Drag Racing Tech - trailer mounted winches, where is your battery and how do you keep it charged?

Do you mount your battery for your winch on the trailer? And how do you keep it charged?

Mounted in a battery box inside the toolbox on front of trailer. 12 volt wire from the 7 wire plug-in charges it from the truck

Do you mount your battery for your winch on the trailer? And how do you keep it charged?

I have two optima blues enclosed with the winch. I charge them using the extra port on my trailer plug so whenever I'm on my way to the track they get at least an hours worth of charge. The wire is only hot when the key is on so I can leave it plugged in and not worry about it possibly draining the truck. My trailer does sit sometimes so I randomly trickle charge them just to be sure. Some people just run a positive and a negative back to the trucks bumper and plug in whenever they need to use the winch. I wanted to be able to use the trailer behind any truck so I chose to do the battery route.

x's 3

All I need is a key on 12v wire to the battery? Do I have to worry about overcharging the battery?

When my enclosed trailer is running it charges all the batteries. On open trailer I do like everyone else and charge it through the trailer plug.

No battery to maintain on my set up.
I have the batt power wired from the main fuse panel, under the hood. [08 Silverado]
A 40A fused circuit, #10 wire to the rear, a forklift 60A batt plug.
trlr is wired with the companion side of the plug set.
I have a snatch block on the cable. It slows the winch speed, but also cuts the load on the elec system to about 50%. [That depends on the angle of the pull]
Not in use, the truck side is tucked over the hitch x member. Done deal.

Like these...
http://www.allbatterysalesandservice.com/browse.cfm/2,743.html

Old Geezer thanks for the help.

Had a box made for the small battery...sits under the winch. Charges through the trailer plug.

My trailer has electric brakes and a small battery (like on a motor cycle) for the break away brakes.... I was told you could use a deep cycle battery (like on a wheelchair) in it's place for a winch.

Maybe someone else could back this up ?

Just an idea if yours has the break away ????

My trailer has electric brakes and a small battery (like on a motor cycle) for the break away brakes.... I was told you could use a deep cycle battery (like on a wheelchair) in it's place for a winch.

Maybe someone else could back this up ?

Just an idea if yours has the break away ????

A breakaway can be wired with any battery. However, I don't think a wheelchair battery will run a winch for very long.

Old Geezer thanks for the help.

most welcome! Have used this same setup on this trailer, for over 18 yrs, 4 vehicles. Never fails to git'r done...:cheers:

Texas Rollback... Too old to wrestle the ramps!

my enclosed as an onboard car battery which I tied the winch into. It originally came with the battery since it has an electric/hydraulic jack. Charges through the truck connector.

All I have is a 65 series top post battery mounted in the "V" of the trailer tongue, and it's powered directly to my winch and my hydraulic pump to run the cylinder to tilt the bed)

I usually just pull the battery and put it on charge the night before I go to the track and when I get there I hook up the cables and roll with it. I still drive the car on and off the trailer, so I usually just use the battery to tilt the bed so I can drive it on. Haven't broke anything YET to need to use the winch for the car (I've used it for other vehicles tho)
I have an old 80's-style warn 8k pound winch that Works great, so long as you have a set of cables big enough to supply the load. I winched my 4700lb '94 z71 up on the trailer with it and never really had a problem once I grabbed a set of 4gauge jumper cables and put on the battery (this was before I wired it all up permanently)

It's a little redneck looking trailer but it serves my purpose just fine. I have considered running a separate charging wire from the truck battery, to a ford solenoid down the frame, and to the trailer battery, so i know it's constantly got a full charge, and when I'm winching something heavy, or something broke on the trailer bed, the battery won't be draining down little by little.

I used a Warn product that runs cables from the back of the truck to a relay I mounted under the hood and then to the battery. There is a switch on the dash that turns power on to the plug at the back of the truck. Like OldGeezer the companion plug is on the winch that is plugged in when I am hooked the the trailer. Great way to keep from having a dead battery when you really need your winch. Just remember when using your winch to leave your truck running.

I ran the winch off a battery mounted in a box at the front of a trailer with the 7 wire charge method, until I had a dead battery when I really needed the winch. Turns out at some point I had burned up the charge wire and the battery wasn't being charged anymore.