dbbarron

Looking for an (electric) winch recommendation for pulling a 997.2 on/off a Featherlite 3110.

Remote choice?

Trailer battery or Tow Vehicle battery hookup?

Frank 993 C4S

I have the Warn 4000 winch on my Trailex and it works very well. You can buy a wireless remote for it. Get a synthetic rope for it and you'll be all set.

For open trailers, I have seen some nice set-ups with a full size battery in a trailer tongue box. I wouldn't run the winch off your car battery - but that's just me.

dbbarron

I see the Superwinch S series have enclosed rope spool while the Warns are open. Is this a consideration? Over winter the trailer is stored outside but I will remove the winch.

db

ShakeNBake

+1 on synthetic rope. Don't worry though, it's trivial to convert wire to rope. The kit is at most $50.

I had a Superwinch Terra 35SR on my Trailex, powered via the rear-mounted battery in an X5. With a wireless remote it worked very well. I could walk the car onto the trailer with the remote in one hand, and steering wheel in the other. Wireless makes things easier - really just saves the step of stowing and hooking up wired remote.

Current trailer has a Superwinch S4000 powered with a trailer battery kit that I trickle charge while parked in a storage bay. It also has a wireless controller.

The advantage of the S4000 is that the electronics are self-contained. The Terra requires the solenoid and controller to be mounted separately in something weatherproof. Both load at about the same speed. You should put a neoprene cover over both to protect from the elements. I don't see the benefit of the enclosed spool on the S4000, except maybe protecting from things getting caught in it.

Power Options:
1) Vehicle's power - if you have a rear mounted battery, this is the way to go IMO. I used the Superwinch 2008 Kit for wiring. It comes with everything you need (except for a fuse/breaker). Over the years I've done very dumb things with car audio. Running a winch off the vehicle's battery is pretty straight forward and safe with a 150amp breaker.

2) Trailer battery with 120v charger. You could either plug it in while in storage, or there is no reason you could not make the battery portable and just keep it in your SUV and charge at home. A good solar-grade AGM battery weighs about 25lbs. Plenty for winch duty. You'd need something like the Superwinch 2008 wiring kit if you plan to keep the battery separate from the trailer. There are also cheaper wiring options.

3) Trailer battery with a DC-DC charger powered off the 12v 20amp circuit in the 7-pin trailer cable, assuming you have electric brakes. A DC-DC charger has it's own power electronics to convert a range of input voltage 10v-14v to produce a proper charging program from it. This is a tad expensive. DC-DC charger is $260. It would charge while you drive. Some people say you could just wire the battery direct to this circuit, but when I tried it, the voltage was not high enough after the drop over the length of the cable to properly charge the battery. There are a few other reasons you probably don't want a live trailer battery plugged into your vehicle's power directly.



4) Trailer battery with Solar. You'd need a pretty big panel, and outside storage. Most expensive option. Makes sense with an enclosed, but probably not with an open trailer.

dbbarron

I probably overthinking this.....

Any suggestion for battery size? Let's see; if a 'load' is 120amp for 1 min (seems reasonable) at 12v, that is 100/60 = 2 amp-hr. An unload is even less. The smaller AGM batteries are over 25aH. Thus, battery size seems almost irrelevant. Moreover, once charged, it does not seem like I need to worry about charging other than sporadically. Plenty of energy buffer.

Vehcile Power:
I don't have a rear mount battery, but have no issue running power from the front of the car back. I like the simplicity of vehicle power.

Trailer Battery Power:
If the battery is in the trailer (I have space in the tool box or other places as well), since it will be a couple weeks between each use sitting by the side of the house, I'm thinking 120vac trickle charge is an easy option. I can't imagine it would then need to be charged again at the track given sufficient battery capacity for a couple of loads/unloads.

7 pin DC-DC would top off the battery on the way to the track and home with little thought. The battery would have sufficient capacity to only need this sporadic charging.

All good options.

db

ShakeNBake

I think getting a high quality AGM, but cheap battery is the way to go. If you search for "solar AGM" on amazon, you'll see a Mightymax 35Ah battery that would be great. 64 bucks...done. Unless you were using the battery for other things, I can't see a scenario where it would not last a weekend at the track.

In a pinch/backup, one of those Lithium Ion jump-starter batteries is enough to load. Once, when a friend had a dead trailer battery, we used my VHS-sized 18Ah jump-starter to load his M3.

LostSouth

Had a similar setup. I went to Walmart and bought the biggest deep cycle battery I could find-probably $100. I only had to charge it a couple times a year.

The RV forums recommended the Walmart batteries.

Drew_K

I have the below Duracell deep cycle battery in my boat, RV, and trailer. Around $73 after the 10% online discount, although you need to have a battery to trade in. Otherwise I think there's a core charge. In my trailer, it runs my winch just fine.

https://www.batteriesplus.com/batter...p-24m/sli24mdc

Mussl Kar

I used a seriously nice jump starter battery when I had my featherlight. Not your 6pack or less in weight thing. Xhantrex? Do not remember having any problems with it on a 3700 pound Warn winch.
Currently have the same winch powered by an Optma battery charged by the superduty. No issues. Just need to pull battery for the winter so it is OK for next season.

skxf430

I have a Optima that is charged off a solar panel and it works great. Even when stored inside it gets enough light to keep the battery charged all the time. So far so good.

dbbarron

I see the Warn 4000 is about $300.
The next step up, the 4700 is double that price, $600.
The entry level superwinch for trailers appears to be the S5500 which is $600.

Any reason not to go with the Warn 4000 for half the price of the 4700 or the S5500.
Can a synthetic rope be easily installed on it? Wireless Remote (which from Warn is half the price of Superwinch as well).

jlanka

I have a Warn 4000 and it works fine. Just ordered a synthetic for it based on this thread. SPB.