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(OT) What size/kind of winch do I need?

A

alabamafrog

Well-known Member
I’m thinking of getting a 12v winch to mount on the front rack of my 25’ GN trailer. I figure it would be handy to use to pull a broken down tractor or truck up onto the trailer. I don’t do this often and I don’t want to spend too much on it. I can use a hand come-a-long and a ratchet strap but if its cheap enough a power winch would be nice.

So what is the minimum size that would work?

I’m thinking 3,000# pull means a 6,000# rolling tractor on a 45* ramp or even a 9,000# machine on a 20* ramp, does this sound right?

What do yall think of this one?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95912
 
You are waisting your money on that winch I have a 12000 winch on my trailer! Even if you have a tractor that is only 4000 or 5000 lbs but may be STUCK with flat tires you need the power to handle it! You will spend $800-$900 on one hope this helps! A&W Direct sells them Hope this helps you out! Chris
 
I agree a good heavy duty winch capable of pulling a tractor with flats and/or locked up wheels would be the way to go but $900 would pay for a whole lot of come-along handle pulling. If I figure it would take about 30 minutes actual work time to manually pull one machine up on the trailer then figure my time is worth at lest $20 an hour then for $900 I could load 90 times, and divide that by my average of 1 or 2 times a year that gets me to a break even point of around 50 years.
I guess if I can’t do it for around $100 then I’d be better off to just forget the whole thing and maybe buy a second come-along. I just never thought that something so simple would cost that much.
 
let keith do it to start with (frogs buddy). just curious about the last on listed and then doubling the cable over on it. might just be enough to get you by. i always wnted one the was portable enough to move from the front to the back on anything with a reciever on it. useing welding cables for battery leads would help too. yo know the winch i use to lift my dorr isn't a very big one and with the cable doubled over on it i've never had any problems with it. been in there 10 years now.
 
My father in law has a 10,000lb winch on his gooseneck. He has a 31 GP on full steel and a 45 degree ramp. That winch seems to work pretty hard pulling that tractor up on the trailer. At a show last spring the GP would not start and the only way to get it home was to winch it up. I look at it this way, my ATV has a Warn 3000lb winch on it. That's for an ATV. Would you try and use your ATV winch to pull a tractor up a hill?
 
Well I found some calculations online. Looks like I forgot to factor in the effects of different ground surfaces and the slope angle plays a more complex role than I first thought.

Total Weight = Vehicle total weight
Winch Pull = ( <Slope degrees> * Total Weight /60)
Ground Factor Weight = Winch Pull * Ground Effect Percentage
Winch Load = Winch Pull + Ground Factor Weight

Example. Given:
Vehicle weight = 6,000 pounds
winch up a 45 degree slope consisting of soft grass/gravel
Total Weight= 6000
Winch Pull = (45*6000/60) = 4500
Ground Factor Weight = 4500 * 15% = 675
Winch Load = 4500 + 675 = 5,175

Ground Effects Percentages;
Ground Condition *Effort Required
Pavement 2-4 percent
Grass 8-14 percent
Hard Packed Sand 10-17 percent
Wet Sand 15-20 percent
Gravel 10-20 percent
Soft, Dry Sand 25-30 percent
Shallow Mud 30-35 percent
Deep Mud 40-60 percent
Deep Clay Mud 50-70 percent
 
I bought a 9000 lb. Warn tabor. It is kinda there lower line of winches. But it is priced accordingly. Not the most expensive or the cheapest. What I did was make a mounting bracket the fit into a receiver hitch. I can now mount it on the trailer in front ( welded a receiver socket) or the rear of the goose neck trailer, (welded a socket), on the rear of my pickup, and also have a receiver hitch for my three point tractors. It can be used in many places not just my trailer.
 
That was also my plan to use a 2” receiver mount and run heavy cables from the truck batteries to the truck back bumper and put a plug up socket so the winch could be stored in the truck tool box and then installed on either the truck or trailer and plugged right into the truck bumper with no extra battery required. It looks like I really need a 8K or larger winch but I just can’t see spending over $200 on something like that. I might think about ways of making one.
 
For a 2000lb line pull. You need a winch rated for at least 4000lbs.
Winches are rated for intermittent duty and on the first wrap of cable on the drum.
 
i agree with Chris. i have a 10000 lbs on my goose neck trailer we pulled a Model R on this fall tires full of fluid worked hard but did the the job and i run it wth group 27 deep cycl Battery mounted right by the winch charges of camper line.by a good one or just forget it Kent
 
3000lb winch x 2 part line= 6000. 3000 x 3 part line = 9000. 3000 x 4 part line = 12,000. How much pull do you need? Be sure your snatch blocks are rated for final load. We routinely pull 120,000 on a line rated at 12,000 with 10 parts. It will be slow but faster than a come along, and much easier on both you and winch.

Dave
 
I have a 12000 pond winch on my 30 ft trailer.It has a hydraulic tail that is 10ft long.It takes everything the winch can do to pull a 4020 onto the trailer.This is a planitary gear winch and it won't hold a load very well,if i stop the winch with the tractor going up the ramp it will roll back down.I was told i should have bought a worm gear drive wench.I'm looking for a new one now.
 
So far most of the ratings I’ve been looking at gave dead 90* lift rating or line pull rating with first cable wrap on the drum then they de-rate with each additional wrap. Some of them try and fool you by giving rolling load ratings.

Right now I think my front runner is this one;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160398575148&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
But $360 is more than I wanted to invest in this and I still would have to get some really big wire to run from the front to the back of the truck and rig it all up including mounts.

Ray, let me know if you want to sell the one you got.
 
The other thing you want that many don't have is power or brake out. I picked up a cheap one last year and it only goes out by releasing the clutch and then you have only gravity to move the load down and no control. Not good.

Gerald J.
 
My father in law took a while to finally decide to add a winch to his trailer. I think he spent around $500 total and that was with buying a used 10,000 lb. winch. He works at a DPW and was able to get a good price on the extra cable he needed. Snatch blocks also help quite a bit. I would say you will be happy once you bite the bullet and do it, even if it is a bit more than you want to spend. I don't know about everyone else, but driving a machine up on a gooseneck always makes me nervous!
 
Hey Frog - as some below have eluded to, do not go cheap on this one. Get a good 10,000 lb or bigger or you will either regret it or get hurt in the process. It will be the best investment you have. When you try to pull a dead tractor on that has old rotten flat tires, the pull is tremendous, and a cheaper lower capacity winch will usually burn itself up pretty quickly. Save a little longer and do it right, and you will never regret it. Good luck - Bob
 
"DScott", I have one very similar that is from NT and have had it for five years. It does great. I drug a John Deere 40 with the back wheels locked up (rusted and frozen) from the ground ,up the ramps and to near front of my goose-neck. NO problems. I put a battery on the front of the trailer w/heavy cables Batt to winch and just may sure batt is hot if I know I going to use it. I also brought a snatch block at an action but so far have not had to use it. And by the way its is also tide-frog. He,he.
Don in Smyrna,Tn
 
"DScott", I have one very similar that is from NT and have had it for five years. It does great. I drug a John Deere 40 with the back wheels locked up (rusted and frozen) from the ground ,up the ramps and to near front of my goose-neck. NO problems. I put a battery on the front of the trailer w/heavy cables Batt to winch and just may sure batt is hot if I know I going to use it. I also brought a snatch block at an action but so far have not had to use it. And by the way its is also tide-frog. He,he.
Don in Smyrna,Tn
 
Alabama Frog, and everyone else. If you"re thinking about a Harbor Freight winch go to www.harborfreightusa.com/farming and scroll down there is a 20% off coupon that you can print off, hope that helps. John
 
I have that 8K Harbor Freight winch mounted on the front of a tandem-dual trailer, cable doubled, and it would NOT pull a rolling dead 720-LP up the ramps, got it barely off the ground. We had to use the sellers 4 cyl Deere to push it the rest of the way. I am using 30ft. of welding cable to the battery on my Dodge V10 on the positive side and 10ft to the hitch on the back of the truck for the neg. side. I am going to put a battery on the trailer tongue and see if getting rid of the 30ft. cable helps. I have a MM 900-D to go get pretty soon.
Bryce
 
Is this the one you got from Harbor freight that wont even pull the 720 onto a trailer?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40764

If so something has to be wrong because it claims it can pull 8K straight line pull so it should easily pull an 8K tractor up steep ramps single line, with the doubled line it should do more than twice what you needed it to do. I wonder what the problem is. I assume you are using the thick heavy welding cable and not the little thin welding cable?
 
I sent you an email but yes that is the winch and it is #2 welding cable w/ heavy duty jumper cable clamps.
Bryce
 

I did what "Pitalplace" did. I don't have an expensive winch, either. I got mine for my birthday, so I can't complain. I figure I can unhitch the gooseneck and pull what ever I need to around to where I can load it, with the pickup. I haven't loaded anything real heavy, but figure I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Sure is handy, though.
 
Well I got the $70 3K Harbor freight winch just to try it and see how it would work. I got it all mounted and tried her out today, looks like I wasted a day and will have to go back to Harbor Freight and return it. She was supposed to be good for a 3,000 pound line pull, they lied. I hooked her to a large deep cycle battery and put a big 25 amp battery charger on top of that. She pulled the tractor until the front tires touched the ramps then she bogged down bad, she manage to get the front tires to the top of the ramps and that was all she could do. I then added a pulley block and doubled the line so theoretically that would make it capable of lifting 6,000 ponds straight up in the air. With the cable doubled she pulled the front tires the rest of the way up then stopped dead when the back tires touched the ramps. The tractor weighs close to 6,000#’s so theoretically it should be capable of lifting it straight up and should very easily pull it up the 20-30 degree angle of the ramps. I guess they lied about the line pull capacity, seems more like 1,500# or less, definitely not near 3,000#, kinda irritates me that I wasted so much time on it and drilled holes in my trailer.

Here is where she stopped single line;


Here is where she stopped double line;


Here is how I mounted it;
 
I ordered a winch today, I got a Mile Marker brand 8,000# with 100’ of 5/16 cable and I paid $30 extra for the lifetime warranty and also added a 16.5K snatch block. The total bill shipping and all was $328. I got it form http://www.4wheelparts.com/mile-marker-winch.aspx which was second on Mile Markers list of authorized dealers.
Now to wait for it then install it then the true test with the 6,500# JD tractor.
 
My winch hasn’t come in yet but the snatch block came in and it is really heavy duty and I’m impressed. Here is a pic of it on a full size sheet of paper.

0225101205a.jpg
 
I got my new winch in and got it mounted and tested. It works great! I single line pulled both my JD60 at around 6,500 pounds and then my powerstroke at around 7,800 pounds up onto the trailer and the winch did not strain at all. The 8” C channel that it is bolted to flexed but the wench didn’t even slow down.
I can only imagine how much it will pull double lined through the snatch block.
I think it will be well worth the $300.

Here are some pics;

0329101109c.jpg


0329101109a.jpg


0329101108a.jpg


0328101733a.jpg


0329101147a.jpg
 
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