I have a 2000 f250 powerstroke for a daily driver. I am currently mocking up a custom front bumper. I am going to have a hitch receiver so i can park boats, trailers in tight quarters. I also intend to run a portable winch. Originally i was going to run a 3-5000 lb winch in the rear bumper, but i think the MN winters with salt and sand would take its toll on a permanetly mounted bumper. With the portable winch i will be able to use it in the front and back, store it in the bed under tonneau cover and not have the additional weight ride on the front end as it will be rarely used.
I plan on fabbing a hitch receiver under the portable cradle so i can hook an additional hitch and winch boats onto trailers, ect.
I am thinking of a 10k electric. The weakest point will be the 5/8 hitch pin. I was thinking of drilling a vertical hole in both the hitch and receiver and run 2 pins or 1 larger one. Thoughts?

 

I am not the best with wiring and am looking for advice on this also. I know they make quick connects, but would like to run a relay which will cut off all power to those quick connects until a switch in the cab is turned on. How can i do a setup like this? Would you want to run any sort of fuse? Thanks. Josh

 

i ran a 12,000lb ramsey on my 88, mounted on a 3/4 inch steel plate, welded to a piece of square tube that fit into the hitch receiver mounted on the front of the truck.
power was taken directly from the batteries, with welding cable connected to pallet jack battery quick connects.
in this picture, you can just make out the quick connect on the plow frame, passenger side, near the bottom of the headlight.
i never had any problems with the single hardened hitch pin, and i have used the winch to pull out 2 trucks that were stuck to the frame in the mud. a dodge ramcharger, and a J-20 jeep
i anchored the rear hitch to a big oak tree, ran the cable out, and hooked both trucks together and pulled them both out in one shot. .

 

I think you would rip the hitch off before a 5/8 pin would break.

 

5/8 pin won't be a weak link, thats what I have on my truck and I have winched out tractors with ****** blocks.
As far as your wiring is concerned, you'll be fine with 2 gauge wire. I would just run one hot from your battery to the quick connect coupling, (like what electric forklifts use) and the negative can be short, and just go to the frame, so long as your battery already has a good ground to the frame. I would not recommend putting a kill switch for the whole system, but if you feel like you have to, one of those battery isolator switches they sell at O'reillys would work fine. Or if you really got fancy with it, you could by a continous duty solenoid (like what comes in winches) to shut the current on and off, you would just have to be totally sure that you always made sure to turn it off, or you will drain your battery constantly.

 

I am not concerned with what battery the winch is pulling from. I will be rarely using it and will have a few different setting of hi idol in my chip so draining a battery wont be a big concern
I am basically looking to kill power from the battery to the quick connect cables until its needed. Basically looking for a switch in the cab to connect the wires, but is capable of 2 ga wire! Is this what a continous duy soleniod does?

 

when not hooked up to the winch, the connector also serves as a power point for the jumper cables. it is nice to be able to just plug the jumpers cables in and go, whether it is front or back. and they are also 20 ft long, so i don't even have to get close to the vehicle that needs jumping.

 

They make a battery isolator switch, like I mentioned you can buy at oreilly's. That would work for your keeping power away from your quick connects, you could put this under your hood, at the quick connects, or the cab with enough wire and motivation.

A continous duty solenoid looks like the old ford solenoids on all of the older ford cars and trucks, you know the ones that mount on the side of the fender. The continous duty ones are special because, they can handle greater loads for a longer period of time. These are factory in warn 8274's and probably a lot more. All they need is a signal wire to trigger them. This could be from a switch inside the cab.

On a side note... why do you want to kill power to your quick connects. I run the same setup on my daily driven truck, and I just put a cover over it, that came with the connector. Never had any issues whatsoever with it.

The more parts and switches you put in this system, you increase the chance that something somewhere will fail.

 

Also, do not put on those cheesey top post terminals that the wire bolts to via two bolts and a clamp on top. Buy some flux and electrical solder (you'll need it for the quick connects anyway) and put a copper lug on the end of your wire at the battery, and use a terminal on the battery that has a stud sticking up with a wing nut. Sorta like marine batteries.

 

Iv got a question for yall running receiver mount hitches. my concern has been that if im off roading and have to pull at a pretty sever angle to the side of the truck, Id be afraid that the hitch wouldn't handle the side load very well. Have yall have had any experience with anything like this.

 

yes.

Receiver hitches arent built to be pulled on from any angle other than straight back behind the truck. Furthermore, class IV hitches are only rated for around 10-12k so be very careful with your 10k winch.

 

Invest in a ****** block or two for sure.

 

thats a good idea if you only use them to straighten out the line of pull. Dont use them to double the line back to the truck to double the winches line pull. 20k lbs put to a trailer hitch = baaaad idea.

 

I got my 9000i setup like that. In fact I have a setup that mounts between the receiver and the hitch. It has another receiver on top for the winch. Great for getting vehicles on the trailer.

 

I reason i dont want fulltime power from the battery to thr bumper is simply because i will rarely use them. Maybe once every 2 months. I dont see a problem with having power running thru them all the time, but if something were to short out it would drain the batteries in a hurry. And being its a diesel i need at least 11 volts at both batteries. I am not afraid of getting fancy and spending a little extra. I could just have the marine style terminals and connect to the battery every time, but that gets old. I just want to do it the right way the first time and never have to fiddle with it again.
I am integrating the hitch reveiver into the front bumper and eventually the rear so i would think i could do angled pulls as well as a winch bumper permitting how stout the hitch and carriage is.