I recently purchased a polaris for plowing my drive. there was a winch already on and i purchased a plow. while using the plow the first time, after 6 or so passes and moving the blade up and down, my battery was completly dead. when i ride w/o using winch battery does not go dead. the winch has power wires only, they go to switch and then to battery. there is nothing inbetween. does this seem right? am i missing a relay or something??

 

Typically, key-on power goes to one wire on a handlebar switch, and the other 2 wires run to the contactor. Cables run from the battery positive and negative to a contactor. Two other cables run from the contactor to the winch.

When you push "IN" the switch puts power to one of the wires to the contactor, which then applies power to the two cables going to the winch motor. When you push "out" the switch puts power to the other wire to the contactor, which then applies power to the winch motor with the polarity switched so the motor runs the other direction...

How long does it take to kill the battery? The winch draws way more power than the charging system generates, so it takes some engine running between winch use to replentish the battery's charge...

Do you have any other things drawing power from the electrical system? Also, I wonder if when you put the machine away from the last time, if the battery wasn't at full charge? (But was charged enough to start).

Running a Battery Tender may help with that, but if you are constantly running the winch it will eventually draw the battery down.

 

Another trick is to keep headlights and anything else you can switched off to have the most juice available to the winch. I also (keeping the transmission in neutral) rev the engine a little bit to add some power and keep the battery a little longer. The only other thing that could cause a problem (other than what Jeffin said) is a short. I kind of doubt it with a new quad and all.

 

the battery dies with about 6 cycles of moving the winch up and down. when using the winch the light on the speedo goes totally dim.
this is a 1999 scrambler, not a new machine, just new to me. I am not running anything else, not even lights, when using the winch to move plow up and down.

 

I'm betting the battery is either on it's last legs and barely starting the engine, or whenever you finished last time the battery didn't get fully charged. A machine of that era may have pretty low alternator output, so it could take an hour or so for the alternator alone to bring the battery back to 100%, though it wouldn't take very long for it to get back up enough to turn the engine over.

i guess if I were you, I'd buy a Battery Tender. If that doesn't cure the problem, they are handy to have anyway, and I'd next try a new battery- and get an AGM type of the highest amp hour capacity that you can fit into the machine.

 

Yeah I'd be checking the battery. The thing is, a battery can be just totally whipped and still start your ATV. I ran a nearly empty, 13 year old, painfully weak battery for nearly a year before it finally got so weak it wouldn't turn the ATV over. However when you start running a winch and especially running a winch while your lights are on you kill the battery pretty quick.

You might get out the voltmeter and stick it on the charger and see if you can squeeze a few more months out of it but with winter coming on you're probably better off just getting a new battery.