Here's a thorny problem I'm currently working on and could really do with some advice!...
I have a 7ft box
trailer - it's use it to transport a large 'stop me and buy one' ice cream bike that weighs around 90-100kgs. Getting the bike in and out up a
ramp manually is quite hard so I've fitted a 1HP
electric winch in the back of the
trailer to help me, just like this one...
12V, 2000Lbs Electric Reversible Winch with 1.0HP motor on eBay (end time 31-May-10 16:24:53 BST)
The
winch works fine with a 15Ah Silverline
Power Station - just connect up the positive and negative
cables and away I go (if a little noisy!)...however the winch is operated by a
remote control switch and I need to extend the length of the
cables running from the switch to the winch so I can stand outside as the bike is pulled up the
ramp. I've bought 3m of 2
core 12V cable from my local Chandlers that is rated at 29A. There are no markings on the cable to indicate the cross-sectional area, but each
core measures approx. 2mm in diameter and is similar (if a fraction smaller) to the existing cable running from the switch to the winch.
As I understand it, as Amps = Power/Volts, and the winch is 1hp (which is around 750W) so Amps = 750W/12V = 62.5 amps. However, the winch is rated to pull a maximum of 900kg, clearly far more than the weight of my bike. My question is this - is the amperage proportional to the amount of
work being done...as the bike weighs around 10% of the winch's capacity, am I safe to assume that the amperage will also be around 10% (say 6-7amps)? If so, am I therefore safe to use this new cable I've purchased to extend the existing
remote switch?!
Any
advice will be gratefully received!!!