First Winch Revcovery

pmatusov

Technical Excellence Contributor
Callsign: AK6PM
Unless there's something odd about your battery and alternator, I would wonder about the winch / wiring etc.
Your truck is likely less than 6k lb, on icy road - so anything beyond 2-4k lbs pull would make your truck sliding towards the other truck.
A winch stalling at about a third of its rated load is not very common.
 

RBBailey

NAS-ROW Addict
Callsign: KF7KFZ
My truck was on pavement, actually, there was a nice sun spot right there where I positioned my truck. I was running the engine with foot on the brake while winching. But, you have a good point. I don't know how much that truck weighed, but he was stuck fast till we dug the ledge out from the tires.
 

pmatusov

Technical Excellence Contributor
Callsign: AK6PM
huh... The other truck - if in order to free it you need to lift a wheel or an axle out of a hole (move the truck vertically), you may need a pull larger (or much larger) than the other vehicle's weight (imagine pulling something stuck against a wall). So if your truck was on dry pavement, it may be closer to rated winch capacity.
 

BarryO

Well-known member
Well, if you caught the thread about wiring the winch, I used 2/0 cable for both the ground and the power. I used the factory 1 gauge wires for the solenoid connections.

This is the winch: https://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-9...712&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmrnull&tag=googhydr-20

It would be interesting to put a voltmeter on the terminals. It has a 5.5 HP motor, which would be a draw of ~350 amps even if the motor is 100% efficient. Those cables are so large that voltage drop won't be a problem. The alternator can supply 100, I suppose, so the rest would need to come from the battery. I voltage measurement would be an interesting experiment sometime. ;)
 
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