I have kind gotten bored with basic rc cars and want to move onto building a couple of hydraulic rc construction equipment. My issue is everything pertaining to the setup seems to be 12V. I have have sourced a lot of the parts on chinese websites including a motor but am supposed used a regular esc and 12V batteries or something. I want the 1st project to be a front loader about 100lbs so its will need enough battery to move it around. Has anyone got any suggestions?

A 3S battery is pretty close to 12V.

How long do you want it to run for? You can get a Lithium or AGM 12v car battery, if you like. It doesn't have to be a 12v battery for RC cars. !2v is 12v. You just have to worry about amp hours and the overall physical size of the battery.

i dont mind the idea of a car battery because the added weight would be nice. Would the esc still work with that?

If it’s rated for 3S, yes.

I originally selected a 22 Ahr Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo4) battery to power my 1/12th scale (85 pound) RC P&H Crawler Crane (@cranemodelbuild3236) however I later discovered that the LiFePo4 battery I had originally purchased, was no longer available. Wanting to sell plans for my model, I decided to replace the original battery with a 15,000 mAh Gens Ace Bashing Pro 3s LiPo battery, which is what I currently power my model's 4 VW winsheld wiper hoist/swing motors with. I choose the high amphour batteries as I show my model at various daylong events and It is nice to not be preoccupied with changing the battery out during the day.
BEST,
Tom