LawnDart
Senior Member
I generally just use mine at idle. But I have yet to do the type of offroading in my 4runner where I'm doing multiple full length pulls. I probably don't use my 4runner hard enough. In general the times I've usually done that are in deep snow in my trail rig. In that case it does drain the battery really fast. Probably 1 full 150 foot pull would drain a battery without the engine running.
I haven't ever really worried about damaging electronics in the vehicle though. It sounds like some Jeeps have strange electrical gremlins when voltage levels are too low.
It's not about damaging electronics, that's not the concern. But a good winch pull should be done with the engine revving just to provide some recharging of the battery, so it's not completely draining the battery. That's all. I've never heard of a toyota's electronics being damaged in the process.