Electric winch issues

My Harbor Freight 9500 lb electric winch has worked fine for a couple of years. Lately it has had issues, when using it to pull a vehicle on the trailer it will work for a few seconds then stop. Each time I wait about 3-5 seconds and it will work again for a few seconds, It will pull the vehicle on the trailer but takes much longer of course. The last 5 vehicles it has done this. I checked and cleaned all the connections to no avail. Could it be one of the relay's? If so, how to test?

Volt ohm meter set on 12 volts and test the hot leads to the relay when it stops keep testing until you find the problem.
How good are the grounds, are they possibly corroded? If so they will do the same thing. Remove them and clean the trailer frame and the ends of the grounds straps or base of the relays also

Sounds like it has a circuit breaker in it. Maybe getting weak.

Or a thermal overload switch, which is similar, lol.

Rhino, had the same thing happen to my work rig. The intermittent work, then stop. Then clicks. Then fine. Repeat. We always had 2 batteries ready to go, so no issues there. When it finally refused to work by the remote, I tried power straight to the motor. It lurched a little and that was that. After exhausting testing options, we just bought a? Western? I'm not 100% sure. It was a similar build and has been working since( 2 years). When the Harbor units work, they work great.

For myself it did pay for me to buy a decent winch. Went thru 2 cheap ones until I bought a better one. Just my experience.

Does it have a circuit breaker? If your batteries are getting weak the voltage might be dropping enough to cause the amps to go up and trip the breaker, after a short time it resets. Just a thought.

Have you called them? They have a number for technical questions on that winch, 1-888-866-5797.

This is my 12th winch over the last 30 years, I know they only last so long and it doesn't seem to matter how much you pay for them. I will try the above replies and see what happens. It has a wireless remote, I have never changed the battery in that, don't if that causes intermittent issues...

My HF 3500lb did the same thing when I used a dead battery with it. I presume the voltage dropped enough under load that the winch cut out. Even with no weight on it, it would cut out.

Charged the battery for 10 minutes after I got back home, and it wound itself back up without issue.

you may be on to something with the remote.
my wife's car was acting up with the key fob. sometimes the door locks would work, sometimes not. multiple pushes on the button usually worked, however.
changed the battery in it and all was well.

Does the winch motor get really hot ?

Only 2 winch problems I've had - and that sound you hear is me knocking on wood - is a bad connection at the handheld trigger for my trailer winch, and what I guess was water seepage into the winch motor used on my snow plow.
The plow motor went intermittent and quickly just quit - I merely replaced it, wasn't expensive.
I wrapped electrical tap around the seam of the plow winch and it's been fine since.

Check solenoid.the usual cause

Motor does not get hot. I tried it again today and the battery was dead. Will charge the bejesus out of it this weekend and see if that helps, although I kjnow it had a good charge the last time it was doing this...

We ran a cheap winch on our old race car trailer. Most of the problems we had with it were nearly always a battery issue. Car batteries used for running a winch often only last 2-3 years. The low voltage in the battery kicks out the resets on the winch motors.

If your winch motor is not getting hot, the problem is likely not a winch problem but a wiring or battery issue. The battery for the remote would be the 1st thing I would replace, if the sensor on the winch isn't getting the signal from the remote, its shutting off. Could be a problem with the receiving sensor as well. Then you need to have the main battery for the winch power load tested, I'm betting it fails that test, even being fully charged.
We got an extra couple years out of marine deep cycle batteries. They were designed to be heavily loaded until nearly dead, then be fully charged, over and over, but that was years ago, might not be the case anymore.

Also better to run 2 batteries. In parallel like a diesel starter in there lol

I always use Semi batteries, got them from International when I worked there. If I can't get them then I use Marine deep cycle, I have never used a car battery. It may be time to replace it again, batteries have gotten expensive since Covid...

We r lucky
Down here we can go to the u pull it pay 30 bucks a piece.look at the stickers some batteries r still in warranty

I can get used car batteries here for $30 also, but they are still not good enough for a 10,000 lb winch...

2decent fully charged and trickled will last a while . I have a 14500. I know

I fought the discharged battery fight for years with my trailer winch. Finally threw in the towel. Got one of those high amperage disconnects and ran a positive copper lead all the way to the truck batteries (Cummins) with a charger style clamp. The negative side I got a welding disconnect and bolted it to the hitch for the negative connection. Haven't had a problem since. Can't remember what size cable I used but it was around a 1/0.

Do be aware that the batteries may take a charge and appear good but they may fail when a load is placed on them. This is an issue that has been becoming commonplace recently, purportedly due to cost cutting by the battery MFR's. Verify all your grounds and connections are good. If the battery is bad and the voltage drops the current draw will go up which may be tripping a thermal breaker in the motor. Charge the battery and have it load tested keep us posted

Easy. Just say NO to harbor freight/ problem solved

Get a 30 day war.from junkyard.just take a meter if it ain't 12.5 don't get it
Also cca bigger better

I've had a few that say 12.4 all day long till you hit the starter the then drop like a rock. Strangely enough some walk right back up to 12.4 First time I experienced it I chased my tail for 2 days until I happened to be watching the DVM when I hit the remote start switch. In over 50 years I had never seen this happen. But have seen it several times since and read about it as well

Agree I had batteries that charge 13.plus until hit key then drop to 0 when hitting starter.on those the welder trick works sometimes