I have a superwinch 4500, 12v, on my trailer. It is used to lift the upper car into place for transport. It will pull the car up the ramp just fine with a doubler, but it seems to be overheating trying to lift the car into place. my car is 2200 lbs, shouldnt this thing be 2x what I need??

4500 lbs is the flat pulling weight, meaning rolling, not lifting. You should always have a winch rated for 2-3 times the vehicle weight. You have to overcome additional forces, in addition to vehicle weight. You're essentially dead lifting car, plus ramp weight straight up. Not an easy chore. You could try attaching your hook back to the trailer boom, instead of the end of the ramp. You'll need another doubler. The angle you're winching at, with the pulley on top, limits your options.

In your case, I think your wiring may not be stout enough to support the amp draw needed. Also, the winch will overheat in long duration pulls. When you use the doubler (aka snatch block, pully, ), you're cutting the line speed in half, thereby doubling your pull time.

Check you wiring and upgrade to heavier, larger gauge wiring. Keep in mind most OEM wire that comes with a winch, is designed to only be a few feet from a 12v source. Longer distances require larger wiring, to reduce resistance load. Resistance lowers the winches power, thereby making it work harder, and get hotter faster.

I can't see your wiring clearly, but these two things added together will definatly give the problem you're discribing.

Get your wiring fixed, and try winching in short bursts, to allow recovery time for the battery and winch. Make sure your engine is running on the tow rig, to provide extra amperage.

HTH.

thanks.

Looking at the wiring I believe it's 8ga wiring traveling about 5' to the battery source. The battery is a deep cycle marine battery but I don't know the amperage off hand. Some of the superwinch specs list in excess of 215a draw so im wondering if I wouldn't be better doubling the batteries and provide more amperage.

215 amps? I'd definitely upgrade from 8ga. wiring. Think 0. Grand94jeep nailed this one.

go with the large gauge wire.

think of it like a water pipe...bigger is better for that much "flow".

Although you could get away with perhaps a 1 to 2 gauge for that short a run, going with the 0 cable would help out in case you decide to upgrade your winch to a larger unit in the future. regardless, anything larger than the 8 gauge you have there will be better.

In fact, you could probably go to a parts house and find a couple of universal battery cables that are about 5-6 foot long that would work just as good and already have the battery terminals in place.

D

most car's are only running around 8 gauge to the battery mains, even in my van the main power is about 8ga, and the charging to the rear is about 10.

I like your "Bump Draft : On" sticker, haha. Nice little setup there, hope the advice here gets you up and running.

that would be "Bumpdraft: OK!"

Oh, haha. It looks like ON from this angle, but OK works just as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCDOkOGHgw0

/thread derail.

good point...although you might be able to find decent sized cables at a medium/heavy duty truck parts house...although you would probably be just as good going to a welding shop and getting what you need there.

I wont derail anymore, but BHF is a great place. The last turn onto the straightaway is my favorite corner to watch. My dad used to race karts out there quite a bit a few years back. Fun track.
/derail

ive considered it for a BOL :p

The starter system on a car, does not compare to the amp draw of a loaded winch motor. On the distribution block that I run for all my add-on accessories (ie. off-road lights, stereo, amps) I used a 4ga. wire. I've always believed in running 1-2 size larger wires for any electrical accessory. Have you ever seen a 100w off-road light set that comes with 16ga wire? Run one light off the OEM wiring provided, then plug the second light in. You'll see the difference instantly. Most OEM's provide the bare minimum wire needed.

Even the OEM wire that come with new winches is too small.