There has got to be a better way.

[Koldham]

Its a 12 volt boat trailer winch. I use it to pull non running cars into my garage. I used to use a car battery but it didn't have the capacity to do long pulls and my charger took forever to top the battery back up. I know I can use use shop power to power this thing but I also dont want to spend 1k on a converter. Can anybody point me to a budget friendly way to power this thing. I do not use it very often, dozen times a year maby. The sticker on the winch is long gone so i do not know the rating on the motor but it cant be much, this thing is tiny. I also dont think my cheap multimeter is up to the task of measuring this many amps.

the mower works alright actually, its just noisy af. I also thought about using a hand winch but trying to crank it under the bench sound bad for ones lower back. Any help or insight is appreciated.

 

[dogdog]

HF have some 110v hoist you might be able to use it for the same purpose.... they offer different size for different load...

or search in the web for electric winch/hoist if you don't like HF stuff?

probably better than trying to buy a power supply that have enough amp or another deep cycle battery on a charger....

 

[ard]

there are some dirt cheap 12VDC power supplies on amazon. 12V 30A for $19.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D7CWSCG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Not sure if they will work...but I dont think your fear of "$1k" is justified!

 

[99LeCouch]

I dig it!

Better earmuffs to deaden the sound? Or, better muffler on the lawn tractor?

 

[Kaizen]

i'm sure the amazon stuff will work at least for a litle while. worse then ebay lately with electronics and lights. why not just get an ac to dc converter and leave the tractor outside?

Think i'd bite the bullet and get the hf ac winch. i used one to build my whole garage. hell of a lot easier then rigging something up every time you need to use it. I mounted mine on a hf hitch mounted grinder thing so i can put it on my truck if needed. Also can easily be mounted to 2x wall.

 

[shaggyant]

Can you just use a bigger battery charger? Seems like a guy dragging dead cars would already have one laying around somewhere.

https://www.ebay.com/p/CENTURY-10-2-Amp-6-and-12-Volt-Dual-Range-Solar-Battery-Charger-Model-1010/20029752050?iid=264215319840&chn=ps&ul_ref=https%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F711-117182-37290-0%252F2%253Fmpre%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.ebay.com%25252Fp%25252FCENTURY-10-2-Amp-6-and-12-Volt-Dual-Range-Solar-Battery-Charger-Model-1010%25252F20029752050%25253Fiid%25253D264215319840%252526chn%25253Dps%2526itemid%253D264215319840%2526targetid%253D593772286973%2526device%253Dm%2526adtype%253Dpla%2526googleloc%253D9029636%2526poi%253D%2526campaignid%253D1689945013%2526adgroupid%253D69559042287%2526rlsatarget%253Dpla-593772286973%2526abcId%253D1140466%2526merchantid%253D112038815%2526gclid%253DEAIaIQobChMI8Yu2gNHT4QIVB6rsCh2BtgfVEAQYBCABEgIUxvD_BwE%2526srcrot%253D711-117182-37290-0%2526rvr_id%253D1936072602827%2526rvr_ts%253D241ce6b116a0ab6b07057458ffab6b8e

 

[Farmall450]

Get a better charger or an el cheapo converter. The sub $20 feebay ones claim to be 15-25 amps

 

[PoorOwner]

I took a look and the winches are around 1HP, which means around 750-1000W
so at 12V it's going to NEED 80 amps easily.

Don't think a 30A supply is going to work too well. Even a 650W computer power supply is more powerful than that.

 

[James-W]

Personally, I would get something like this. This would be fairly quiet, would have a lot of power, and you would be able to stand to one side and press a button and move the car inside.

https://www.harborfreight.com/1500-lbs-capacity-120-volt-ac-electric-winch-61672.html

 

[Farmall450]

I took a look and the winches are around 1HP, which means around 750-1000W
so at 12V it's going to NEED 80 amps easily.

Don't think a 30A supply is going to work too well. Even a 650W computer power supply is more powerful than that.

That winch is lucky if it's 1/4 HP. It's a boat winch, not a 12k Warn.

 

[outdoorspace]

You can get a 1200w server power supply on eBay for 20 bucks shipped. To make it work you solder a resistor on. Or you can buy an adapter board.

 

[tyme2par4]

The best 2 options I have would be either the 120V winch from HF or buy a more heavy duty battery charger.
The battery charger route, you would turn the charger on when you need the winch, and it would work in concert with the battery to provide power. Then when you are done, it would recharge the battery.

 

[grounded-b]

Its a 12 volt boat trailer winch. I use it to pull non running cars into my garage. I used to use a car battery but it didn't have the capacity to do long pulls and my charger took forever to top the battery back up. .

Use a deep cycle battery. Car starting batteries, don't have the chemistry to put out amps for long steady use.

Get a good 25A automatic charger and leave it connected.

 

[Falcon67]

That - deep cycle and a larger winch.

 

[PoorOwner]

well he could get a battery but the cost is better applied towards a 120VAC winch.

Deep cycle batteries cost about the same as the AC winch.
Sell this winch to get some money back.

The winch is mounted and he is inside there is no reason to use a battery at all.

 

[Farmerjonathan]

Stacey David over at Gearz built this to pull in projects.

 

[Stuart in MN]

If you're only using it 12 times a year, and it does work okay off your mower, I'd say leave it as is. So what if it's noisy, that only lasts for a few minutes a month.


There, I saved you a lot of money.

 

[grantw]

Silly idea.
- 3000RPM 120/240VAC motor with V belt pulley
- 120A "one wire" alternator - also V belt pulley
- Deep Cycle Battery
- mounting plate / v belt
- ?

 

[grantw]

update: It's been done before apparently.

 

[Farmall450]

update: It's been done before apparently.

Expensive inverter.

 

[ripperd]

well he could get a battery but the cost is better applied towards a 120VAC winch.

Deep cycle batteries cost about the same as the AC winch.
Sell this winch to get some money back.

The winch is mounted and he is inside there is no reason to use a battery at all.

This. Skip all the battery hassle and get the right tool for the job.

 

[like2wheel]

Any of you cars have a 4+ year old battery?
Upgrade a vehicle & put the old one on a maintainer.

It will still have 3x the reserve of that mower battery & now you have an emergency spare always charged. Or pick up a cheap recent dated battery at the u-pullit.

Running that mower while winching adds little to the charge

 

[ard]

i'm sure the amazon stuff will work at least for a litle while. worse then ebay lately with electronics and lights.

wait.

Do you think ebay and amazon are brands?!? They they make the stuff that is sold on the site????:

You can buy brand name item, on Amazon or ebay. Or you can buy a no-name item.

The issue isnt the shopping venue...the issue is people not understanding how to shop.

And you know that HF is basically **** import stuff with HF on the package...

 

[gungatim]

wait.

Do you think ebay and amazon are brands?!? They they make the stuff that is sold on the site????:

You can buy brand name item, on Amazon or ebay. Or you can buy a no-name item.

The issue isnt the shopping venue...the issue is people not understanding how to shop.

And you know that HF is basically **** import stuff with HF on the package...

actually Amazon does brand a lot of items under "Amazon Basics" of course they don't actually manufacture anything but there are many items branded by them specifically. do a search and you'll see it's an entire category of merchandise. my employer supplies Amazon branded product to them...

 

[checkthisout]

Harbor Freight 2500 lb winch for $49.00.

New battery for $90.00 and just use existing charger.

The larger battery will allow you to do several full pulls on a single charge.

1 month between uses is more than enough for a tender type charger to top the battery back up.

 

[Mattlt]

Thinking outside the box a little bit... How about a mechanical advantage (block and tackle) on your winch cable? Should result in less power being needed to pull the car inside, but it will take longer (have to pull a longer length of cable / rope) and may need to reset a couple times before you're done.

 

[ard]

actually Amazon does brand a lot of items under "Amazon Basics" of course they don't actually manufacture anything but there are many items branded by them specifically. do a search and you'll see it's an entire category of merchandise. my employer supplies Amazon branded product to them...

OK, so except for the <<1% of the items amazon sells as Amazon Basics.

My point still stands. The poster I was responding to was not speaking of 'Amazon Basics DC Converters'....