Electric Winch Not Working When Connected Directly to a Battery

Updated 07/31/2018 | Published 07/30/2018

Question:

So I purchased a 3 car Kaufman trailer with a winch. I bought a battery for the winch and ordered the remote to control the winch. Then I went to hook the negative and positive cable to the battery and plugged the remote into the winch. After having the cables hooked up to the battery deep cycle I then tried to use the remote but nothing happened. Now the thing is that I didn’t have my truck that I use for hauling this trailer just took the battery to where I keep my truck and tried to hook it up w/o the 7 pin being hooked up so now comes my question do I need to have the 7 pin plug connected to the truck even if I’m using a separate battery for the winch?

asked by: DeAngelo

Expert Reply:

No, you should not have to have the trailer plugged into the 7-Way connector on your truck for the winch to work. Assuming the battery is adequately sized for the power draw of the winch then the winch would only need to be connected to that battery to function. It could be that something was miswired or there is a problem with the remote or the receptacle where it plugs in on the winch. There are numerous ways you can power a winch mounted on a trailer. I have included a link to our help article that explains different ways to power an electric winch.

expert reply by: Michael H