Winches and power drain

[DrRod]

I have two ATVs with winches. It seems that they pull a lot of power off the battery. I was using one and the ATV shut down -- the battery was dead and wouldn't start until I charged it. So how much does a winch drain the battery? Is it reasonable to expect to re-charge after using the winch for ten minutes or so? Please let us know your experiences and what you know about the physics of the thing.

 

[LittleBill21]

atv winches can pull in access of 30+ amps at a good load. atv charging is very very weak, nothing like a vehicle. also most winches aren't rated to run for 10 minutes at a time due to overheating. what exactly is the use case here? snatch blocks can be used to reduce winch amp load at the cost of speed. i have a strong feeling your not getting your battery recharged after a winching session, i would start using a float battery tender in between uses.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Those winches aren't suppose to be used for ANY long term winching, and doing so trashes the winch, the battery and the charge circuit of the ATV...

SR

 

[Oldpath05]

Those winches aren't suppose to be used for ANY long term winching, and doing so trashes the winch, the battery and the charge circuit of the ATV...

SR

When I see a thread title like this I now know who to look for in comments, scary ain't it, also I'm trying to catch up on post count and pass by years end.................

 

[Oldpath05]

What is needed is a high end battery for the ATV, usually stock batteries are just stock, for light duty usage. I use to run two winches on one ATV 20 years ago but had to up-grade the battery, made all the difference then 5 minutes or so was no problem of winching logs up the log arch. Sometimes when I got stuck I winched with front then winched with the back one up to the log arch again. Most ATVs have good supply of charging so the battery will bounce right back.

 

[5030]

When I see a thread title like this I now know who to look for in comments, scary ain't it.................

He's 100% right on. SR has it tapped. I might add there is a huge difference in amp draw between a light pull and a capacity pull butt irregardless, 10 minutes on any electric winch is severely exceeding the duty cycle and most ATV's have weinie batteries anyway.

 

[oosik]

Yes - even a light duty winch, like on an ATV, will have a significant amp draw.

The 12K Warn winch on my Power Wagon will draw 900 amps under full load. The 200 amp charging system means I can do short pulls and then must allow the system to rest, recover and cool down.

A larger battery will help. The charging system on an ATV simply is not up to extended pulls.

I suggest - 30 seconds of pulling, then stop for five minuets so the system can recover.

 

[Oldpath05]

He's 100% right on. SR has it tapped. I might add there is a huge difference in amp draw between a light pull and a capacity pull butt irregardless, 10 minutes on any electric winch is severely exceeding the duty cycle and most ATV's have weinie batteries anyway.

Yes they are and 10 minutes is a long time for constant winching for ATV. After I put two winches on my 1 year old 1996 Arctic Cat, 2500 on front, 3000 on back, I went to the dealer and bought the highest amp battery they sold, it barely fit in the Cat but I had all the winching power I needed, used it that why for about 10 years but still wont do what pto tractor winches will.

 

[Jim Nelson]

Another thing to consider is running the winch with low voltage, electric motors don't like that and it will burn them up just as soon as high voltage.

 

[DrRod]

You're right -- 10 minutes is a long time. I may have overstated this. I mostly use it for pulling a dead ATV onto my landscape trailer and for yanking logs/brush that are blocking a culvert on my bridge. In either case it would take over half the length of the cable -- spooled out and then back in. That might be more like two minutes. But the effect is still the same -- significant drain on the battery. So I guess the answer is to get a bigger battery and charge, charge, charge.

 

[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.