A Winchy Question

Posts: 213

I know that big winches really draw on a battery, so how about these 2000 lb. winches you guys are putting on? Are you adding an extra battery? Will the stator provide enough juice to run the winch and not draw the battery down (if the motor is running while operating the winch)? How long is the cable on these winches?

Posts: 8

You could prolly run a 2k winch on a 14 series battery or maybe a 9. but you would have to stay in the throttle to keep your amps up. Tipically these winches have less than 50 feet. around 25-35 feet. If you feel that you need a recovery device use a come along and a chain. you should be ok with the stock stator I would think.

Posts: 3486

Most of the time our little buggies just get "a little stuck" and only need part of the winch's power--and not for very long. Adding a small winch to the existing battery might be fine if you use it only occasionally. The stator on a 150 or 250 buggy doesn't put out much more juice than what's needed to run the engine & lights so any winching you do will be off the battery. Of course it does help a little to keep the buggy running.

I've tried it with the stock dinky battery (about the size of a paperback dictionary) and could get 1 good pull out of it before the winch really slowed down. Adding a second, larger motorcycle battery really helped but I ended up with charging issues (tried to go cheap by using a relay instead of a battery isolator). Ended up chucking the stock battery and just using a single larger MC battery.

It's all a bunch of compromises on a small buggy. Not a lot of room for the winch or the bigger (or 2nd) battery. Extra weight hurts performance, too.

Posts: 8

unless you have a 400 or bigger I could not see needing an electric winch. 250's and smaller you can just pick up the front end or push it out. or if you wanted you could use a shortened tractor jack to pick up ur buggy and carry on

Posts: 400

I have a hammerhead 250ss and got stuck in the mud i mean REALLY stuck in the mud without a winch.

Although i could lift the front end on dry ground the back tires where submerged in mud almost to the top of the tire... And man i was stuck aint no way in hell i could just pick it up out of that mess by myself.

With a winch you can do "hop scotch" on dry ground to hook it up without one you are knees deep in mud/water to pick it up and pull it out.... if its possible;-)

I dont have a winch atm but i sure wish i did...

I called the hammerhead dealer when i was that stuck it was second day i had it ...

Told him maybe that winch you tried to sell me wasnt such a bad idea and maybe i really should have upgraded my tires to mud-lites that i figured where not necessary..
He was like "YOUR STUCK ALREADY?, NO WAY! LOL" (only had cart 2 days)lol

I sent the dealer a picture of the mess from my phone and we both had a good laugh. Very Happy

Yah one of my next mods is a winch you dont need em much here but let me tell you it beats trying to pull it out by hand for 3 hours.

We tried pulling it out with a second hammerhead 250 which usually works awesome.....nope i was stuck....and i mean STUCK!

Posts: 1122

i heard that steeda only takes one time to be hung up bad and dog knotted to make the a winch a believer out of a person Laughing

might never need one all the time but its a life saver when its there.
if it has 4 wheels and you are riding offroad it pays to have one Wink

pud