I just bought a 12v winch for my auto trailer, and I wanted to know what people do to power their winch. It came with to leads for a battery, but I don't want to have to buy a battery just for the few times I need to use my winch. Is there a way to get power from my trucks trailer wiring connection?

 

Fortunatly, not that big of a deal. Run a length of positive battery cable from one of your batteries to the back of the truck. You could probably get away with using the frame for a ground, depending on how big the winch is.

Companies like Waytek Wire sell cable connectors for this sort of thing. Put the truck end inside the bed where it's protected, and coil the winch end on the trailer.

For the winch end, I'd use welding cable - it's more flexible.

 

I have a set of welding leads for jumper cables and i use them seems to work just fine

 

Thanks for the tip, the winch came with a remote that has a 6' length of wiring for battery hook up and two leads for the winch.

 

On my trailer, I installed a battery just for running the winch, and use the 12 volt terminal on the 7 pin connector to keep it charged. Could have run heavy cable all the way from the truck's batteries, but that would have cost more than the dedicated battery did.

 

I have a 12,000 Warn that I can attach to my utility trailer. I ran #2 welding cable back and connected a quick connection which matched the one my winch came with. I use the shorter leads which came with the winch when I connect the winch to my front receiver.

 

X2- did the same thing with my trailer. Then it doesn't matter what vehicle I have the trailer hooked upto I always have power to the winch. Picked a grp31 up on sale for $80, whipped up a hold down system and mounted it next to the winch. Ran some wiring off the plug to charge it. All in an afternoon.

I thought for sure that having it sit idle for months at a time would kill it off but after 4 years it still charges up and runs my winch.

 

I ran cable back from the battery, and ran a ground straight to the frame. I used quick connect terminals like this one on both ends:



I got mine from Parts Express. I already had a bunch of wire left over from old sub installs, and didn't want to have to buy a battery. I also occasionally have a 12V compressor and tank I take with me to shows, I put the same connector on it so I can have air on demand.

 

Go one more step. Build a small trailer receiver on your trailer,where you want to use your winch. Them mount your winch on a stinger. Now you can use it in the hitch of the truck or on your trailer. I made a small aware that bolted down to the front of the bed too and I can pull things in the truck up a ramp with it.

 

Just make sure you unplug the trailer from the truck when winching. Otherwise you'll start pulling the load through that little wire and popping fuses or melting wire. Ask me how i know.

 

123.... I did as you for my trailer and ran # 2 cable from the battery back using the same disconnect as shown above. However, I have never disconnected my trailer and I have winched some very heavy loads onto my trailer. What do you think the reason is for frying the trailer wire? I don't need to create a problem.

 

The only problem is if you are using the truck harness to charge the trailer winch battery. Once the battery gets close to depleted it will start pulling too much current through the truck harness and fry the fuse.
I had issues using a dump trailer with dead batteries. kept popping my truck harness fuse.

 

That is when you use a separate battery for the winch, and charge it through the harness?

 

Just play it safe and unplug from the truck when using the winch.

 

Got you.....thanks.