matt69olds

I just finish installing a winch on my trailer. I fabbed a battery box to hold a battery to power the winch. I want to wire the trailer to charge the battery for the winch. Anybody in readerland think I could have a problem with the TIPM,FCM,IPM or whatever they are called. I have heard of defective trailer wiring damaging the electrical components on the truck. Could using the winch while it is plugged into the truck, or charging a dead trailer battery damage these parts? Im out of warranty and if it breaks it my money! Thanks.

davidj54

You could hook into the 7-way trailer plug power feed but I'd recommend running a large (8ga or bigger) wire straight from the battery to the trailer and fusing it with a 40 or 50 amp breaker. That way you won't risk blowing the trailer tow fuse or damaging the TIPM. If you wanted to get creative and not power the trailer if the truck isn't running you could wire a relay in the line and power it from the 7-way plug power feed or another switched power feed.

Belgrath04

Not sure on charging from the trailer plug ... I would hesitate to considering the potential draw.
In regards to using the winch while it is plugged into the truck, you could use a 3-way switch: in one position would connect the battery to what ever power source you decide on for charging, and in the other position would connect the battery to the winch for operation. That way even if a buddy is helping you out or if someone borrows the trailer they cant operate the winch and have the vehicle connected.

John Faughn

Get a battery isolator , then you can run the battery low with out affecting your starter batteries , and still get the winch battery charged .

Jeff in TD

I would think you could use the RV plug for battery charging (everybody's 5th wheel and travel trailer charges off the plug).

I'm not sure the winch would drop voltage enough to overload that circuit if you were to use the winch while plugged into the truck. I suppose that would depend on the size of the winch, and the size of the trailer battery.

In any event, you might want to see if your truck has had the reflash for the TIPM trailer circuit thing (apparently protects the TIPM).

Running a large wire direct to the truck's battery to totally bypass the TIPM would make sense to me if you are going to run the winch while hooked up.

carl48

the best thing to do is to buy a two wire socket and 55 watt bulb and wire it between the battery and the 7 wire trailer plug. this limits the draw from the truck to 4 amps