Wiring up my trailer/truck winch?

Blaze

Blaze

The Jeeper Reaper
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
Trying to figure out what I want to do as far as powering the winch on my trailer.

I have the winch mounted to a receiver winch mount. On the trailer I am going to mount an old trailer hitch so I can either have the winch mounted to the trailer or put it on the back of the truck if I need it for something other than towing the trailer.

What do you think would be a good way to run power from the battery back to the winch? I was thinking about running a 2ga wire (is that a good size?) back to the rear of the truck and putting a junction block that is somehow isolated so it won't short out, then I can just connect the winch to that when I need to use it, and it will be covered when not in use.

What do you think?
 
How big's the winch?

If it's a "real" winch, I'd just grab an old car battery and hook the winch to that. You could hard-mount the battery to the trailer and charge it with the +12v leg of the trailer harness, or make it semi-portable and just take the battery wherever the winch goes.

Depending on how much use it's going to get, you could always run a 2-4ga hot back to the bumper of the truck with a two-prong quick-connect. Just put a 6ft lead on the winch and plug it into the truck whenever you need it.

I've ordered a bunch of stuff from these guys:

https://www.genuinedealz.com/

If you're sticking with the "truck power" scheme above, get a bunch of this:
http://www.genuinedealz.com/4-awg-gauge-battery-cable-tinned-copper-marine-wire-red-by-the-foot

And run it from the truck battery back to the bumper. Then get a little short piece to go from the truck frame to the plug (for your ground). Then put an Anderson plug on the truck side:

http://www.genuinedealz.com/anderson-sb175-connector-175-amp-4-awg-gray

Add another Anderson plug on the winch leads, making sure that it's long enough to plug into the truck no matter how things are oriented.

I also have a proper electrical crimp tool if you need full-wrap crimps, too.
 
It is a 6000lb Badlands, cheapo HF winch. Something good for the trailer, won't really be used in an emergency situation so I'm comfortable with it. I planned on running dual car batteries with it when it was on the trailer, but then I had the idea for the receiver mount so I could move it from one to the other, so that's why I figure I could make it universal for both and shave some weight off of the trailer, even if it is 50lbs.
 
I used the anderson plug on my truck for several years and worked great. I have a friend who took it one step futher and had a set of leads with anderson plug on one side and jumper cable ends on the other. He has front and rear hitches and has winch mounted on plate that will fit into reece hitch. So he just slides winch in front or back or on trailer. Also can use winch on other trucks or trailers.
The leads and winch plate make it very universal and he dont have to worry about the battery going dead in the middle of a pull.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2
 
shawn said:
How big's the winch?

If it's a "real" winch, I'd just grab an old car battery and hook the winch to that. You could hard-mount the battery to the trailer and charge it with the +12v leg of the trailer harness, or make it semi-portable and just take the battery wherever the winch goes.

Depending on how much use it's going to get, you could always run a 2-4ga hot back to the bumper of the truck with a two-prong quick-connect. Just put a 6ft lead on the winch and plug it into the truck whenever you need it.

I've ordered a bunch of stuff from these guys:

https://www.genuinedealz.com/

If you're sticking with the "truck power" scheme above, get a bunch of this:
http://www.genuinedealz.com/4-awg-gauge-battery-cable-tinned-copper-marine-wire-red-by-the-foot

And run it from the truck battery back to the bumper. Then get a little short piece to go from the truck frame to the plug (for your ground). Then put an Anderson plug on the truck side:

http://www.genuinedealz.com/anderson-sb175-connector-175-amp-4-awg-gray

Add another Anderson plug on the winch leads, making sure that it's long enough to plug into the truck no matter how things are oriented.

I also have a proper electrical crimp tool if you need full-wrap crimps, too.
Click to expand...

X2. I have mine on a multimount and have it hooked up like the first suggestion. The combo is not light though. I have also thought about adding a solar charger to the top of the battery box, so that it trickle charged all the time.
 
Blaze said:
I think I'm going to do the Anderson plug deal. That sounds like the best bet.

I may need to borrow that crimper, Shawn. I don't know if I have seen mine since the move.......:lol:
Click to expand...



I bought a badass one with interchangeable jaws. It will do the "heavy duty" (thick wall, color coded) lugs and the standard flare style.
 
Blaze said:
I think I'm going to do the Anderson plug deal. That sounds like the best bet.

I may need to borrow that crimper, Shawn. I don't know if I have seen mine since the move.......:lol:
Click to expand...

I did the Anderson plug setup on my atv. It works well with the multi mount
 
So this took me forever to get to with the holidays and all, but just ordered the Anderson plug setup with some wire, should be here Monday. I have an old receiver that I cut off of an XJ I parted out, going to weld it to the front of the trailer. I got a receiver winch mount so I can take it on and off as I need it, and so I can store it out of the elements in the shop. I also found four cheap off-road lights in my shop that I am going to mount to the front too, make it easier to load and unload at night.

Hopefully next week I'll have it all finished up.
 
I've got the same winch mounted under the back of my truck, originally for pulling things onto trailers but it is far more useful than that. It is a good winch and a good size. My advice is to mount it to the truck instead of the trailer...
 
So I got the receiver mounted and an old toolbox I had sitting around mounted on to the tongue. Going to wire it this week hopefully.
2014-01-12 19.42.18.jpg

2014-01-12 19.42.03.jpg
 
Looks good, can you post some better pics on that mount? I'd like to do something similar. Does that box screw up your turn radius? Looks like it might get into the corner of the truck on a short turn. Otherwise, I like it, very handy.
 
I want to build a box to fit the tongue of my trailer, but not be in the way of the jack since it's center mounted. The jack also gets directly in the way of a winch, but I think I can work around it...

One day I'll join the club and have a winch on my trailer! Or I might just put one under the rear of my truck, I could see where that might come in handy sometimes.
 
benmack1 said:
Looks good, can you post some better pics on that mount? I'd like to do something similar. Does that box screw up your turn radius? Looks like it might get into the corner of the truck on a short turn. Otherwise, I like it, very handy.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, I'll have to look next time I have it hooked up. I haven't towed with it on there yet. I'll post some better pics when I get some time. I still need to clean it up a bit, my welds look terrible because the the sun was reflecting off of the back of my welding helmet and I was having a tough time following a line. :lol:
 
With the company I used to work for, we ran cables to the front and rear of all trucks with Anderson connectors. Everyone carried jumper cables for them and we also had receiver mounted winches. The most economical way we found to do it was to buy 2 gauge jumper cables off eBay. We would get 25 footers and and that would do most trucks. The neat thing about it was they were already together.
 
benmack1 said:
Looks good, can you post some better pics on that mount? I'd like to do something similar. Does that box screw up your turn radius? Looks like it might get into the corner of the truck on a short turn. Otherwise, I like it, very handy.
Click to expand...

Well, finally got around to checking this out. Looks like you are right about this, it does mess up my turning radius a bit. I have to really cut the trailer hard to back it down my driveway and it is just barely too wide of a toolbox. I'm going to take it off and just leave it beside my shop as an outside storage box.
 
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