ok ive got a smittygilt xrc8 winch.. doen a perfect job so far

getitng out of mudholes climbing uphill with lots of mud with loaded truck..

the downfall its heavy on the battery. had to change the battery.

is there anything i cn do to help the battery not to feel that much load? when winching hard im always duplicated and low ger to help with having the wheels spining bla bla bla but mostly to have the engine on high revolutions so i dont kill the battery fast. but besides tht is there anything else i can do?

 

There are a few options :
1 An overdrive pulley for the alternator to spin it up faster at low RPMs (smaller pulley)
2 Larger alternator
3 A deep cycle battery with an isolator, connected just to the winch circuit (Which will need a homemade mount somewhere under the hood )

 

You are leaving the engine running while you operate the winch, right?

 

yeah i run it with high rev and on a low gear to help out having the wheels spining atleast so they are not dead weight for the winch

 

i want that winch. how much did you pay for it?

 

Well your choices are as follows. None of them are cheap.

1- Put in an Optima Yellow Top type deep cycle battery. Deep cycle batteries are designed to handle longer steady discharges and recharges. You would still need an adequate re-charge time after you are done winching, don't just pull it out and then park it. Leave it running so it can recharge completely. In this case, the battery is picking up where the alternator falls short.

2- Put in a high output alternator and an overdrive pully. If you get one that will handle nearly the complete current draw of the winch, you will not be drawing on your battery at all. This will be very expensive but it is the most ideal and powerful solution.

And even better, do both.

 

k ill try and get on it..

the winch in the us ive seen it on 289$-320$ i got it on costa rica for around 600$ due to the transport taxes etc..... but for cr 600$ for a winch is veeerrrry cheeep! and its done great job.. some pple even ask me how my "warn" or "ramsey" winch have work and get surprised its a relativly "cheap" winch

 

Be careful if you upgrade alternators. Ford wiring is notorious for burning up when you upgrade alternators but not wires. I've seen a ranger catch on fire, the wires melted because they couldn't handle the current then caught fire.

 

Absolutely. If you have an alternator that can produce 200 amps, then you need to replace the alternator-to-battery wire with something big. I don't have my chart handy but figure on 2 or 4 gauge. And you'll need a fuse to circuit breaker on it that can handle 200 amps.