Trailer Winch Power

[sahkanaga]

I have a car trailer with a 2500 lb. 12V winch and I have finally gotten around to solving the problem of the small wires going to the trailer receptacle on my 2018 Expedition. I installed a second receptacle to the right of the existing one and ran a 6AWG cable from the positive battery post via a 50 amp fuse to the aux terminal and a 6awg cable from the ground terminal to the frame above the hitch. In addition I always double the cable through a pulley back to a u-bolt near the winch to halve the winch amperage.

 

[Greg Coleman]

Thought about it. But decided to install a battery in the tongue box. I keep a solar panel on it connected to a battery tender controller.
I have a very similar sized winch and had no problem pulling a 3500 pound car up a grade onto the trailer.

 

[sahkanaga]

I thought about your solution too but didn't have enough room in the tongue box and was worried about possible acid fumes in the enclosed area. Your 3500 pound car would only require about 1100 lbs of pull at a 20% slope and 1600 lbs at a 40% slope. If the winch cable was doubled the winch load would be half of these numbers.