Best battery type for winching?

From: jon@dakota-truck.net
Date: Tue Jun 05 2001 - 00:37:00 EDT


   I'm finally getting around to working on installing my Warn M12000 on
my Ram (BBQ is a month away!!!!) and I plan to do a dual battery system
at the same time, the 2nd batttery being used for the winch, offroad lights,
etc. (Actually I'm planning on the "2nd battery" being two batteries,
wired in parallel; I'm pretty sure I have enough room to do that.)

  My question is, should I use "normal" automotive batteries or deep
cycle? Originally, I was planning on deep cycle, but upon further
research, it seems that deep cycle batteries are designed for relatively
low current draws over a long period of time, whereas a standard battery
is designed for relatively high current draws over a short period of time.
Based on that, it would seem to me that winching has more in common
with cranking an engine than it does with say, running a refrigerator
or a television. The main difference being that a winching operation
takes longer than cranking an engine.

  So, I got to thinking perhaps a standard battery would be better, and
I could even save some cash to boot... What do you folks think?

-- 

-Jon-

.---- Jon Steiger ------- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -----. | Affiliations: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA; Rec & UL Pilot - SEL | | '92 Ram 150 4x4 V8, '96 Dakota V8, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly 447 | `------------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com ----'



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:01:44 EDT