Winch wiring

[Corbin1402]

I'm setting a winch up on a 2 inch shank to use in my receiver on my truck. My truck is a 06 F350 crew cab long box powerstroke. My plan is to run wires from the batteries to an anderson plug. My question is what size wires should I run from the batteries. I have a badlands xrc 12k winch.

 

[1911]

How many amps does it draw on start-up, and how far do you need to run the wires (all the way to a receiver on the rear bumper)? Your choice of cable gauge and the size of the connector plugs will depend on the answers to these two questions.

 

[Corbin1402]

How many amps does it draw on start-up, and how far do you need to run the wires (all the way to a receiver on the rear bumper)? Your choice of cable gauge and the size of the connector plugs will depend on the answers to these two questions.

My truck from the battery to the receiver is roughly 25ft. At a full 12k pull the winch draws 300 amps. I dont think I will ever pull 12k. At 9000 pounds it pulls roughly 250 amps. All of these specs I believe are for the very 1st wrap on the drum.

 

[1911]

My truck from the battery to the receiver is roughly 25ft. At a full 12k pull the winch draws 300 amps. I dont think I will ever pull 12k. At 9000 pounds it pulls roughly 250 amps. All of these specs I believe are for the very 1st wrap on the drum.

OK, here's a rough idea of what you're faced with. A lot of winches come with 2 AWG wire. 2 AWG wire carrying 300 amps and 12 volts, you would have a voltage drop of nearly 20% after 25 ft., obviously you don't want that. Best to plan for max. amperage ever, not typical load btw. Also, most winches have a momentary initial current spike on start-up that is more than the draw on a pull. But I digress - in our example, if you increase your wire gauge to 1 AWG, your voltage drop at 25' would go down to 15%. 0 AWG, it goes down to 12%. -1 AWG and it goes down to 10% loss.

You're getting the picture, that is not always a good idea to run high-current DC very far. If you're still set on doing this, I would suggest 4/0 welding cable, you should get be able to get the voltage drop down to less than 5%.

Anderson Powerpoles are good connectors, but I don't know if they make them big enough for welding cable. You don't want the connector to be the weak link.

 

[Corbin1402]

OK, here's a rough idea of what you're faced with. A lot of winches come with 2 AWG wire. 2 AWG wire carrying 300 amps and 12 volts, you would have a voltage drop of nearly 20% after 25 ft., obviously you don't want that. Best to plan for max. amperage ever, not typical load btw. Also, most winches have a momentary initial current spike on start-up that is more than the draw on a pull. But I digress - in our example, if you increase your wire gauge to 1 AWG, your voltage drop at 25' would go down to 15%. 0 AWG, it goes down to 12%. -1 AWG and it goes down to 10% loss.

You're getting the picture, that is not always a good idea to run high-current DC very far. If you're still set on doing this, I would suggest 4/0 welding cable, you should get be able to get the voltage drop down to 5%.

Anderson Powerpoles are good connectors, but I don't know if they make them big enough for welding cable. You don't want the connector to be the weak link.

Okay thank you I'm looking to order from powerwerx with sb350 anderson plugs

 

[Dr Gil]

Okay thank you I'm looking to order from powerwerx with sb350 anderson plugs

No problem to run an Anderson connector with a 1/0 awg cable.