i got a 8000 pound winch and when i ran it for the first time it fried some ground wires. What kind of ground should i run?

 

it should've had it's own 0 gage grond wire that you should (if you can) connect directly to the - terminal on the battery.

what kind of winch is it?

 

a BIG one

Winches draw a lot of power (as I'm sure you found out)

 

connect the large gauge ground wire directly to the negative battery terminal.

 

the bigger the better. whats the hp/kw rating on the motor? from that you can figure out how many amps it draws @ 12v, and use that to figure out wire size

 

should i run a ground from the - post to the body to the frame to the motor too?

 

It should have those already from the factory, but they may be loose, corroded, etc and it's worth checking them out and upgrading them if possible.

 

as stated above there should be a ground wire going from the negative terminal to the body & frame. thats what the black connector on the terminal is. The issue is that they tend to corrode, and winches use a lot of power, and it can be too much for the corroded grounds to handle, which is why its recommended that you run the ground straight to the batt terminal.