Winches and power drain

[Oldpath05]

Why aren't you free spooling the cable out? Napa sells good high amp compact ATV battery's just bring your stock battery in so they can match up the right terminal post, then let the ATV do the charging.

 

[DrRod]

I must confess that I don't know how to free spool the cable out. Are all winches capable of this? What do I do to make this happen? This could be a real breakthrough for me. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

On small winches, not all of them will free spool...

SR

 

[LittleBill21]

I must confess that I don't know how to free spool the cable out. Are all winches capable of this? What do I do to make this happen? This could be a real breakthrough for me. Thank you for the advice.

there is usually a lever or pull rod on the side of the winch, it gets flipped to free spool and then you can pull the cable out, sometimes you need to bump the winch back and forth to get it to release.

 

[LouNY]

Mine on the UTV has a round piece on the end that will rotate for free wheel or engaged.

 

[ovrszd]

What brand and model of winches do you have??? That information will help in regards to amp draw. Also with simple things like free spooling.

If you don't have manuals for your winches you can Google search them by make/model and get the information you are looking for. That will also tell you amp draw and duty cycle.

Same with your ATVs. The specifications will tell you how many amps for charging system is. I think you'll find it's very small. Probably less than 10 amps. Possibly less than 5 amps. This means recovery time is pretty long. Especially at idle.

 

[ArlyA]

Gee, I've not seen an atv winch that doesn't have free-spooling.

 

[ovrszd]

Gee, I've not seen an atv winch that doesn't have free-spooling.

Friend of mine has a cheap Chinese winch that doesn't. Can't remember labeled name.

 

[Oldpath05]

Maybe a close up picture of your winch and brand name can tell us if it has free spooling.

 

[Oldpath05]

Friend of mine has a cheap Chinese winch that doesn't. Can't remember labeled name.

Yes there are cheap winches that dont free spool, But I dont recall or heard of a ATV winch that dont free spool.