Winch question

[kylebacc]

If you were to hook a winch up to a charged battery directly (nothing else, just the winch and the battery on a table), would the winch work? What if it was connected to a dead battery (reading 10.something volts)? Would it not work at all, or would it just work a little bit?

:thanks:

 

[CJ3Flyr]

If you were to hook a winch up to a charged battery directly (nothing else, just the winch and the battery on a table), would the winch work? What if it was connected to a dead battery (reading 10.something volts)? Would it not work at all, or would it just work a little bit?

:thanks:

It should work, especially "unloaded" like on a table. 10v is a grey area... I don't know a lot about how that specific winch is put together electrically. I suspect they vary quite a bit model-to-model. If it's a direct from the switch to the motor it should work. If, within the internal wiring of the winch, there's a relay 10v might not be enough to close the relay (and allow the winch to run).

If there's a negative terminal you may need a secondary negative cable to ground the unit.

You'll need hefty wire to 'bench test' the winch. I'd probably use jumper cables or at least 10ga wire. A thin little piece of leftover speaker wire from a $69 car stereo kit isn't going to do it...
:cheers:

 

[kylebacc]

You'll need hefty wire to 'bench test' the winch. I'd probably use jumper cables or at least 10ga wire. A thin little piece of leftover speaker wire from a $69 car stereo kit isn't going to do it...
:cheers:

Haha THAT's what my problem was, need to get rid of this speaker wire! :dammit:

J/K no I was wondering because the battery that my winch runs off of is dead (~10v) and the winch won't work at all when the truck is off (with only power from the back battery). I was just trying to work out why the winch doesn't even run a little bit when the truck is off since it's wired directly to the back (dead) battery. I guess you're theory of internal electronics must be right.

So then hypothetically, when I get a new battery to replace that battery, the winch should work even with the truck off? Not that I would be doing much winching with the truck off (I don't need that lecture lol), but the winch controls the rear tire carrier's up and down movement, which a new battery should be able to handle on it's own.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

Haha THAT's what my problem was, need to get rid of this speaker wire! :dammit:

J/K no I was wondering because the battery that my winch runs off of is dead (~10v) and the winch won't work at all when the truck is off (with only power from the back battery). I was just trying to work out why the winch doesn't even run a little bit when the truck is off since it's wired directly to the back (dead) battery. I guess you're theory of internal electronics must be right.

So then hypothetically, when I get a new battery to replace that battery, the winch should work even with the truck off? Not that I would be doing much winching with the truck off (I don't need that lecture lol), but the winch controls the rear tire carrier's up and down movement, which a new battery should be able to handle on it's own. For short, light runs I would think so... It's hard to know for sure what the original installer did. If it doesn't run 'engine-off' by design, it could be modded to run with the engine off (even though you won't run it that way often). It's unlikely that it's wired that way IMHO.

"Internal electronics" is code for relays in all likelihood. Without adequate voltage the relay won't close and send power to the winch.

It sounds like a freshly charged/new rear battery should fix it.

Am I understanding you properly in that the winch works when the engine is running? If so that tells you two things: 1) The rear battery is very suspect. 2) The charging circuit to rear battery works and when the engine is running the voltage to that battery is well above the 10v you see when the vehicle is off.
:cheers:

 

[kylebacc]

Am I understanding you properly in that the winch works when the engine is running? If so that tells you two things: 1) The rear battery is very suspect. 2) The charging circuit to rear battery works and when the engine is running the voltage to that battery is well above the 10v you see when the vehicle is off.
:cheers:

Yes, and those are exactly my feelings. Just wanted an outside opinion, thanks!