12v or 24v winch

Well for a start you'd need two batteries to connect in series to give yourself 24v.

You could use the second battery in parallel as your aux battery for most use, then connect it in series to give you 24v for the winch. But that'd be a lot of mucking around at the same time as you're trying to get away from the rising river, stuck in the mud or under the sun bogged in soft sand and trying to find a solid tree for the winch cable.

24v is fantastic to run your vehicle with, as I do, but mine was built for it. Most aren't. Half the current draw and all the benefits of smaller cabling etc. Do another search just on 24v winch and you're likely to find a thread or two.

I've got a PTO winch so won't be guiding you on batteries. Search for winch battery will help get you started on that thread.

Tim

24v winches are designed to be used in vehicles with 24v electrics. Stick to a 12v model and you'll be fine.

Quite a few comp vehicles run with 12V electrics and also have 24V winch and seperate alternator to charge it. Means you need at least three batteries, two alternators. The main benefit is a much longer winch time before dischargeing the 24V battery circuit (2x12v in series). Less heat build up and a faster recovery rate of charge. However, it's an expensive set up cost for very little gain for part-time winching. If doing lots of winching, ie every day for an hour or more each time, then you would have to say that PTO is the best option, but then, these days, very few makers have the option of PTO. Then we can get into all sorts of discussions regarding hydraulic winches, wheel winches and seperate engine-power winches, ie Capstain.