The SATV winch kit comes with wires but no mention of guage size. The wires in the pic don't look like 4 but I could be wrong. (Looked up SATV to compare only)
Nothing is stopping you from going bigger. Just need to mark the wires for colors. JMHO

 

Yeah, I hear you on going bigger. It's just more money to drop into the winch. ha!

 

Are you finding info that says it's not ok ?

 

Based on standard wire gauge tables, yes. Almost every "standard" wire gauge table will tell you that you are about to start a fire. It doesn't take into account the requirements of the equipment though. The calculator at wirebarn (not sure if I can post links, but just go to their website and click on "wire calculator" at the top of the page) allows you to adjust parameters such as voltage, allowable voltage drop and inputs such as amps and wire length. It also says that the calculator is for automotive application, so not sure if that changes the assumptions the calculator is using in the background. I can get this to work out pretty close for what an OEM sends if you assume a 10% allowable voltage drop. For the installation I am working on right now though I need to increase the wire run by a few feet, which means I can't get 6 gauge to work anymore and thus just makes me think about the whole issue from the start (ie that 6 gauge barely works to begin with unless you apply a whole bunch of "adjustments" in the calculations to make it work).

 

Go bigger wire.

 

Yeah, the biggest question is how big though. Wire of this gauge is pretty expensive stuff. 2 gauge makes me really comfortable ($5.79/ft for marine grade wire). 4 gauge makes me kind of comfortable ($3.79/ft for marine grade wire). 6 gauge makes me uncomfortable (free since it came with the winch).

 

it says the winch will draw 291 Amps max at 12V.

That's stall load amps, it will never draw that kind of current. The amp rating of wire depends on the type of wire and varies greatly between them. Using larger wire is always a good idea and will improve the duty cycle as it will not get hot as fast as a smaller wire. When wire gets hot the resistance goes up and the amp capacity goes down. I think most UTV winch makers only consider them light duty with short duty cycles in which case #6 is sufficient most of the time. Prolonged and heavy load use applications require larger wire like #4, #2, or #1 (winch amp draw dependent). The use of a pulley will double the pulling power and cut the amp draw in almost half.

 

Yeah, I realize the 290ish amps are peak draw and probably the least likely, but I would like to plan for the worst. I've always wondered if the winch manufacturers just factored the duty cycle into the equation when determining what wire is acceptable for use. I'm not sure what the Badlands winch will do when the run part of the cycle is up (ie the 45 seconds they say you can run the winch during the 15 minute cycle). Is there a thermocouple in there somewhere that will kill the winch when it starts to overhead, or am I expected to be a responsible user.

 

I went through the same questioning process a while back. Wire is rated for heat. Any wire can carry the amperage, but how long before it gets too hot and melts, obviously there are some limits to this.

When using a winch, you are not running heavy, continuous sustained loads for long periods which is why smaller gauge works for that application. If you want to run larger wire, there is no reason you cannot.

Unless you are running your winch for long enough that the wires overheat, it is not problem.

For example in my RV, my 3000 watt inverter is using 4/0 wire as it has a lot of continuous loads. The 3000 watt inverter in my tow vehicle is using 2ga wire. The most high power it will ever see is a few minutes from a microwave, which is not even remotely an issue.

 

Wire is rated for heat. Any wire can carry the amperage, but how long before it gets too hot and melts,

Not to split hair but not quite correct. Each type of wire, THHN, THWN, TW, etc.., solid vs stranded, copper vs aluminum, is rated for a amp draw at a specific temperature. It's an inverse relationship between temperature and amp capacity. As temperature goes up so does resistance and amp capacity decreases. It has nothing to do with it melting, that's what fuses and breakers are intended to prevent.

 

The winch manufacturers also have the benefit of years of practical experience, telling them that 6 gauge is acceptable. Yes, in rare heavy duty use cases it may be on the light side - but for most it works out just fine. They are not going to add the cost of heavier wire to every winch sold for a low percentage use case. They also aren't going to use a wire that is so small to create an issue for the majority of users or it would end up costing them in liability and warranty returns. It's a calculus problem and 6 gauge wire is the answer for the manufacturers.

 

It's a calculus problem and 6 gauge wire is the answer for the manufacturers.

Actually it's an ohms law problem 🤣

 

We have brought in calculus, geometry, ohms law, differential equations with derivatives and whatnot but no one brought up the need to worry about a $250.00 winch!! Fixed for Rzr_Joe. I blame it on a headache from all the whatnot!!

 

$250.00 wench!!

That's cheap for a wench

 

My winch didn't have enough cable to reach the battery, so I hacked a set of jumper cables. I used the 6g that came with it where I could, then ran power with the 4g cables. Seems to do the job.

I've only used it once, though, pulling a buddy's sportsman 400 plow rig he buried in a snowpile.

Being new to fun machines, I was mildly concerned with how it pulled my suspension down. Then pulled my rzr toward the pile. Maybe 6000# is a bit overkill.

 

I played with a calculator with 6 Gauge wire at 290 amp and it was good up to 2.41 feet.

Wire Size Calculator

 

If you put 291A through any length of 6awg for more than a few milliseconds you better have a fire extinguisher handy 😂

 

When we were riding ATVs we were doing the majority of our riding in the winter, so we were in deep snow most of the time getting ourselves unstuck on a regular basis. During that time I would notice that while winching I would feel the winch battery wires and they were hot and it seemed the winches would start to fail after a while and we would have to let them cool. If my memory works correctly it seemed like they were a 6 gauge wire. As an experiment I replace all my winch power cables to a 4 gauge wire and found out the wires would not get hot, the winch would pull more for longer periods of time and would pull harder than before. By the end of that winter I had replaced our entire groups power cables and it was pretty unanimous that it was a marked improvement in what the winches would do. But I have no scientific proof, just seat of the pants observations and also after I changed the power cables no one in our group lost a winch motor which would happen about once a winter.

 

I did end up installing my winch with 4 gauge.