I have ordered a 12000 winch for my 2017 F-150. I want to put it on a portable mount so it can be used front or back. (Seems like more times than not in the past, it would have been easier to pull out from the back) I already have a front mounted receiver. I'm running 0/1 AWG wires to the front and back with quick connects. My question deals with wiring. In the owner's manual it talks about the Battery Management System and NOT hooking directly to the negative post of the battery while jumping another vehicle or starting mine. Can I hook up both positive and negative wires directly to the battery post without damaging the BMS ? Or mount the neg cable to the frame ? I plan on putting in a disconnect switch on the positive line so that it will only be "hot" when needed. Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated !

 

Connecting the negative directly to battery will not harm the BMS. It just won't monitor the current discharge while you are using the winch. At worst it will mean the BMS will not have correct SOC until you let it rest of 8 hours. If you are going to connect the winch electrical to ground rather than the battery you will likely need to run a bigger ground cable off of the battery since the OE cable is not that big.