# how to power a winch on a 48V golf cart



## z_power (Dec 17, 2011)

How about using extra controller connected to traction pack? 48V/200-300A Curtis is easy to buy cheap on eBay and you won't damage your DC/DC or aux. battery. As a bonus you get perfect control of winching speed, not just on/off as usual.


----------



## releehweoj (Dec 30, 2013)

z_power said:


> How about using extra controller connected to traction pack? 48V/200-300A Curtis is easy to buy cheap on eBay and you won't damage your DC/DC or aux. battery. As a bonus you get perfect control of winching speed, not just on/off as usual.


Thanks z_power. Not knowledgeable enough yet to know how to implement that solution. The other reason to have that small 12V battery powering the winch is that it could be used to load the GC on trailer should I have a failure in the traction pack.


----------



## Woodsmith (Jun 5, 2008)

z_power said:


> How about using extra controller connected to traction pack? 48V/200-300A Curtis is easy to buy cheap on eBay and you won't damage your DC/DC or aux. battery. As a bonus you get perfect control of winching speed, not just on/off as usual.


I am considering this as an option for the winch on my tractor.

I am using one, maybe two, 750kg Harvey Frost recovery winches which are hand powered. The intention is to use a small geared motor where the winding handle is and to control that with a small motor controller from the 48v traction pack.

That solves the same problems for me as it would do for you regarding the battery options.

Also the gear motors I have include a neutral position in the gearbox so I could still wind the winch by hand if the motor/battery pack is dead.


----------



## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

releehweoj said:


> In my case with an 48V electric GC, I have a 48V/12V converter that could be used to power the winch. Problem is the winch pulls 100A plus under moderate load which far exceeds the 30A rated output of the 48V/12V converter. So I'm wondering if I could place a small 12V battery (specs on winch say 12A/hour minimum) between the converter and the winch. This size battery would be easy to mount and would supply proper voltage and amps to the winch. If I'm correct then I would need something like a 12V battery charger/maintainer that can be run off of 12V DC from the converter. Don't know if this exists - haven't found it yet.


Why use another 12VDC charger? The existing 30 amp 12V converter should recharge the battery over time. The only problem is if the winch is used for longer periods than the battery can supply, you'd probably need a full sized battery to avoid that. Other than that a motor controller is probably the only other option, as has been suggested.


----------



## VDC (May 19, 2012)

z_power said:


> How about using extra controller connected to traction pack? 48V/200-300A Curtis is easy to buy cheap on eBay and you won't damage your DC/DC or aux. battery. As a bonus you get perfect control of winching speed, not just on/off as usual.


I'm in a similar situation. I like this idea, but I'd like to know more before I go shopping, if someone can point me to the right tech info. 

In my case, it would be nice to have the speed variation available (maybe just as a panel-mount potentiometer, just for occasional adjustments), but the 12V winch would be fixed, semi-permanently, and "jumpered" from the 48V pack. The golf cart makes the power-source mobile so I don't have to lug batteries around to charge them. 

I'd control the winch wirelessly - I will be using it to move heavy stuff up and down a steep hillside, so I need to be near the loads to, er, supervise snags, etc.

Would it be obvious how to wire the controller for this, just from basic connection diagrams? Are we talking about only maybe... six wires to land? (two for 48VDC in, two for the variable power out to winch, and two for the potentiometer?)

Performance: am I going to burn up my winch from ramping up the speed too high, or is that magically made impossible by controller's design?

Is there any means to overload-protect the winch, since I won't be near enough to hear any ugly sounds or see smoke, etc? Mainly that means I'd be worried about voltage-drop after long use.

Thanks for any oddball input...

Dave


----------

