trailer I use often has the basic through the plug/hotwire and dump trailer charger setup. It works…but it’s not efficient. From barely above dead it will only charge to about 35% after an hour plus of driving, idling and running around town doing errands on the way to the dump. I leave it on a trickle charger now when I can and it sits, but a set of quick connects hooked to the alternator on the truck like a multi mount winch setup would be much more efficient in charging the battery.

I do like the Bezos light gathering panel mod idea though. Might have to try that.
 
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