Electric Winch

[DampLemonade]

Hi all,

Long story short, I'm getting a really good deal one of those Harbor Freight 12k Badland winches (this guy) and I want to be able to use it on my 5-ton. All the documentation only mentions running on 12 volts. I know *technically* those simple electric motors work with a range of voltages, but I don't wanna burn it out and ruin it the first time I use it on the big truck.

Problem #1 is that I don't see any 24v to 12v step-down converters that can handle the current of the winch. It's rated at 6HP @ 12v, which I think is roughly between 500-600 amps @ 12v?
Problem #2 is that I also don't want to wire it directly to one battery and steal the 12v from it, because I've read significant asymmetric loads on batteries in series wears them out faster. I have two NAPA Commercial batteries wired in series, and those suckers were expensive.

Any advice on how I could get this to work? Would running the winch on 24v really be *that* bad?

 

[Mullaney]

Hi all,

Long story short, I'm getting a really good deal one of those Harbor Freight 12k Badland winches (this guy) and I want to be able to use it on my 5-ton. All the documentation only mentions running on 12 volts. I know *technically* those simple electric motors work with a range of voltages, but I don't wanna burn it out and ruin it the first time I use it on the big truck.

Problem #1 is that I don't see any 24v to 12v step-down converters that can handle the current of the winch. It's rated at 6HP @ 12v, which I think is roughly between 500-600 amps @ 12v?
Problem #2 is that I also don't want to wire it directly to one battery and steal the 12v from it, because I've read significant asymmetric loads on batteries in series wears them out faster. I have two NAPA Commercial batteries wired in series, and those suckers were expensive.

Any advice on how I could get this to work? Would running the winch on 24v really be *that* bad?

.
I don't think running your winch on 24v is going to be a good thing...

Thinking you would do much better with an equalizer that could / would push enough amps to run the 12v winch off of. Something like the picture below maybe?



Wired up something like the picture below...

 

[DampLemonade]

Wired up something like the picture below...
View attachment 913215

That actually looks like exactly what I'd need to do. Thanks!

 

[DampLemonade]

do you have a link to that one you have? The only ones I can find are from Eaton in the $1000 price range

 

[Mullaney]

do you have a link to that one you have? The only ones I can find are from Eaton in the $1000 price range

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You might try @Suprman . I bought mine from him for about $300 (several years ago).

 

[DampLemonade]

You might try @Suprman . I bought mine from him for about $300 (several years ago).

Noted. I might do a little more research. I did find some 24v equalizers without a 12v lug for much cheaper. In theory the end result should be the same. The winch will drain one battery quicker in this case, but the equalizer should balance things out eventually as long as I keep the engine running... In theory...

 

[Mullaney]

Noted. I might do a little more research. I did find some 24v equalizers without a 12v lug for much cheaper. In theory the end result should be the same. The winch will drain one battery quicker in this case, but the equalizer should balance things out eventually as long as I keep the engine running... In theory...

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In theory . . .

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