After some back breaking work to get a 2000ish lbs chassis on my trailer, I need a winch. This will be for hiking stuff up on the trailer.
I've read that I should shoot for 1.5 times the weight of vehicle. So I'm looking at a 5k lbs winch at a minimum. The Badlands 12k winch $20 more than 9k winch.
Do I skip the BS and get the bigger winch?
I have this one and it does everything I need. The heaviest car I have winched on the trailer was probably 3500 lbs.
I have the HF 12k on my trailer... don't even have to be close to the trailer to get a vehicle on it.
I have a #3000 HF winch on the front of my trailer. If the car has wheels on it and will roll, it will drag a #5000+ car up the ramps. With no wheels, a #2k car wouldn't be an issue either. #9K will be overkill unless you are going into the towing business or regularly picking up hulks without wheels and tires. The 1.5 times rating is for off-road recovery of a stuck vehicle.
also make sure the cable is long enough to pull the car on the trailer including how long your ramps are ?
thats the problem with come-a-longs , the cable is not long enough ,
when I am thinking I use 2 come-a-longs end to end so I do not have to re-hook in the middle ,
yes I normally use my 12v Superwinch , but some days you do not have power for the winch......
I'd get the badlands 9k or 12k, depending which was on sale.
I have a ramsey rep 9000 winch on my trailer that's for sure sat in Tahoe winters for 20 years, up until 3 or 4 years ago. I opened the gear box and the grease was still supreme. I probably did more damage opening it, repacking the grease, and not replacing the paper gasket. I replaced the solenoids with a contactor Here. I didn't have the switch, and a replacement was like $70 with 6' of cable. So I killed a 50' 14ga ext cord and a momentary 3way switch and made my own. I think next time I'd use a shorter ext cord since my trailer is only 20', and I added a $10 wireless remote at the same time. Plus if I ever need more distance, I just grab another ext cord.
Works like a champ! 
That's brilliant Shane
I am on the ledge with the 5k HF winch. For $129 it could be just the ticket but I haven't seen one in person.
I HAVE one of thesw super cheap super slow plastic box winches. It WILL pull a Panhard onto a UHaul trailer on a pallet with crap rubber tires. So a faster 5000lb one would be an improvement.
No winch recommendations, but the smartest thing I've seen was the winch was bolted to a Class III hitch and a receiver welded to the front of the trailer deck. When not in use the winch goes in the tow vehicle, protected from the elements and theft.
That is a damn good idea.....
914Driver said:No winch recommendations, but the smartest thing I've seen was the winch was bolted to a Class III hitch and a receiver welded to the front of the trailer deck. When not in use the winch goes in the tow vehicle, protected from the elements and theft.
I made a setup that works similarly but it was something I fabricated rather then purchased. It just seems to make sense, why leave the winch out in the weather 99% of the time? If you store your trailer off site what's to stop someone from unbolting it?
I normally don't buy very much from Harbor Freight. However after comparing prices for some of the better brand names I went the HF 5,000 lb way. I prefer winching a car onto trailer rather then driving it, it's more controlled. It doesn't get used a lot but always works even after sitting outside in the rain and southern sun. I power it with a small lawn tractor/mower battery in a battery box mounted next to the winch. When trailer is not going to be used much I do take battery out and store it in my shop and charge it when I think about it.
Dragging home a project!
I did it the cheap way, way back then (it had to be cheap or it didn't happen - I wouldn't have had money for entry fees otherwise). I used a boat winch, hand operated (geared up of course) fitted with steel cable. It wound sports cars up without any strain on the winch or the operator. And if the electric winch burned out or had an electric fault you'd be out of business, while the manual one was pretty well foolproof.
In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :
Thanks. You should've seen me when I was trying to figure out what "plug" to put on it, then I realized... it already has plugs...
I bought the 5k zxr for $160 couple of weeks ago for a utv. It's still sitting on my shelf of shame, where it'll probably remain until it's appropriately fermented.
I've got one of the harbor freight 2500 lb ATV winches bolted in the front of my truck bed. The tonneau cover protects it from weather and power is tied to the truck. If I need to, I can unbolt it to get it out of the way, but for the most part I can get away with covering it to keep dirt and mulch out of it.
It is only used to load toys (>800 lb golf cart) at this point , but pulls it up a much higher and steeper set of ramps than I think you would have on a car trailer.
You could mount it in the bed, and just use a tow strap to extend the reach, and even allow you to double up the cable through a pulley to reduce strain on the winch
What does everyone do for powering the winch? A dedicated trailer battery won 't stay charged with so infrequent use.
jimbbski said:914Driver said:No winch recommendations, but the smartest thing I've seen was the winch was bolted to a Class III hitch and a receiver welded to the front of the trailer deck. When not in use the winch goes in the tow vehicle, protected from the elements and theft.
I made a setup that works similarly but it was something I fabricated rather then purchased. It just seems to make sense, why leave the winch out in the weather 99% of the time? If you store your trailer off site what's to stop someone from unbolting it?
I just welded the bolt heads to the trailer. Gonna need a grinder if you want to steal my 30 year old winch... I've seen a piece of angle over them, like a tent, so you don't compromise the bolt.
In reply to Caprigrip :
I use the largest deep cycle that costco sells, group 27? I have a solar battery tender that I put some neodymium magnets on, that I rotate through my trailers when not in use. Also nice to have the ring terminals for the battery tender wired in, so its easy to outlet charge as well. My dump trailer has a built in 110v charger, but I think the 110v battery tender does a better charge. Ironically my dump trailer has a smaller battery (34?), and it definitely pulls more amps, and gets more use than my trailer winch. I relocated the battery on my car trailer, because the larger battery would interfere with the wire rope. Had I just put the larger battery in my dump trailer, and smaller battery in the car hauler... probably could've saved some time in the shop. But I had already spent $10 on the group 27 battery box, so I was committed to making it work...
edit: dump trailer battery is a 24, 27 definitely would not have fit, I'm sure I already knew that and had forgotten...
Caprigrip said:What does everyone do for powering the winch? A dedicated trailer battery won 't stay charged with so infrequent use.
Solar is the best answer, IMHO. Harder on an open trailer than enclosed though.
Another option is to put a big DC "anderson" (UPS-style) connector on the winch and run some welding cable from the truck battery.
Thanks peeps!
The local HFs are out the normal 5K winch, but they have their ZXR 5K winch.
I haven't decided if I will mount it in a box on the trailer and add a receiver hitch to the trailer. I like the receiver hitch option, because I can use it on the trailer or the truck.
This is the solar charger I was referring to. But it's been in service since 2017, and I think they've upgraded since. While the generic ones on Amazon are cheaper, It's only a little bit more to get an authentic battery tender brand, and doesn't have any negative reviews of draining during the night. I did buy the generic sae to ring terminal plugs however.
Strike_Zero said:After some back breaking work to get a 2000ish lbs chassis on my trailer, I need a winch. This will be for hiking stuff up on the trailer.
I've read that I should shoot for 1.5 times the weight of vehicle. So I'm looking at a 5k lbs winch at a minimum. The Badlands 12k winch $20 more than 9k winch.
Do I skip the BS and get the bigger winch?
that "rule" is for offroading, and even then there are workarounds (like using a snatch block to effectively double the power). It also matters what slope you're pulling. Short answer is you don't need a 5k winch on your trailer unless you're pulling heavy equipment or non-rolling things. Here's the chart:
I have a 2500# little Harbor Frieght ATV winch on my trailer and it's dragged a 5-series BMW up there and also a Dodge D50 pickup with a seized brake drum up there.
914Driver said:No winch recommendations, but the smartest thing I've seen was the winch was bolted to a Class III hitch and a receiver welded to the front of the trailer deck. When not in use the winch goes in the tow vehicle, protected from the elements and theft.
This is the setup I have as well. My winch goes on the front or back of my Raider or on my trailer, all via Class III receivers (see pic in post above this one)
Caprigrip said:What does everyone do for powering the winch? A dedicated trailer battery won 't stay charged with so infrequent use.
I bought some 20' jumper cables on Amazon, so I can just use my tow rig's battery to power it without running any extra wiring.
QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:I HAVE one of these super cheap super slow plastic box winches. It WILL pull a Panhard onto a UHaul trailer on a pallet with crap rubber tires.
How do you mount it? I've been renting UHaul car trailers. Can't fight out where/how to mount a winch.
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