Powering a Truck Mounted Winch and Charging a Trailer Mounted Battery

Question:

Im putting a 10000lb receiver mount style winch on my truck. If I use the winch on the back of the truck, will it work using 2 Guage wire from camper battery while the charging wire coming from front of truck is 6 Guage with 40 amp fuse going to camper battery? OR, will I need to run 2 Guage wire for entire system? Im not sure if winch will pull heavy amps directly from camper battery or if it will go all the way up to 40 amp fuse and just blow it. Id like to keep truck running while winching to keep charging.

asked by: Chuck C

Expert Reply:

Unless the truck has a very heavy duty alternator that can push back enough amperage along the larger gauge wire then the best that it will do is provide a maintenance charge to the trailer mounted battery but it will not charge it up. The winch will still dissipate the charge faster than the maintenance charge.

If you have power coming from multiple sources and ending at the same point such as a battery or winch then I would also install diodes rated high enough for the power draw to prevent back feeding or to stop one component from trying to draw power from another.

I have included a help article with different methods you could employ to wire up your winch.

expert reply by: Michael H