The D6500 is… large. It’s the battery that would go in a full-sized truck or diesel, just like the van. You certainly don’t need a truck-sized battery to operate the winch. However, a larger battery will have more overall storage capacity, which means I could go longer before having to recharge it.
The real reason I went with this battery is that it was cheap. No, not that the XS D6500 is a cheap battery. This one somehow was accidentally manufactured with the terminal polarity reversed, and it won’t work in any vehicles because the cables don’t usually reach. So XS sold it to me inexpensively.
Now, I didn’t just want to have a battery flying around loose in the trailer’s, and I didn’t want to have to pull a (relatively) heavy battery out of the trailer every time I tried to use the winch. What to do? Well, it’s a car battery, so let’s mount it like it’s in a car.
Remember how I said the D6500 was used on full-sized and diesel trucks? Well, the 6C3Z-10732-AA battery tray is found on 199+ F250 or larger trucks (among others). Perfect.
Well, except for that annoying bracket on the side.
Christian! Help!
Christian had a drill press, so we simply drilled out the spot welds, and the bracket fell off. We were then just left with the tray.
The battery tray was now ready to install into the trailer toolbox so that the battery would stay safe and secure.
5 comments
Nice, I just installed a Warn VR8000 on my trailer that i got on Facebook marketplace for $500 CAD. I used a hitch reciever off a parts truck I had, and a $79 Amazon portable winch plate that xomes with a locking hitch pin for a bit of security. Bit of cutting, welding, and paint and it is the best trailer mod yet for loading the non running junk I like.
Now that I have a winch, I will never want to have a trailer without one. I want to figure out a way to use a snatch block to allow for more convenient winching of vehicles that have tow points in different spots. Your setup sounds nice!
Thought this was the primary purpose of Harbor Freight’s winches. A 5k is like $200 bucks.
Though the “winch in a box” would be a great option for someone with like, a Subaru Outback who goes to the snow a lot. You could throw it in when necessary, but don’t have to get all Battlewagon-y just to have an option if someone’s stuck.
A winch that’s critical for getting the race car on the trailer is not something where I want to tempt fate with Harbor Freight “disposable tools.” If this was a non-critical application, it probably would be a totally viable option. There are a lot of tools I would and have bought from Harbor Freight. I don’t think a winch is going on that list 😃
Your snowy Subaru idea is on point, though.
Funny enough, I have a 1995 Outback with 350,000 miles on it!