I like doing the physical part of electrical work. Stripping and crimping connecters that kinda thing. Small projects are cool. Every time I do a larger project I seem to miss something that causes problems. Example: The complete harness replacement and 12v/CDI swap on my 78 Honda XL350. I think it was 3 times while building the harness I realized I needed to run another wire half the length of the bike.
I really need to get under the hood of the Ranger. All of 4.0 swap connections were twisted together and electrical taped. I didn't even do heat shrink. Been meaning to fix that for 10 years now. It just works so isn't a priority.
Larger projects are hard if you're looking at it in it's entirety, I like to break it down into circuits or systems, it feels less daunting that way.
When I did my swap, I soldered and heat shrunk all of my connections, last year I went through and replaced that with weatherproof connectors so I can remove the harness. The catalyst for that was corrosion starting in the connections.
I have Anderson connectors at the front of my truck. I have jumpers with Anderson at both ends. I also have jumper cables with regular clamps at one end and Anderson at the other. My winch is now permanent bolted to my 18' car hauler so need both jumpers to reach. I run jumper off the battery and Anderson's to reach. Its also handy for jumping other cars with no Anderson.
I used to have my winch portable between front receiver and back receiver...
I have something similar, except I just have a very short Anderson/clamp set and an Anderson/Anderson extension cable so I can run a trailer winch with them too. An added benefit is charging batteries in the bed while driving, utilizing the short jumper cable ends alone.
What gauge wire do you have run to the back? What size Anderson connectors? 175amp seems common. Is that really enough for a 12k winch?
I've used 2 gauge for the rear connector, all of my connectors are the 175 amp variety. I just consulted the datasheet and the 175A rating is a constant current rating, the connectors can handle industry currents of up to 1,600A depending on wire size. Occasionally going over 300A for short periods of time shouldn't cause any appreciable damage as long as you're not disconnecting under that load.