Power Winches for Boat Trailers

I recently purchased but have not used a power winch for my 2001 Alumacraft Magnum 175 with a 90 h.p. Merc. I have a great trailer which is a Spartan Roller trailer. I chose it because it had two extra rollers at the stern end. At age of 68 I still crank my boat up with my left hand without too much strain. I can crank it on without resting. I decided that being older I should treat myself in my older age I should not crank this up anymore. I was told by my dealer, who I trust, that a 4300 lb. winch would pull my boat up easily with a deep cycle 12 volt battery. I was skeptical because I have two friends that have their winch hooked up to the truck wiring. They both have troubles getting their boats up. One is a 16 foot Lund and the other is a 1650 Lund Angler. Anyway I was told by my dealer that Chev, Ford, and Dodge do not have heavy enough wiring to take the load of trailer winches. My winch has 12 guage wiring and in the garage when I loosend up the boat on the trailer it just snapped the boat up real fast and tight. What are your experiences? No thoughts but just experiences will tell me something! Thanks for you input! I know that if I have a problem my dealer will make it right. Thanks for your input! JJ

I had one one my first boat, that I got from my grandpa, It worked perfect, a little on the slow side, but not bad, it pulled up an older 16\’ runabout with a 40 hp motor just fine. The unit was wired directly to the battery with some heavier gauge wire run down the underside of the truck. I\’m pretty sure this winch was a \”small one\”, for your boat I buy a big one, just in case, and personally I\’d run the wiring to the truck\’s battery. Otherwise how do you plan on doing it? buying a seperate battery? and maintaining that and keeping it charged too? Run the wires and be done with it

Been a long time since I used it, I actually think it\’s in a box sitting around somewhere, not sure it would work on my current boat with bunks.

Run a 10ga wire from the positive battery terminal of your truck, ground the black wire to the trailer.

big g

Ditto what Big G said. The most common problem people make with automotive accessories is undersized wiring. You run a typical 14ga wire to that winch and you probably loose close to 50% of battery power. 10 ga wire should be an absolute minimum, up to about 30 or 40 amps draw. Check the rating for amperage draw to size the wire the best. A normal starter draws between 80 and 120 amps, and look at the size of the cable going to it.