OK so one of the things I am adding to my XJ is a Winch. I had a Warn winch on my previous XJ and killed my battery a number of times. I put in a Optima Yellow Top so that should be a great help. I was wondering though. Would putting a capacitor inline help smooth the power flow to the winch or would I just be wasting my time?

 

Won't help.

Make sure you have a good connection to the TOP POSTS. Don't use the side posts for connecting a winch. The conductors inside the battery are too small for the current draw and you may melt a very expensive battery.

 

You would be better off with a dual battery set up and have a battery isolator between the two. That way you have a battery for the engine and factory electronics and a secondary battery for the winch and aux lighting. The cap would be a waste of time.

 

they always are

 

They have their place in automotive audio. But little use in other applications.

 

x2. That's my setup.

 

If you won't have the space or want to run two batteries, theres a fella I work with running an industrial use optima yellow top in his Yota for a very similar application. I believe he paid around $260 for the battery but it eliminates the need to run two of them, saves space, and is less complex of a setup. Ill be looking into one of these when my current battery takes a final ****.

 

I have seen them used for for electric fans that take a ton of amps for initial spin up

 

Right, they're more for a momentary need of extra amps, not a constant drain.

 

Killing a battery using a winch is almost always user error. Even with dual batteries can only winch in short bursts, obviously longer than with a single battery but you still must give the alternator time to recharge the batteries.

 

he must have ran the volts below 10.5

 

Installing an Extened Idle Switch or a hand throttle to keep the RPM's up (and therefore the alternator output) and you'll be fine.