Winches on trailers

BigClay

BigClay

Knower of useless ZJ things
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Location
Winston-Salem
So I am thinking of ways to be able to winch my jeep up onto my trailer on the event it is dead and not able to drive or winch itself. What does everyone do? I really don't want to invest in another electric winch, so I am thinking more of block and tackle or a hand winch. Let me know your thoughts.
 
Really, a decent winch isn't much $ and is well worth it. I have less than $400 in my 9500 setup, new. Finding used would be even cheaper.


But, maybe a nice chain come a long?
Maybe a manual hand winch like on a boat trailer?
Maybe the Stihl chainsaw powered winch?
 
How would I power an electric winch on the trailer?
 
Will a stand alone battery work, how long of a pull could it handle?
 
I use a big marine battery. handles multiple trailer loads /pulls 5+ between charges. ( as I normally forget until I'm ready to use it)
16ft trailer with M8000 winch.
 
I picked up one of the HF 8k winches to put on my trailer. On sale, and with the 20% coupon it was too cheap not to.

Been on there 3 or 4 years, used regularly, nary a problem. That said, I wouldn't use one of these for recovery where I depended on it, but on a trailer when you (usually) have a rolling load, it's fine.

I cut the cable down to about 40' so it's always on either the 1st or 2nd wrap on the drum.

I've used it for much more than loading one of my winch-equipped toys, so yes, a trailer winch is very useful. Last 3 times it's left the yard is to recover broke cars.
 
shawn said:
What's wrong with the winch on the front of your Jeep? Looks like a Shittybilt?
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It is worse, it is a Rugged Ridge :D I am thinking about what to do if the jeep is not running, and possible the battery be dead.

92_SquareEye said:
FYI - HF just dropped out a 25% off coupon...
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Where would I find that coupon?
 
I've had one on my trailer for years. Bought a cheap 2nd hand winch, Marine battery, Wiring was simple. Paid for itself the first time I used it, imo.
 
I use one of these (They go on sale pretty regularly for $59);

2500 lb. ATV/Utility Electric Winch with Wireless Remote Control

And a little 8k pulley with a hook as a snatch block when the load is too heavy to pull up straight, just run it to the vehicle and back to the trailer, and you have 5000lb of pull. It's slow, but it's worked everytime I needed it...
 
kaiser715 said:
I cut the cable down to about 40' so it's always on either the 1st or 2nd wrap on the drum.
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Thats actually a really good idea. I might have to do that to mine.
 
Stupid question, but as far as the battery for the trailer powering the winch....can you simply replace the SMALL battery used for the breakaway switch with a bigger marine battery to power the winch AND breakaway? Since this is getting the power supply from the 7 way?
 
I have a harbor freight 3,000 lb in a receiver mount and had a receiver tube on the front of my old trailer. I normally carry a jump box with me anyway, so I just hooked it up to the leads.

Could have used more than 3,000lb, but you can snatch block back to it if necessary. It did drag a 4 door sidekick on the trailer with no rear axle once...
 
That little harbor freight is what I used to pull our old Bronco frame and tub up onto the trailer. Worked fine.

CasterTroy said:
Stupid question, but as far as the battery for the trailer powering the winch....can you simply replace the SMALL battery used for the breakaway switch with a bigger marine battery to power the winch AND breakaway? Since this is getting the power supply from the 7 way?
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Yup.

But don't expect the truck to keep that battery charged. You'll still need to put a charger on it once in a while.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Thats actually a really good idea. I might have to do that to mine.
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That is a good idea, but I have needed all the cable on mine a few times, after snatching around a tree or something.
 
I have a small lawnmower battery for my winch. Has always worked fine as long as it is charged. I carry a charger just in case.
 
Petersons did a big winch shootout ot long ago and that Harbor Freight winch beat out several higher end units. If I remember right the HF won the best bang for the buck award. So just because it's cheap don't mean it won't work. With that being said our 40 ft gooseneck has a 15k lb winch on it and a deep cycle battery. The only thing that charges it is from the truck and I've never hooked to the trailer and had the battery be dead or go dead while I was using it. Just my .02.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
That is a good idea, but I have needed all the cable on mine a few times, after snatching around a tree or something.
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I'll probably keep the extra cable and put a loop in the end so I could hook it up for long drags.
 
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