Winch Trailer Box

[Filomeno Robles]

Lookingto put a winch and battery on my trailer. What wire size do you run from the truck to keep the trailer battery charged? How do you wire it from the front of the truck to the trailer battery? Do you use the 12v hot pin on the 7 pin plug or wire a separate circuit?

I use a marine type battery and a solar charger on the trailer. Both my trucks are already wired through the plug to charge the batteries when hooked to truck. If you have a break away switch on the trailer, you are already wired to charge that little battery, so just come off of it.

I got tired of making sure battery was charged and in good shape (one more $150 to spend every few years) so I made up 25' jumper cables with a quick connect on one end and a matching connector on winch so I just hook straight to the truck battery and its long enough to reach a 4 door long bed if I can ever afford one.

You can buy a gas powered hydraulic unit. Not that much more and no battery issues. Have quick couplers on mine and can pull it and use mine for other jobs like moving equipment people leave on ground not on travel stops.

If you plan on using the winch much at all I would recommend 2 deep cycle batteries. It amazing how fast a winch can drain a battery. To keep the batteries charged when the trailer is setting I have a battery tender on the trailer. It keep the 2 batteries for the winch charge and the batteries on the tractor charged.

That how I have mine powered. The pickup has a dedicated trailer battery factory setup. However my winch stays with the pickup until needed on the trailer mounted on a receiver hitch sort of setup. It is usually just in a corner of the shop on the floor.

In all fairness, I copied that idea from a friends trailer. I probably would have just used a chain.? But after seeing his setup I decided to go that route. Works for me as I seldom use the winch for pulling things on the trailer.

I mounted my winch to a plate that connects to a 2" reciever that i welded to the car trailer. I power the winch with a battery pack. If the battery pack gets run down i just run jumper cables up to the battery. If you dont use the trailer on a regular basis why would you want to waste money on putting batteries on the trailer that will be junk about the time you really need them?

I can remove my winch and store it in a clean place. I can use any truck on my trailer. The battery pack is always charged up and waiting on the workbench. I can use my winch for other things by simply hooking into the 2" reciever on any vehicle equipped with one.

Seems more than a few guys have asked for help welding something so they could mount thier winch. The receiver hitch system with those electric fork lift quick connectors for power stems to be the best. You can get a long jump cord, have a portable battery, make a set of cable clamp adapters, mount a battery on the trailers and everything/anything you want.

I have a #3000 HF winch on the front of my trailer. If the car has wheels on it and will roll, it will drag a #5000+ car up the ramps. With no wheels, a #2k car wouldn't be an issue either. #9K will be overkill unless you are going into the towing business or regularly picking up hulks without wheels and tires. The 1.5 times rating is for off-road recovery of a stuck vehicle.

I have a ramsey rep 9000 winch on my trailer that's for sure sat in Tahoe winters for 20 years, up until 3 or 4 years ago. I opened the gear box and the grease was still supreme. I probably did more damage opening it, repacking the grease, and not replacing the paper gasket. I replaced the solenoids with a contactor Here. I didn't have the switch, and a replacement was like $70 with 6' of cable. So I killed a 50' 14ga ext cord and a momentary 3way switch and made my own. I think next time I'd use a shorter ext cord since my trailer is only 20', and I added a $10 wireless remote at the same time. Plus if I ever need more distance, I just grab another ext cord.

No winch recommendations, but the smartest thing I've seen was the winch was bolted to a Class III hitch and a receiver welded to the front of the trailer deck. When not in use the winch goes in the tow vehicle, protected from the elements and theft.

I made a setup that works similarly but it was something I fabricated rather then purchased. It just seems to make sense, why leave the winch out in the weather 99% of the time? If you store your trailer off site what's to stop someone from unbolting it?

I normally don't buy very much from Harbor Freight. However after comparing prices for some of the better brand names I went the HF 5,000 lb way. I prefer winching a car onto trailer rather then driving it, it's more controlled. It doesn't get used a lot but always works even after sitting outside in the rain and southern sun. I power it with a small lawn tractor/mower battery in a battery box mounted next to the winch. When trailer is not going to be used much I do take battery out and store it in my shop and charge it when I think about it.

I did it the cheap way, way back then (it had to be cheap or it didn't happen - I wouldn't have had money for entry fees otherwise). I used a boat winch, hand operated (geared up of course) fitted with steel cable. It wound sports cars up without any strain on the winch or the operator. And if the electric winch burned out or had an electric fault you'd be out of business, while the manual one was pretty well foolproof.

I've got one of the harbor freight 2500 lb ATV winches bolted in the front of my truck bed. The tonneau cover protects it from weather and power is tied to the truck. If I need to, I can unbolt it to get it out of the way, but for the most part I can get away with covering it to keep dirt and mulch out of it.

I use the largest deep cycle that costco sells, group 27? I have a solar battery tender that I put some neodymium magnets on, that I rotate through my trailers when not in use. Also nice to have the ring terminals for the battery tender wired in, so its easy to outlet charge as well. My dump trailer has a built in 110v charger, but I think the 110v battery tender does a better charge. Ironically my dump trailer has a smaller battery (34?), and it definitely pulls more amps, and gets more use than my trailer winch. I relocated the battery on my car trailer, because the larger battery would interfere with the wire rope. Had I just put the larger battery in my dump trailer, and smaller battery in the car hauler... probably could've saved some time in the shop. But I had already spent $10 on the group 27 battery box, so I was committed to making it work...

Thanks peeps!

The local HFs are out the normal 5K winch, but they have their ZXR 5K winch.

I haven't decided if I will mount it in a box on the trailer and add a receiver hitch to the trailer. I like the receiver hitch option, because I can use it on the trailer or the truck.

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