I intend to buy a KT2000 winch to tow a boat up a ramp and I would like to check my computations from the Keeper Corporation performance data. My slope is 14 degrees. I should be able to pull a 3300 lb boat+trailer with about a 800 lb pull using about 60 Amps, assuming a hard, smooth surface. Am I correct?
Many thanks...
Bruce

 

Why would you want to pull the trailer with the winch? The trailer would be attached to the tow vehicle, and the winch would pull the boat onto the trailer.

 

This is a problem of pulling a boat & trailer up a slope at home, not a boat ramp. I can't pull the boat/trailer up the slope with the Jeep because then the Jeep is trapped. I have pulled it up by hand with a "comealong" but it takes forever. I think the physics here is correct, not sure about the current needed. That comes from extrapolation of the Keeper Corp data.

 

The 800 lb pull force is just about dead on what you'd need. I calculated a tangential force of 798.34 lb (= 3300 * sin(14 deg.)).

 

Thanks Mark... What do you think about the current?

 

The current data is in keepercorp.com website...

 

60 Amps should do it, but you're going to need some beefy cables to pass that amount of current. From the Web site, it looks like the wiring comes with the winch, but I would think you'd need about 8 gauge wire.

My expertise is not so much in things electrical, so somebody else on this forum might want to jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong on the current calculations. Here's a link to a site with wire-size tables.
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

 

Thanks Mark..... Will let you know what happens if I am still around....

 

It occurred to me after I posted my last response that the wires used in cars and trucks for high-amp flow already are pretty beefy. I was thinking in terms of the wires used in household circuits, where 10g 2conductor+ground seems pretty big, but the wires to a car battery are single conductor, and they're quite a bit bigger.

The docs for your winch say that the wires are included, and are color coded for gauge. Since you're going to be pulling 60A, pick a gauge that gives you some extra margin if you can.