Battery powered winch

A portable winch assembly, comprising:

• a winch mechanism connected to a support structure adapted to be manually transportable;
• a battery pack housing a plurality of battery cells, the battery pack being releasably coupled to a hand held remote control unit operated to control the winch mechanism, the remote control unit together with the battery pack remotely located from and movable with respect to the winch mechanism and electrically coupled to the winch mechanism by a flexible power cable;
• and
• a retractable strap housing connected to the support structure including a flexible strap manually extendable from the strap housing and automatically retractable into the housing.

A portable winch assembly, comprising:

• a winch mechanism connected to a support structure adapted to be manually transportable, the winch mechanism including:
• a spool having a wire releasably wound thereon;
• and
• a lift connector attached to a free end of the wire;
• a battery pack remote from and free movable with respect to the winch mechanism and connected to the winch mechanism by a flexible cable to provide electrical power to the winch mechanism to rotate the spool to release or retract the wire;
• and
• a device connected to the support structure operable to electrically isolate the winch mechanism when the lift connector contacts the support structure.

A method for controlling a portable winch mechanism having a support structure using a battery pack housing a plurality of battery cells and a remote control unit, comprising:

• releasably coupling the battery pack to the remote control unit such that the remote control unit and battery pack allow for hand held movement independent of the support structure;
• electrically connecting the battery pack and the remote control unit to the winch mechanism using a flexible power cable;
• and
• operating at least one control element of the remote control unit to operate the winch mechanism.

A portable winch assembly, comprising:

• a winch mechanism;
• and
• a battery pack housing a plurality of battery cells, the battery pack being releasably coupled to a foot controlled remote control unit, the remote control unit together with the battery pack remotely located from and freely movable with respect to the winch mechanism and electrically coupled to the winch mechanism by a power cable, the remote control unit operating to transfer electrical power from the battery pack to power the winch mechanism;
• and
• the remote control unit having a foot pedal adapted to control infeed and outfeed operations of the winch mechanism by opposite rotation of the foot pedal.