Winch variable speed controller

[churchill]

I've been looking at some forklift reversible speed controllers from china and see some of them can handle up to 600A. You can get them for around US$300. They're a PWM setup with a reversing contactor. Has anyone tried hooking one of these up to a winch to give a variable speed control?

[sibainmud]

I would of thought they would get hot and bothered
Besides, never wanted a winch to go any slower
Keep trying to get it to go faster

Cheers,

[churchill]

Ok, so top end speed of a winch is still an issue. Once that gets too fast to control with a contactor something like might have a use.

[meatc]

Given that most winch motors burn out due to lack of volts meaning to many amps, I would say a controller would have massive potential to cook motors.

Some DC motors are design to run variable voltage, unfortunately winch motors aren't amongst them.

[churchill]

Interesting, maybe time for a 48V or a 72V winch. It's always seemed crazy using such a low voltage and high current to get the power.

Is it possible to run a separate charging circuit to charge a higher voltage battery pack?

[yael]

Any thing is possible provided you have the determination and the coinage to do it... Biggest issue I see with a higher DC voltage setup is the amount and weight of batteries you would need!

But hey if doing something like that floats your boat then why not.. I would love to see it all set up and running

[NJV6]

Yes, I run a 24 volt system in my 12 volt vehicle just for the winch.

I understand once you get two sytems largely different in volts then you need an insulated seperate earthing system as well....?

[churchill]

So, it can be done. Suppose it's like running a 240V inverter in your truck but at 42V and DC.

Maybe the battery weight issue could be mitigated by using smaller cells with a lower CCA and capacity seeing as there are more batteries to draw from.

Running a 24V winch at 48V might be doable, I've heard of 12V winches running at 24V.