Winch Wiring and Batteries Question

[drfreema]

I am getting my ARB bumper modded and installed today and was wondering what the best way to wire up the winch is. Dual batteries or just wire it to the single battery? If dual battery is the answer, what monitoring system do you recommend? Is there anywhere to install the second battery under the hood (preferred) or will I have to put a battery in the cab? Thanks.

 

[DaveInDenver]

If the batteries are to be tied together during winching make sure the dual battery controller is capable of handling the current. There can be several hundred amps flowing with a stalled winch. I believe most of the time dual battery controllers are designed to connect the batteries together to enable charging and disconnect when the engine is not running. They don't necessarily allow winching or selective starting. The ones that do are usually something like a 600 amp manual marine switch.

Normally I would suggest winching from the starting battery (or bank of batteries) and leaving the second or house battery disconnected. With multiple batteries you don't increase the available current as such (IOW, the winch doesn't necessarily run stronger) but just increase the length of time you can discharge before they are flat. Whether you can tap them at max discharge for 5 minutes or 10 is marginal and doesn't really change the need to let things rest and recover. And if you've flatted a battery it makes more sense to me to keep the house/second one fully isolated so that it can be removed and used to start yourself with jumper cables.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Look in here http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/forums/48-Power-Systems-12v-Solar-Gen

And here http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/forums/31-Recovery-Equipment-and-Tools

 

[Inyo_man]

The system in my rig is run on a single battery (yellow top Optima).
I wired the winch directly to the battery. So far no dramas.

 

[drfreema]

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like one battery it is.

 

[eurosonic]

I have it hooked up directly to my battery and haven't had any issues yet. But then Ive never really done any heavy winching besides pulling my drunk friends out of mud and ditches.

 

[billygoats]

The system in my rig is run on a single battery (yellow top Optima).
I wired the winch directly to the battery. So far no dramas.

Same setup here. No problems!

 

[drfreema]

Everything's wired to the main battery and it works great. Thanks for the advice.