Winch Batteries. recommendations?

[pruggerdore]

Time to buy new batteries for winch power. interested to know who use's what and why. what do the winch challange guys use. want as good as I can get for $s obviously so if anyone know of any deals? truck. hilux commy v6 9500q runva. Does the odd tough truck/winch challenge, just not the officialmainstream rounds 80 amp alternator but will be going to a 170 amp soon.Runs 2 batts down back and one under bonnet but want to go down to just 2 good ones at the back Would like AGM type (like optima) but dam expensve so alternative AGM type ideas be good. Odyssey AGM look good but havnt got a price yet. Price may rule agm out so alternatives be good?
Ideas? Thought? experience's?
Thanks clive

[Crash bandicoot]

im running a 9500 pound winch powered by 2 sealed heavy commercial 880cca exide batteries. On special they were 169 dollars a piece.
the alternator is 110 amp from a QD32 R50 terrano

[darinz]

Getting any gel / agm (or whatever) battery to do the job is a bit of an ask. I couldn't find anything that had the res minutes without spending a shit load. Literally it was going to be about 3 or 4 times the price.
So I'd go with a good quality starting battery. Something around 200 reserve minutes (which will probably mean about 900 to 100 cca). Just get the biggest starting battery you can find and you should be able to do it for about $200 per battery if you have some contacts, if not then close to $300 each.

[pruggerdore]

cheers guys. best thing about agm is the ability to charge back up as fast as you can chuck power at it whereas conventional are slower. can get 1300 cca agm for 699 so yea twice the money. agm wont leak when your upside down. 1400 on batterys a tad too much so I guess its going to have to be conventional 8-900cca.

[skid]

I have also first hand witnessed on more than one occasion an Optima battery go flat from winching and truck stall and not restart.

Wait 5-10 mins and there was enuf juice back in the Optima to crank over motor again

Just sayin

[pruggerdore]

Talking to a customer at a battery place today an auto electrician and he was saying if you run an agm "optima" style battery down flat enough and then try and start an engine with it it can in trying to deliver everything it's got or rather hasnt got can cause it to internaly arc and slowly die. didnt entirely make sense to me but he seemed to know what he was on about.
suggested trying genuine catapillar batteries.

[ChurchurDan]

Caterpillar batteries are made by East Penn in the USA. We sell them at work branded as Endurant Crank Master and they are good batteries. They are normally a 31-1100 and they cost as much as an optima.

These would work well and retail at work for $345 but they are not sealed. They use to be sold branded as 4x4 Master.
http://www.batterytown.co.nz/#/product/info/CM27-850

Optima are awesome batteries and for their size are hard to beat even if they are really expensive. I recently took a pair out of a boat that were the starting batteries, one on each 300hp diesel. They were 12 years old.
Anything AGM in that capacity is going to be a similar price, and if you think they are dear price up some Odyssey batteries.

[Ant]

Endurant do a sealed gell battery that was recommended to me. I run 2 of them in the safari but sadly havent used them for winching ........yet....

[derk]

unless you've got moonbeams in your wallet just dying to get spent a couple of good bang for buck high CCA batteries and a good output alt should be sweet

I can understand you wanting to drop from 3 down to 2 batteries but have you had problems in the past with the 2 winching batteries not holding up, what sort of output alt have you been using with them, have you got good battery cables on them there not getting too hot?

[pruggerdore]

anyone know anything about these? specs are good. american.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =725902178

running an 80 amp alt at present but looking at an upgrade. these guys do 170 and up alts. get direct from USA tho. Wiring etc is well above normal. have upgraded to 50* whatever they rate cable in. Its not that I have a problem with setup more that electric winch's always run out of grunt eventually so always looking at ways to improve things and if I'm buying batteries looking for ways to get better than I have now. Not talking about when you do 2 or 3 winchs in a day but when your doing winch after winch after winch on long undrivable hills. ever done waitawheta backwards in the uphill direction. that's when average electric just dosn't go the distance

[Zooker]

Hey. xs power batteries are the best of the best when it comes to high output agm batteries.
spendy though.
they are the batteries all the top end car audio guys use.
If I had the money I'd have a couple for my audio setup but I cant afford em.

Dc tech are the nz dealers.
And yea they do mechman alternators too. Upto 370 amp output.

If you want to know anything about there stuff give "andrew dbdrga colver" a buzz on facebook.

[datsunsafari]

been running 2x 730 cca batteries for a few years now in my safari,done plenty of winching still going strong.under $300 each

[derk]

Its not that I have a problem with setup more that electric winch's always run out of grunt eventually

Not talking about when you do 2 or 3 winchs in a day but when your doing winch after winch after winch on long undrivable hills. ever done waitawheta backwards in the uphill direction. that's when average electric just dosn't go the distance

maybe you want to have a look at those entry level hydraulic winches running off a power steer pump they aren't fast they only do what a basic electric winch does but so long as you keep the fluid cool they should winch all day for you without worrying about draining batteries and you could still keep the electric as a secondary/backup if you've got the room

[mudlva]

Its not that I have a problem with setup more that electric winch's always run out of grunt eventually

Not talking about when you do 2 or 3 winchs in a day but when your doing winch after winch after winch on long undrivable hills. ever done waitawheta backwards in the uphill direction. that's when average electric just dosn't go the distance

maybe you want to have a look at those entry level hydraulic winches running off a power steer pump they aren't fast they only do what a basic electric winch does, so long as you keep the fluid cool they should winch all day for you without worrying about draining batteries and you could still keep the electric as a secondary/backup if you've got the room

yes they will winch all day but they are so slow...
jeep do a hydraulic pump that takes power off the crank with seems to work well. otherwise to do hydro well, its a pto powered pump.
but this is off topic.

its all to do with amps as in "power out verse power in".
imho majority of o,e alternator cables are way to small to get full amps out of the unit and directly to the winch. when I was running electrics and having issues the auto sparks it Thames installed a battery starter size cable from the alt to the battery, replacing the shoe lace that was there previously. this helped lots for the big continuous winches.
the problems still comes back to amps tho as the winch will draw 3-5 x's more current than the alt can flow out, making repetitive winching extremely hard.

engine or transmission power take off is the only real reliable way of doing continuous repetitive hard winching

[pruggerdore]

Some good info there guys. yes have massive alternator cable. so picture Im getting is there is no clever magic bullet. Its the usual just throw money at it . Priced caterpillar batts yesterday. 25% of country wide at moment so 300 a pop for 1000cca. not bad considering they rep they seem to have. very heavy. thick plastic cases. Power in too power out thing is probably more important than the batteries so going for a big ass alternator. AGM are just to expensive so there out .

[00falcon]

Sorry to bring up an old thread... but...

Im on the hunt for a new battery.

My current 600CCA battery has been in the Jeep since i got her near 3 years ago. (only knows how old it is, but that doesn't really matter, as im getting a new one anyway).

Sometimes the Simex don't work, so i use the winch alot... and my current battery has never let me down...

But, i can get a 963CCA 120AH AGM Battery for a little over $200, so on the surface this sounds good.
Im getting it from the guys that supply our UPS batteries.

I told him my application, and he started rabbiting on about the 13.8v that alternators usually output, and gave me a 2 - 3 minute speal about how every now and then i should give it a charge at 14.1v, as 13.8v is just its float.
I told him the Jeep is a toy, and doesn't get daily use. (actually she sits for long periods)
he said this battery would suit me, but to get myself a variable battery charger, and give the AGM a top up like once every month or two.

I don't want to have to 'manage' the battery (like so many other thing in my life).
i just want bolt it in and forget it.

So... do i go for an AGM Battery or not...

Cheers

[ChurchurDan]

Get the AGM
They have far less self discharge and can sit for months without loosing charge, they accept far higher charge current for quicker recharge and deliver more amps when needed. Your jeep will charge it just fine as it should be charging at 14.2-14.4 volts.

[zed]

I use a yellow top optima AGM in my truck, had it for 2 years so far. Sits neglected for months sometimes then I wind it over and she fires up. The yellows are recommended for deep cycle stuff so great for a winch application as well as cranking, especially if you only run one battery.

My 2c

[TJ]

I've been running an exide orbital agm for 6 years with no problems in my TJ.