Your quads electrical system should be enough to power your winch, but only for a very short time. You'll find that if you keep the rpm's elevated a few hundred over idle it will keep-up a little longer, but will still suck your battery down and stall if you go too long. Another option, and one that I used and made all the difference in the world, was daisey-chaining a second battery inline, in series with your main battery. If you do this correctly you'll not only have twice the pulling time and amps, but is also very useful when running large aftermarket light kits, cold weather starting insurance when way out in the wilderness, and so-on. You take the quads negative terminal and connect it and the winch cap. negative terminal to the neg. terminal on battery number one. Take battery number one's possitive terminal (using 6awg wire and lead) and connect to battery number two's negative terminal. (Don't freak, it's okay. They are DC batterys. Just think of it like a flash light that requires two batterys...this is exactly the configuration multi-battery DC flashlights - the ones we all use every day) Connect battery number two's possitive terminal to quads and winch cap. possitive terminals... and you're ready for all the demanding tasks you can ask of your quad's battery. Doing this maintains the 12-14 volts DC your machine is designed to operate on, and greatly reduces the instant strain otherwise put on a single battery and your stator, and will do wonders for your winch pulling ability. Another mod you can add for minimal cost is adding a larger capacitor inline for your winch. Your local high-end car audio shop should carry these for the monster stereo builds. Get creative and you can majorly improve your machine without handing someone else all of your money doing it. Hope this was useful.
Also, if you've ever been doing a long hard summer night ride with the lights cooking and the radiator fan coming on a bunch, and noticed that it was dimming your lights and taxing your charging system, well, that will end...no more dim lights when the fan kicks on.

 

Wont that be 24 volts though? I doubt the winch would care but the charging sytem would. Maybe I'm not following your connections right.

-Jeff

p.s. I got a few pics up today

 

No. You are putting them in series. You will maintain 12 to 14 volts. For example; Take your two battery flashlight and take out one battey, and now put a multimeter on it. Now push two batteries together as would be in the flashlight...still the same voltage, just more capacity.

 

I like that dual battery idea, my atv stalled a few times while i was winching. And while i plow, using the winch all the time, I have to leave the lights and handwarmers off or i get a low battery warning. Any tips on where to mount a second battery? Once it gets warmer out, i have a lot of work to do. A couple cracked pieces from the cold, not to mention that my winch contactor is attached by a bungee cord. Its just too cold to do any work outside.
Isnt Jeff right about the 24 volts though? When you wire them in serial the voltage is doubled, like in a flashlight with two "D" batteries, it is 3 volts (2 x 1.5) . But when you wire them in parallel, don't you need an isolator or something so they don't try to charge each other or something? I think i remember that from something, IDK.

Nice pictures Jeff. How do you feel about that brush guard? I have one on mine, but i am unsure of its strength on the "wings" that go over the headlights. I tapped a treee the other day and it easily bent back and put a small crack in my rack.

 

If you put batts together pos to neg the voltage doubles. We have two 12 volt batteries in the dozer for a 24 volt system. two 6 volts in old tractors for a 12 volt system. If you run them pos to pos and neg to neg its still 12 volts just double the amps, just like my diesel truck.

Tyler, I'm not gonna trust the brushgard for much. I got it used off of a wreck and it was way to easy to straighten back out. We have a bad habit of just pushing people out when there stuck (to lazy to get a strap out) so I'm hoping it will keep the front plastic from getting torn up.

-Jeff

 

I guess I'm just not making myself clear. The way it's in my head isn't always the way people understand me. If you want to send your email adress to mine Kdramstein@sbcglobal.net, I will send you the drawing. It's the way mine has been for over two years now, and it works sweet. On my Sportsmans, both 700 and 500, there is enough room just below the rear bumper, just above the tranny case, against the risers that are holding the anti-sway tube. If you have a welder you can fabricate a small steel rack, or case for the battery. I myself went with a chubbier battery for a large riding mower as the secondary batt. to up it even more.

 

The way I read your directions you have series and parallel backwards. If you wire + to + and - to - that is parellel, higher amps same volts. If you wire + to - and - to + that is in series higher volts.

 

Yeah, what 2manytoys said. I thought I remember something about a battery isolator or something when wiring 2 batteries in parallel.

 

Any help on a winch mount design would be great. Thanks.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

TEXmud posted this in another thread, that part at the end is what I was thinking of. You only need the isolator if you have two different batteries or ages, because then they try to charge each other until they are equal, which they can't be because they are different.