Winch on Auxiliary or Start battery? (9 Viewers)

[gofast]

Got just about all the components for my auxilary battery and plan to use it it for fridge and other house duties including powering an inverter. Was thinking about which battery I should draw power from to the winch.

Winch has a 320 amp max draw and my isolater/charger is rated for 175 amps. Theoretically its possibly to draw that deep cycle down enough that the isolator may get affected too.

Winch should go on the starting battery - yes?

Cheers,

John

 

[george_tlc]

Put a marine switch in there and you can totally isolate the winch or run it from the main or the aux or both.

The starting battery is fed straight from the alternator, so it's a good choice to winch from. Idle up the engine (manual throttle control) if you want an extra bit of help from the alternator.

cheers,
george.

 

[greentruck]

John,
x2 on what George said. Brand name for a decent marine battery switch is Blue Sea. In the first pic, it's the round thing between the green batter and right above the left side of the air filter housing. In the second, it's at the lower right, outside the battery box but next to the filter housing..

 

[gofast]

Gents Thanks and it confirms some of my thinking

Mike, I have blue sea's isolator and battery selectory switch. I was interested to see your fuses on your 1 gauge wire. Are these blue sea as well including the holder?

Also, were did you take your ignition power source from?

Clean install by the way!

 

[NLXTACY]

Gents Thanks and it confirms some of my thinking

Mike, I have blue sea's isolator and battery selectory switch. I was interested to see your fuses on your 1 gauge wire. Are these blue sea as well including the holder?

Also, were did you take your ignition power source from?

Clean install by the way!

You can use Maxfuse or even better use circuit breakers

 

[gofast]

I used maxfuse for my air compressor on another truck and for my 24-24 battery charger. Max rating I could find locally was 50 amp.

The bluesea isolator I'm using can provide 175 amp with 1 gauge and they sell fuses that will provide this. ANL fuses might be the way to go.

I've only been able to find 100 amp 12v circuit breakers and would actually prefer to go this route as its a one time install with no spares to carry. Might get lucky with a bit of searching

 

[greentruck]

Hi gofast,
Thanks for the props. In addition to the obvious extra factory battery tray, I used a Hellroaring isloator that is installed attached to the extra tray underneath the Blue Sea switch. The charge feed lines to each battery are protected by 50 amp breakers, which are small, but you can see one attached to the battery tray cozied up to the radiator in the first pic.

The big fuses are 150 amp Littelfuse fuses and holders, one each in Main and AUX battery feeds to the winch.

At the time of the install, I didn't come up with any suitable circuit breakers or I probably would've gone with those instead. However, I do carry backup fuses and, in a pinch, a short piece of wire could serve as a temp substitute in place of the traditional penny used by folks trying to set their houses on fire when short of a fuse.

I did see this Buss 150 amp breaker over in this thread in the W&R Forum:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/winching-r...ve-circuit-breaker-badlands-12-000-winch.html

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

I have EVERYTHING tied directly to my primary starting battery. The secondary battery is void of any draw and connects to the main system via a 700Amp solenoid only during charging, extreme winching or emergency start in case the primary fails

 

[SHREDwagon]

I thought breakers were inefficient? I'm no sparky though.

I wired mine to the starting battery for reasons mentioned. Thinking of installing a 500 amp solenoid (700 max) with a switch to cut-off power to the winch when not in use. Like Snake Eater did....

 

[1973Guppie]

just really depends on how the system is wired up and what components are used. I am using the painless unit which I really like for it's simplicity, has worked great for several years now:

http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/largeview.php?SearchField=40120

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

I thought breakers were inefficient? I'm no sparky though.

I wired mine to the starting battery for reasons mentioned. Thinking of installing a 500 amp solenoid (700 max) with a switch to cut-off power to the winch when not in use. Like Snake Eater did....

Yeah, the problem with the low amp breakers and most isolators is that they don't really cater for a completely dead primary battery, so you pretty much have to wire your heavy loads on the secondary battery

If you wire a winch to the primary battery and it fails, the secondary will still get you started, but that 150Amp breaker circuit connecting the two batteries won't hold up to the 350-450Amp draw of the winch

With a heavy duty solenoid, you can wire everything to the primary battery and connect both batteries with a proper circuit that will handle the load of the winch (and then some)

In the event of a primary battery failure, you can do an emergency start with the secondary battery and still run the accessories even if the primary battery is completely flat and won't take a charge

 

[cody c]

If you have your winch running on both batteries, it half the load on them, and better current draw for the winch, and half the load on the batteries should equate to longer life span. I honestly wouldnt think of just running on one battery.

For isloation, I think I would just isolate the one for a fridge/webasto or whatever you use while camping, and keep them together the rest of the time for more power starting and winching.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

If you have your winch running on both batteries, it half the load on them, and better current draw for the winch, and half the load on the batteries should equate to longer life span. I honestly wouldnt think of just running on one battery.

That's fine if both batteries are in working order, but in the event of a battery failure, you want a proper connection between both batteries that can handle a large draw

If your isolator is only rated for 150-200 amps and you're trying to pull a 450amp load through it, things will get ugly

 

[gofast]

Exactly. In the schematic for the Isolator I have the choice to make it so that I can self jump, or use battery cables.

I'm heading down the cable route as its less complicated and less of job to install. The isolater really just becomes the source for the second battery and house loads only.

 

[alia176]

This is a hotly debated topic so I'll just add more fuel to the fire. All of my accessories run off the aux battery and I'm using the Wrangler NW power product dual batt system for the last 9 years. Philosophically, I'd rather leave the main batt alone and it's pretty much behaves like a stock vehicle - works as Toyota designed. All of my electric gadgets and doodads abuse the aux batt, including the winch. I've managed to deplete the aux batt several times - sometimes it's my fault (corrosion, wire chafing, etc), other times having too much draw between startups (running the Engel for three days).

YMMV.

 

[greentruck]

And to further stir the pot...

The way I wired things, the Hellroaring isolator handles only charging loads. The Blue Sea switch can provide power from either or both batteries (as well as isolate the winch when Off) to the winch. I typically use one battery for light loads, but use both batteries for pulling heavy loads.

I keep the AUX battery clear of loads to act as a backup. The only exception is a circuit off of AUX I added to drive my CPAP machine. It's a fairly large load and the truck will need to be started and charge topped off daily on the Main, due to fridge, plus the nightly load of the CPAP on AUX.

In any case, I still need to test the current system before making further changes as I haven't been camping yet with the CPAP. I'm thinking a third battery may eventually be needed for complete peace of mind when we're way back in the woods.

 

[cody c]

That's fine if both batteries are in working order, but in the event of a battery failure, you want a proper connection between both batteries that can handle a large draw

If your isolator is only rated for 150-200 amps and you're trying to pull a 450amp load through it, things will get ugly

Ive got to disagree with you again (sorry).

If your winch is drawing 450 amps (about max load) then you should be drawing aproximately 225 per battery. Which shouldnt kill an isolator for short durations.

Just about every diesel pickup on the road runs two batteries with out isolators, and they dont seem to worry about battery failure. Split whatever load your putting on them in half, instead of running all the load on one in case it blows up. I just cant wrap my head around having a spare when you could share the load between them. They are stronger together then individually, and should fatigue less sharing the load.

If your worried about your truck die'n and not being able to start, then:

A. you should be wheeling in groups of people anyways. If you want to jump yourself, youd actually be better disconnecting the battery thats dead instead of jumping it, and using the good battery to start the vehicle then let the alt recharge it, not let the good battery run current to a dead one and start the truck.
B. but a low charge cut-off relay on your fridge or lights or whatever loads you have.
C. install a cut off switch near your dash (you know the kind with the removable red handle) that cuts power to everything but: your starter, your winch and your clock/radio. Have it re-route and kill power to your fuse panel and auxillary panel that supports your fridge/inverters etc.

This will also work as a theft prevention system, and will allow you to avoid any electrical drains should you decide you need to leave it sitting for weeks at a time.

 

[NLXTACY]

I went the other way as SNAKE. I did my system in 09' and I did all my electrical with one thing in mind, since I'm driving an automatic I want the truck to start. Period. All of my aux accessories are run from the aux battery. As I work on more projects I move things over to the aux battery. My new stereo system? I moved the power over to the aux battery. The idea being I don't want my main to die. I can jump myself all day long if needed using my aux. I also installed a cutoff for all of the power aks to the aux as well.

 

[cody c]

I went the other way as SNAKE. I did my system in 09' and I did all my electrical with one thing in mind, since I'm driving an automatic I want the truck to start. Period. All of my aux accessories are run from the aux battery. As I work on more projects I move things over to the aux battery. My new stereo system? I moved the power over to the aux battery. The idea being I don't want my main to die. I can jump myself all day long if needed using my aux. I also installed a cutoff for all of the power aks to the aux as well.

And your disconnect/isolation switch, where is it located and how/when do you operate it?

Do you need to remember to disconnect it from your primary as soon as you turn the vehicle off? And remember to reconnect it after you start the vehicle? Is there risk of forgetting to reconnect it so the alt can charge it once its running and have a flat battery when you want it?

 

[86tuning]

I'm currently running only one battery, and have everything wired to it.

When I do a 2nd battery it will be for house loads so that my starting battery will start the car even after days of camping and a flat house battery. That would be my primary design factor. Self jumping would be possible but not likely needed.

Planning on using a marine VSR but may cheep out and use a ford solenoid or similar continuous duty unit.

Winch would remain hooked up to main/starting battery. Batteries would remain linked during winching loads, and engine would be running during winching unless vehicle is on its side or roof.