Cheap Trailer Winch (Thanks for the tip, Hess!)

First off, I want to thank Dr. Hess for tipping me off about this winch in a previous thread. I found the appropriate Harbor Freight coupon in the March issue of JP magazine and picked it up for $49.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=95912

It will find a home on the front of The Enabler, my beloved Trailex car trailer.

Yes, I know, it's only rated for 3000 lbs., and 6 feet per minute is awfully slow, but it's sole mission in life is to drag the occasional dead Miata up the ramps. For fifty bucks, I can wait. It sure beats pushing a car uphill.

manual come along, for when the electric motor dies, same price, won't drain your battery, can get a 6000 lber for the same price at Northern Tool (I've killed 2 3000 lb manual come alongs from HF, they're just too poorly built), just my .02

but I must say automatic winch = sweetness even if it only works once ;)

Raze wrote: manual come along, for when the electric motor dies

Already have one (just in case), along with a bad shoulder.

I need to remember to put "Winch" on the list of things to buy.

The last time I had a dead car at the track I used the starter in 3rd gear to drive it up the ramps. That does not work so good if the problem happens to be in the driveline.

LOL

Two of the big, 15,000 pound ratchet straps. Winch one, shorten the other. Winch that one, shorten the first. It works, but it's even more difficult if you have ladder-type ramps (as the wheels plop down between the rungs, and you have to crank it over the next one). Again, it works, but it's a major PITA. Not every place is filled with strong volunteers, like the track is.

David

Yeah, I did the starter trick (have to push in the clutch interlock button without pushing in the clutch) the last time I put the Rolla up on the trailer when the dizzy died. I really don't like come-alongs.

The HF come-alongs suck. Their biggest one is crap. The gear is on one side of the spool. You put any serious load on it and the spool binds in there sideways. Walmart sells a much better one for about the same price with gears on both sides of the spool. "Designed in USA", wherever that is, made in China.

On that little HF winch, I'm thinking of cracking the control box open and adding an additional two position center off spring loaded switch, just incase the remote control goes out, gets lost, etc. It's on my ToDo list. My Rolla AC clutch (4 month old Murray part from O'Reilley) grenaded on me yesterday, so that's now top of my ToDo list.

I've used those for years. Very good for the money. Last year I got some giftcards from amazon, so got an "out of box" deal on a smittybuilt 8k for around 250.....man this thing really gets the job done. I have it mounted to a cradle that fits in a reciever hitch, so I can also use it on the back of my Jeep if needed. I had a reciever welded to my trailer to slide in, so I can remove it when not in use. http://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-97281-XRC-Black-Winch/dp/B001CF1Y0C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1265224021&sr=8-1

Woody on the HF winch, you can get a snatch block, so you can double the line and get more pulling power. HF and TSC both sell them. Those have been useful for me when I had a car with stuck brakes or flat tires.

Cotton wrote: Woody on the HF winch, you can get a snatch block, so you can double the line and get more pulling power. HF and TSC both sell them. Those have been useful for me when I had a car with stuck brakes or flat tires.

Never thought of that, and I saw them at Tractor Supply today. Damn. The Miata that I'm thinking about has been sitting for TWELVE years (!), so I'll probably need a couple. That'll really slow things down, though.

The boss added an electric winch to the company tilt-bed trailer. Cool. Except now you can only use it with his truck, as that's the only one with the wiring for the winch. Uncool. A step backwards in that case - and I say that because I've had to move dead cars on to that trailer without having access to his truck.

But if you've only got one truck and you have a bad shoulder, I can see the appeal.

Or use my Portawinch:

Keith wrote: The boss added an electric winch to the company tilt-bed trailer. Cool. Except now you can only use it with his truck, as that's the only one with the wiring for the winch. Uncool. A step backwards in that case - and I say that because I've had to move dead cars on to that trailer without having access to his truck. But if you've only got one truck and you have a bad shoulder, I can see the appeal.

I just carry a spare battery around with me, keep it charged, and connect the leads directly. I never hard wired one for that reason.

Cotton wrote: I just carry a spare battery around with me, keep it charged, and connect the leads directly. I never hard wired one for that reason.

That's what I plan to do. Plus a set of jumper cables as backup.

Make sure they're long jumper cables, as you may not want to disconnect the trailer from the truck

I'll bring two sets. Or, remove the truck battery as needed.

The are pretty good little winches. Mine is set up portable similar to Dr Hess'. Hooks on the center tie down in the trailer. Also mounts on the crane on my utility trailer for loading engines or whatever.

i have one. its a pita because you have to hit the remote, it pulls 3-4 inches, then stops. unless mine is a dud. i had to hit the remote like 80 times to pull a car up. i bought it while i had my big superwinch off and was rebuilding it and needed to pull a car up while the big winch was down.

it did work well though. i just carry a charged battery. i am not sure what to do with the HF winch now, maybe i can mount it on my riding mower.

In reply to patgizz:

Must be your winch/remote. The last I used mine it pulled continuous as long as the button was down. You might need to change the battery in the remote.

Not to hijack, but I've had an idea for a long time and wonder why it hasn't been done before. If you know why, let me know.

A winch can only reach out to the car as far as the steel cable allows. The cable can become frayed (meat hooks) kinked or rusted. Why not mount an electric capstan on the front of the trailer and then you can pull a dead car from hundreds of feet away if your line is long enough. You can also pull off angle with a vertical drum, a winch requires a straight pull.

Why won't this work?

Dan

No reason it won't work.

http://www.science.smith.edu/~ejensen/willys/cj2a/winch.html

Dr. Hess wrote: Or use my Portawinch:

that is AWESOME...

i've been wanting one of these for awhile... http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200344265_200344265 seems like you got that covered for under $75

Mounting a 2" receiver to the trailer then mounting the winch to it only makes sense, I've mounted the receiver on almost everything and just move the one winch around. Makes it easy to not worry about if you sell the trailer too, just leave the receiver for the next guy. HF also sells a hitch mount designed to mount a vice into a receiver, little plate with the 2" square tongue sticking out, that has holes in almost exactly the right places to mount that winch. Convenient...

Also, since you know the thing is only rated at 3k, why not ditch the cable all together? Lots of off-road guys are going with synthetic rope on their winches for weight and ditching the cables. Some ATV winches even come with it now. For that particular application why not have something easy to play out and use, and a little less weight to lug around?

You might also want to keep an eye out for one of these, if you're worried about running power cables: