Portable Hitch Winch Wiring - Aux Switches

[cyterio]

Has anyone wired a portable hitch winch to the rear of the Ranger Raptor? I see a lot of videos where these types of winches are powered via jumper cables to the battery when in use.

I’m looking to utilize the auxiliary switches and would like a nice clean installation that can easily plug into one of the leads in the back. Not sure if this is a reasonable option or if I should just opt for hooking up directly to the battery with jumper cables and an adapter when using.

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[YukonRanger]

My ranger isn't here yet but I would bet the AUX wires don't have enough copper to power a winch, they would melt.

I'm sure someone has a diagram of the max amps allowed on each switch.

I use 6 gauge on my ATV/Snow machine winches, id say 2 gauge or bigger for a 12000lb vehicle winch

Bigger the wire, less power loss from resistance, less heat generated

 

[cyterio]

My ranger isn't here yet but I would bet the AUX wires don't have enough copper to power a winch, they would melt.

I'm sure someone has a diagram of the max amps allowed on each switch.

I use 6 gauge on my ATV/Snow machine winches, id say 2 gauge or bigger for a 12000lb vehicle winch

Bigger the wire, less power loss from resistance, less heat generated

That was my initial thought, but I figured I’d ask since I’ve not physically looked at the gauge of wire for the various aux switches.
Thanks!

 

[YukonRanger]

That was my initial thought, but I figured I’d ask since I’ve not physically looked at the gauge of wire for the various aux switches.
Thanks!

You got me curious I found a thread with the ratings:

Ranger Raptor Auxiliary Switch Info

looks like

Aux1 : 5A
Aux2 : 15A
Aux3 : 15A
Aux4 : 15A
Aux5 : 25A
Aux6 : 25A

I assume Ford wired appropriate gauge wire to support each of the runs for max load @ 12V

So no, don't hook up a winch lol.

 

[stuartmunto]

You could wire up the trigger switch to the rear aux wiring, but you would still need to run power cables from the battery to the rear. It’s actually not that hard to do - easy access and plenty of earth points along the chassis rail to hook up your negative

 

[BrrRaptor]

Just run heavy gauge wires from battery to back bumper and put an Anderson plug on it. Now you can use that for the winch, DC to DC charger, dual compressor tire inflater and so on.
Just make sure you put a heavy gauge fuse at the battery.

 

[LDHunter]

Thanks a LOT for this info. Makes it much easier to wire (or have someone else wire) up accessories.

 

[Gris]

Has anyone wired a portable hitch winch to the rear of the Ranger Raptor? I see a lot of videos where these types of winches are powered via jumper cables to the battery when in use.

I’m looking to utilize the auxiliary switches and would like a nice clean installation that can easily plug into one of the leads in the back. Not sure if this is a reasonable option or if I should just opt for hooking up directly to the battery with jumper cables and an adapter when using.

You could use a solenoid switched off the uplift switches in the cab and have the solenoid trip the heavier cable circuit.

 

[AdventureLab]

We built a rear winch setup for ours. We ran 2/0 cable all the way to a rear anderson plug. Works perfectly! It is also designed (patent pending) to also work in the front, daisy chained to the tow hook (ie. like a come-along) with a soft shackle. We have an anderson plug in the front as well, but it could easily use alligator clips in the front directly to the cranking battery.

This is on our 2026 release schedule.

 

[LDHunter]

"to also work in the front, daisy chained to the tow hook (ie. like a come-along) with a soft shackle."

We built a rear winch setup for ours. We ran 2/0 cable all the way to a rear anderson plug. Works perfectly! It is also designed (patent pending) to also work in the front, daisy chained to the tow hook (ie. like a come-along) with a soft shackle. We have an anderson plug in the front as well, but it could easily use alligator clips in the front directly to the cranking battery.

This is on our 2026 release schedule.

OK... This sounds and looks great for the rear of the truck, but the front of my Raptor is where I imagine that a winch would work best for me and I'm not understanding what you said here... ""to also work in the front, daisy chained to the tow hook (ie. like a come-along) with a soft shackle."

Do you have pics of how this is to work? I can't even begin to visualize what you're talking about.

 

[AdventureLab]

"to also work in the front, daisy chained to the tow hook (ie. like a come-along) with a soft shackle."


OK... This sounds and looks great for the rear of the truck, but the front of my Raptor is where I imagine that a winch would work best for me and I'm not understanding what you said here... ""to also work in the front, daisy chained to the tow hook (ie. like a come-along) with a soft shackle."

Do you have pics of how this is to work? I can't even begin to visualize what you're talking about.

We run a soft shackle through the hole identified below. Then, the soft shackle connects to the front tow hook. Then, the winch is connected to the battery for operation. The winch rests on the ground until the cable is tightened. Then, it just tightens up as normal. We're not saying this is as good as a chassis mounted winch because you do have to position the winch correctly to feed the line in, but it is lightweight, quick, easy, and safe; all of the things we wanted from this concept. We'll also have a mount for it that will be able to secure it into the bed for transit.

Think of it like a powered version of a come-along.

 

[LDHunter]

Ahhhh..... Gotcha.... Thanks!

 

[AdventureLab]

Ahhhh..... Gotcha.... Thanks!

Welcome! We'll have some photos and videos out with the release and probably some collaboration with WARN. I involved them from the start of this to make sure everything was aligned with safety protocols and weight ratings.

 

[LDHunter]

It just occurred to me that the Warn 55-S winch is only rated by Warn for 5500 pounds pull and has a 1/4" synthetic winch rope. If I have it right, that is well below the recommended winch rating for a 5500 pound truck. Typically the recommended rating is 1.5-2x the vehicle weight.

Would your winch plate mounting system accommodate a heavier rated (and heavier static weight) winch?

In looking at the vehicle recovery forums the typical ratings used are 10,000 to 12,000 pound rated winches.

The 55-S is a Power Sports winch and I'd think that a Warn EVO 8-S would be the minimum winch for a Raptor. It is a pretty heavy winch and it's 73 pounds but it has a fairly acceptable pulling rating of 8,000 pounds.

Adding to the 73 pounds winch weight would, of course, be the mounting plate hardware. I guess I now understand why you selected the 55-S but it would probably overheat easily and maybe not even be useful for some situations.

I'm not meaning to be critical but I think I've raised a valid point for consideration.

I just ran across the fact that the EVO 8-S, the EVO 10-S and the EVO 12-S are the same static weight.

 

[AdventureLab]

It just occurred to me that the Warn 55-S winch is only rated by Warn for 5500 pounds pull and has a 1/4" synthetic winch rope. If I have it right, that is well below the recommended winch rating for a 5500 pound truck. Typically the recommended rating is 1.5-2x the vehicle weight.

Would your winch plate mounting system accommodate a heavier rated (and heavier static weight) winch?

In looking at the vehicle recovery forums the typical ratings used are 10,000 to 12,000 pound rated winches.

The 55-S is a Power Sports winch and I'd think that a Warn EVO 8-S would be the minimum winch for a Raptor. It is a pretty heavy winch and it's 73 pounds but it has a fairly acceptable pulling rating of 8,000 pounds.

Adding to the 73 pounds winch weight would, of course, be the mounting plate hardware. I guess I now understand why you selected the 55-S but it would probably overheat easily and maybe not even be useful for some situations.

I'm not meaning to be critical but I think I've raised a valid point for consideration.

I just ran across the fact that the EVO 8-S, the EVO 10-S and the EVO 12-S are the same static weight.

You have to think about what the ratings are for (covering the worst case scenario). The larger winches are definitely stronger, but the purpose of this setup on our truck was to be as light as possible and provide "some" recover capability. I'm not trying to pull the truck up a vertical cliff with it nor am I trying to recover a Superduty truck. I'm trying to give myself a fighting chance at recovery. This setup is significantly better than nothing. I don't want the weight of a larger winch in the front.

We pair this with a snatch block (currently this one) which doubles pull the strength. Although, I'm really liking the new Snatch Block Pro from Factor55 - https://www.factor55.com/products/snatch-block-pro

As I mentioned earlier, this entire setup was vetted directly with WARN before we built it.

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