Electric Wench- HELP ???

[Cyn-Cyn]

Need help !  Please !  We are first time campers.
Today, we tried to hook up our newly mounted electric wench to my minivan to raise the pop-up. (We can't crank that heavy camper.)  The winch worked for 3 seconds and QUIT. Then the minivan wouldn't start !!!!
Had to get a wrecker to tow the van to Firestone.  They say our battery is fine & jumping the van with a super-duper battery charger didn't work. We can't find any bad fuses either.
Does anyone had an idea of what happened ?  We know it was a mistake NOT to have the engine running when we tried to run the wench off of the power port.  All ideas are appreciated.
Still waiting for maiden voyage...
Cindy

[wavery]

Hi Cindy.......

[SIZE="7"][COLOR="Red"]WELCOME TO PUT!!![/COLOR][/SIZE]

Those darn "Wenches" are so unreliable. Did you pick-up this wench from a HomeDepot parking lot? You may try a higher quality wench....... one between 16 & 45 and over 150#........:p

Sorry.....I couldn't help it......I'm the resident "smart a$$"...:rolleyes:

Anyway...... what size battery do you have on your camper? The "Winch" should work off of the camper battery and the battery must be fully charged. It does help to have the TV (Tow Vehicle) engine running (it will increase the power some) but it should operate without the TV even being hooked up.

If you wired the winch to the trailer harness port, that was a big mistake. It MUST be wired to the trailer battery with about 10G or 12G wire, depending on how far the run is from the winch motor to the battery.. The trailer wire harness is not big enough to handle the amperage of an electric motor.

If the camper battery is discharged, the TV is trying to charge the battery plus run the winch.........That's why the TV battery went dead. If you were running the fridge on 12V, that just added insult to injury....

[Hoagie]

Sorry.....I couldn't help it......I'm the resident "smart a$$"...:rolleyes:

Hi Cindy. Welcome to the boards. You'll find a lot of very helpful information here from a lot of knowledgeable people....even from Wayne.

[Cyn-Cyn]

Mr. & Mrs. Hoagie,
Thanks for the welcome to PUT.  My husband and I are going to need
a lot of advice before we venture out for our first trip in this used
camper. Neither of us can crank the pop-up.  The ads make it look so easy, but I'm not strong enough & my husband reinjured his back when he cranked it. Please feel free to jump in with any advice.
Many Thanks,
     Cyn                           Wayne has been a great help !

[wavery]

Hi Cindy,

Did you guys get a battery yet?

If you will measure how far it is from the winch to the battery and how many amps the winch draws, I'll tell you what size wire you should use. The amps should be on a label on the motor or the specs that came with it.

Wayne

[Cyn-Cyn]

Hi Wayne,
Thanks for thinking about our problem.  
Do you understand that my little pop-up is old and with only the bare essentials ?  We can't find a battery in the camper !!!!  
I know that sounds odd, but we've looked.....
Perhaps, I need to go on-line and try to order a copy of the owner's manual.
That would really be useful right about now.
Cyn  (not Cindy)

[wavery]

Hi Wayne,
Thanks for thinking about our problem.  
Do you understand that my little pop-up is old and with only the bare essentials ?  We can't find a battery in the camper !!!!  
I know that sounds odd, but we've looked.....
Perhaps, I need to go on-line and try to order a copy of the owner's manual.
That would really be useful right about now.
Cyn  (not Cindy)

OOOOPS.....sorry Cyn....

If you are going to have a 12V winch on your trailer, it will have to have it's own battery, mounted on the trailer.

Most PUs have a place on the trailer tongue to store a battery. It's usually a couple of pieces of angle iron about 10" apart from one side of the frame to the other.

I would recommend getting a series 24, 27 or 29, deep cycle battery, (bigger is usually better). Interstate makes good deep cycle batteries but if you are only going to use it for this winch, a "Big Box" store battery may do (just get the best battery that fits your budget). Chances are, once you have a battery on your trailer, you will slowely add other 12V items, like lights and/or water pump. You'll also need a battery box that will fit the battery that you select ($10 at Walmart). The battery box just sits on the angle iron and the webbing that comes with the box goes around the battery box and angle iron to keep the battery in place.

You will need to run a 10G wire from the  negative side of the battery to a place nearby on the frame. You will also need to run a wire from the positive side of the battery to the positive wire on the winch (probably a 12G or 10G wire....bigger is better). That wire should have a 30A in-line fuse right at the battery (available at Walmart or any auto parts store). Then run the negative wire from the winch to a bolt on the frame, close to the winch (I am assuming that the winch is located on the back of the trailer).

[Recumbentman]

Cyn-Cyn
Welcome to PUT. It would help if you listed what type of PU you have. We could help steer you guys in the right path better knowing this.
Go to this Web site and find your PU and download or copy the manual for your PU and read through it. I am sure it will help you understand your PU better. If you do not find your year, just get another one close to your year, because they do not change much.

[dkutz]

without knowing specifics, the first thing that comes to mind is why is it so hard to lift? Is it possible that the wiffle tree or crank mechanism needs to be cleaned and lubed?  Don't know how old the trailer is or what condition, if you bought it used, there maybe an issue with the lift mechanism...

[Cyn-Cyn]

Thanks to everyone who answered my call for HELP.  What I have is a:
1993 Sun Lite, Nighthawk IV camper made in Bristol, Indiana. The company is out of business.  I was excited to check for an owner's manual, but my little POP-UP isn't listed.  Boooo !
This is a basic 10' X 7' box with A.C., heat, small refrig., 3 burner propane stove and weighs only 1,400 lbs.
The electric wench is 12 volt, radio controlled with a 3,000 lb. capacity.
It's mounted to the trailer tow "thing".

Wayne, does this make any sense to you ?
Everyone, feel free to jump in with ideas for finding a manual or where the battery is or how to crank this with the electric wench.
We are babes in the woods. Actually, we've never made it to the woods yet.
   Many Thanks,
       Cyn   :confused:

[wavery]

Thanks to everyone who answered my call for HELP.  What I have is a:
1993 Sun Lite, Nighthawk IV camper made in Bristol, Indiana. The company is out of business.  I was excited to check for an owner's manual, but my little POP-UP isn't listed.  Boooo !
This is a basic 10' X 7' box with A.C., heat, small refrig., 3 burner propane stove and weighs only 1,400 lbs.
The electric wench is 12 volt, radio controlled with a 3,000 lb. capacity.
It's mounted to the trailer tow "thing".

Wayne, does this make any sense to you ?
Everyone, feel free to jump in with ideas for finding a manual or where the battery is or how to crank this with the electric wench.
We are babes in the woods. Actually, we've never made it to the woods yet.
   Many Thanks,
       Cyn   :confused:

I'm baffled. Pics would be nice......is this winch standard equipment on this trailer or something that someone came up with?

[Cyn-Cyn]

I bought the camper last summer.... against my husband's wishes.
It came with an ordinary crank which was easy to lower but very
difficult to crank UP.  I don't have the strength or energy and Don hurt his back trying to do this.  So, Don and a friend attached the new electric wench.  We had never tried it until last weekend when it didn't work.

Do you have any idea where to find a manual for this old, little camper ?

Thanks,
Cyn
:U

[Spirit Deer]

I'm doubtful a manual would really be much help.  Camper manuals are very generic and don't usually get very specific, and they don't include instructions for the individual appliances, which usually have their own manuals.

Go back to the link given above for downloading owner's manuals and download one from the same era as your camper.  Chances are, the information will be similar to what your manual would have been.  These trailers often used the same lift systems across a variety of brands.  I think Coleman/Fleetwood used a different system than most others, so you might want to skip those manuals.  I think most of the others use Goshen lift systems so you can either check Goshen's site or see if there's a manual that might be of use to you.  I know Palomino uses Goshen lifts, so you might start by checking Palomino manuals to see if there's any info for you there.  You may be able to figure it out by looking under the trailer and noting the configuration of the lifters, then comparing that to online info.  

If the winch (not wench) is new, then it should have its own manual.  If the winch isn't intended for use specifically on a camper, then you may be flirting with disaster because you need stop limit switches at the top and bottom of the run to avoid raising the roof too high or loosening the cables when you close up to the point they come out of their runs.

If you cannot raise a 10' roof by use of the hand crank, it sounds to me like possibly the lifters need to be lubed, or the cables are not correctly aligned.  To lube the lifters, you will have to crawl under the trailer and locate the grease zerks where you will then use a grease gun to shoot white lithium grease (available at Walmart, NAPA, etc.) into said zerks till they are full.  If the cables are no longer seated correctly, that's something someone else will need to explain to you because we haven't yet encountered that problem ourselves.  Start by lubing the lifters if you haven't, and see if that improves things at all.

Good luck.

[4Campers]

Another option to think of is a portable drill. Some people use these to crank the pup up instead of cranking by hand. However the issue with these is a strong wrist because if it gets away on you it's strong enough to flip a person over (or break a wrist if you don't backflip). I have seen one rigged up on a homemade post to keep it from doing this, ie- the post holds the drill in place.
I agree with the other posts here, a good lube job on the lift poles and the winch may help. Use a good silicone lube so you don't get dust clinging to the poles/winch. They sell such lubricants at any camping store or search campingworld.com
Good Luck and Welcome to PUT!!

[Cyn-Cyn]

Thank you to all the POP-UP PEOPLE who responded to my call for help on 3-28-2010 concerning my electric winch problem.  The problem is SOLVED !!!
After blowing out several fuses and tearing our hair out because we could NOT open the pop-up.... a friend suggested that the instructions (which came with the elect. winch) were wrong. We did what the manuf. said, to plug in their cord to our Caravan's power port/cig. lighter. DISASTER !!!
Friend suggested to hook up directly to the van's battery and ZIP....
the camper went up with the touch of the remote control button.
It was a wonderful sight !
Apparently, the port did not produce enough electrical power to support the electric winch, but our van battery does.
MANY THANKS !
Cyn








U

Need help !  Please !  We are first time campers.
Today, we tried to hook up our newly mounted electric wench to my minivan to raise the pop-up. (We can't crank that heavy camper.)  The winch worked for 3 seconds and QUIT. Then the minivan wouldn't start !!!!
Had to get a wrecker to tow the van to Firestone.  They say our battery is fine & jumping the van with a super-duper battery charger didn't work. We can't find any bad fuses either.
Does anyone had an idea of what happened ?  We know it was a mistake NOT to have the engine running when we tried to run the wench off of the power port.  All ideas are appreciated.
Still waiting for maiden voyage...
Cindy