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Out-Station
20-09-2009, 08:46 PM
G'day everyone,
Mate and I have just finished building ourselves quick retrieve surf winches run of H1 starters. We both tow our boats with different vehicles at different times so we have opted to put a battery box on the trailer so no need to have the vehicle wired for the job when running a different car. Question is:

Do you reckon we could trickle charge the trailer battery of the cars parker circuit, would need to put a dyode in so it wouldn't back feed to the the parkers when the vehilce is off, also put a 15 amp fuse in. Technically its a bit iffy because the trailer battery may be drawing a few to many amps for the parker cicuit to handle when its charing, BUT given the winch only gets run once every trip, the battery shouldn't be all that low and hance not be sucking all that many amps. Just trying to save some cash and not have to fit my main vehicle with a heavy duty charge circuit?

Anyone had any experience with doing this? or do you recon we have to go the dedicated charge circuit route??

Cheer's Scott

foxx510
20-09-2009, 09:39 PM
I can see why you'd want to do it, but it's not a good idea. Your battery will get a hammering on the winch, and will draw a fair bit of current when charging back up.

cormorant
21-09-2009, 10:06 AM
Is it for the boat in the picture? Should be a drive on unless doing beach retrieve or getting old like me where the winching arm wears out fast?

There was some 3 speed winched that make a lot easier work of getting in the slack fast but havent seen them for years.

Less electrics around boats and trailers is always better.


A compromise , not for charging, but to get a bit more duty and life from the battery which I would select carefully. We many years ago used a welding lead for quality cable.

Both connect up a heavy anderson clip to your batteries under the bonnet

Buy enough cable to do a pair of heavy leads from trailer to under the bonnet straight over the roof

At ramp plug in to under bonnet and while idling it will top off trailer battery that should have been on charger in the shed

The lead will take significant load off the trailer battery and will give it a charge while flushing as it is teh deep quick discharges that hurt most etc

Beware at low revs most 4wd and trucks alternators don't put out alot of current so if you are in a landy and can do a fast idle would be better

Beware if you have a big drawdown or a battery collapses it may leave you stranded at the ramp.

Charge it properly and fully as soon as you can

or just mount this on your drawbar - went for $450 on eprey
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Out-Station
21-09-2009, 11:33 AM
Foxx - thanks for your ideas, yep its a bit dodgy i know. Probably the best thing to do is run the battery down to about 75% and see how many amps she draws on the charge, also hit the winch button and see what it draws with the winch pulling.

Cormorant - this is for beach work, Fraser etc. When the shore dump is up and washing through to your cars fron't wheels and the sand is disappearin fast 90 seconds winching with the 10:1 is a very long time in my book, sometimes theres enough water in the gutter to give it a squirt but not often. I'ts about a 15 second operation with the starter.

Roughasguts
21-09-2009, 11:57 AM
Could you use a solar battery charger to top the battery up during the day while the trailer is in the sun, and the boat out fishing.

Bear001
21-09-2009, 04:21 PM
Not quite the same application , but hubby put anderson plug under the back of my ute where the electric brakes were when we bought it. The ute has to be running to use my trailer winch-but at least I then dont have to worry about being stuck out the dam on my own with a flat battery.

White Pointer
21-09-2009, 09:28 PM
G'day,

I don't think any of what you are suggesting is the best solution.

Do you have a braked trailer? If you do there should be a permanently energised circuit to the trailer braking system. It should have 8 amp cable that should be enough for regulated charging. A simple loop wire to charge the battery off the car's alternator could be made up by an auto-electrician.

If you don't have a braked trailer consider getting an auto electrician to install a system to maintain the car's battery and recharge the trailer battery in the same way that auxiliary braking works.

Third alternative is to install a loom from the boat's batteries to just power the winch and ditch the trailer battery. If you have 2 boat batteries of around 500-600 CCA and they are fully charged when you come to port one of them should easily drive the winch and leave the other ready for the next start.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

White Pointer

Out-Station
21-09-2009, 09:52 PM
Thanks everyone for your ideas, done a bit more research using different variations of solar / car circuits etc etc, also done a bit of testing. I'll rig a minimal cost version run of the parkers for a start and see what happens. Worst thing that can happen is i blow a fuse or run the trailer battery down. I can make it fancier if needed. I'll let you know how i get on.

cheer's, Scott

wrxhoon
22-09-2009, 11:57 AM
I would use an SLA deep cycle battery and charge it everytime you want to take the boat out.
I was in the same situation as you a few years ago, I made a set of cables long enough to reach from the winch to the cars battery, I lift the bonnet hook them on the battery and the other end plug it in the winch, I had a 912 powerwinch pulling up a heavy 23' boat. No need to have a battery on the trailer and takes one minute to hook up on any tow vehicle.


Don't forget starter motors are not meant to run for long periods of time, they get very hot and suck heaps of power.

oldboot
22-09-2009, 12:13 PM
I wouldn't even be trying to charge a battery of the parkers......in this day and age they don't waste money on copper they dont need....so a lot of wiring in cars is... um... a bit light.

Then consider that the trailer might be hooked up to one of these cars with fancy lamp blown electronics and it may all go pear shaped.

your winch will be ripping a good amount of charge out of your battery and you would have do do quite a lot of driving to put that back with the small amount of current you may get away with pulling from your parkers.

you might as well charge the battery before you leave home, or charge it at the camp site... either off a genny or with jumper leads.

bite the bullet and do it right....or it will all end up in tears......or more to the point up to your diffs in sand with the tide comming in...........whats your truck worth?


if you want speed.....you want the extra few volts a proper connection to a running alternator will give you.........

a battery it the rear is a good idea.....but......anyway

cheers

Crocodile
22-09-2009, 05:56 PM
Have a look at this gadget,
http://www.christieengineering.com.au/2.5hp.htm
Basically a 12v generator powered by a honda motor.
12kg, 55amp, abt $900.00.
Bit of a $$$$$$ solution but seems the ideal answer to me.
Does not put car electrics in any peril, able to charge the winch battery away from mains, can be used for other purposes.
You could have it connected and running at retrieval time to make sure that your winch will have juice when you need it.