Battery light while winching

robx251

robx251

Caught the Bug
Yesterday while I was out wheeling with the group I go out with doing a long uphill pull in deep snow and I had to reset the line twice. Halfway through the last winch pull my battery light came on and stayed in until I shut it off and started it back up again.

I did check output while light was on it was at 14.3 volts. Has anyone else had this issue or is just because I overworked it for too long or is it something more serious coming in the near future as far as an alternator goes?

I do have a hundred thousand miles on it now. Also my free school doesn't work so well so I did have to winch the line out and back in.
 
MattMc

MattMc

New member
Prolonged winching can drain a battery, and if you aren't careful, can strand you. As far as I understand there are multiple solutions, including dual battery setups, or some kind of high idle mode. I know that the AEV Procal had a high idle feature.

Also, winching both in and out uses the brake on most winches. Winching out puts unnecessary wear on the winch brake.
 
U

UNLIMITED_FUN

New member
That sounds right to me. What size and brand battery do you have? How long were you winching at a time? You can step up the throttle but depending on that load coming uphill on the ground in the snow, you may have to let it rest a bit in between.

Spooling out draws current too, just not as much. If it takes you 5 minutes to spool out that still a draw.

I have a dual battery rig with a 500A solenoid switch on a spod. That way I always have a fresh starting battery in case the primary goes low, and can dual batt winch for sustained runs.
 
robx251

robx251

Caught the Bug
OK so I did just want to make sure that it was because of the long draw on the winch. I just have a standard lead acid battery on it. 34 series with 850ca 690cca not sure on the rc

We had plenty of other people around with jump cables and boost packs. But I will take more brakes next time.

Also as far as the winch out, I can't free spool it. Too much drag. If I were to use my jeep to pull a dead one out I can pull out out by backing out to on free spool just can't by hand.

Thanks a lot for the info and ideas.
 
jorgelrod

jorgelrod

Hooked
MattMc said:
Prolonged winching can drain a battery, and if you aren't careful, can strand you. As far as I understand there are multiple solutions, including dual battery setups, or some kind of high idle mode. I know that the AEV Procal had a high idle feature.

Also, winching both in and out uses the brake on most winches. Winching out puts unnecessary wear on the winch brake.
Click to expand...

^^^^ This, The harder the Pull, the More the draw, even as deep as 800+ amps. They also generate a lot of heat, so breaks between winch pulls is also recommended...
 
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