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.