Winch on my trailer

[RollTideRam]

I have been wanting to put a receiver on my trailer so I can use my quick mount winch. I used to have a 18' car hauler and just welded some square tubing to the rail on the front of the trailer. It worked but flexed more than I liked. My current trailer has a center mounted drop leg jack and spare tire mounted in the center of the front of the trailer. I'm thinking of building a box out of square tubing to mount at the front of the trailer. I'll put a battery box in it and a receiver on top to get my winch higher up. I want to make it removable also. In my mind I can see it working, but may be wrong.
Here is where I need some help. I want to make a roller to go on the dove tail to keep from dragging my winch cable. Does anyone have an idea how to make a roller? My dove tail is a "self cleaning" design made from angle iron. I thought of making the roller to sit on two rows of the angle where it can easily be removed also. JC

 

[George2615]

For something easy you could make the roller out of 2"x2" angle. Use two pieces each side of the roller welded to fit the angle of the dove tail. You could use a simple roller between them and just set it on the dovetail as a cable guide. When the vehicle starts to come up the tail and the cable clears the roller you remove the roller frame. For a roller you could use one of those rollers like you'd use at the end of a table saw for supporting long boards.

 

[firedog]

I'm right there with you JC.
Not just the cable either, I've had low sitting cars drag as they came across the edge from the dovetail to the deck. I was thinking of something like a rolling tailboard you see on big oilfield trucks.

Not quite sure how to mount it yet. Thinking between the outer channels, maybe a 3" pipe on some spindles that will bolt in from the outside of the channel. Hmmm. Still thinking.

 

[ampsucker]

check out marinas and boating supply websites.

there are tons of rubber rollers and other similar things designed to mount on any trailer cross member design you can think of. most are adjustable up and down. you might even find you can just just slide down out of the way when not in use.

pics of your actual setup would help... ;-)

amp

 

[wkpoor]

I'm there dude.

 

[wkpoor]

My first attempt on the winch also flexed more than I liked so I had it beefed up. It now ties into the structure below. That winch was flexing the whole front of the trailer and that is 10" C stacked twice. The roller is about 1/2" above corner.

 

[Willl]

Nice looking job wk, is the winch quick removal ?

 

[wkpoor]

Yes it is but it hasn't come off since it was first mounted. That is a receiver tube mounted vertical.

 

[Blast Chamber]

Here is what I just finished after working on it for over a year. I wanted an electric winch for my 18' flatbed trailer, but needed it to be protected from weather and theft plus be removable for use on my truck receiver hitch.

What I came up with is the following. The winch is a 12,000# Atlas with a corded hand-held controller plus a wireless remote. The box is mounted on a 2" solid steel receiver draw bar. The draw bar slides into a 2" receiver that is welded on a steel platform on the front of the trailer A-frame. This is all heavily reinforced to handle the worst possible stress while winching.

There is an Optima blue-top secured in the box to provide stand-alone power, and it can recharged from the truck batteries through a switched connection.

There are also red LED stop/tail/turn lights on the rear of the box to provide additional visibility, plus white LED backup lights that can also be turned on separately for night loading plus strobe as emergency lighting for roadside protection. These white LEDs backfeed into the truck backup lights (also LED) to provide additional lighting and strobe capabilities.

The box is quite heavy and takes two people to move it safely (hence the numerous handles). However, I use my forklift to move it when I'm alone, and it will spend the vast majority of the time living on the trailer which is parked indoors.

Here is a link to a video of the strobes in action. I hope this post is helpful and maybe inspires ideas for your trailer winch setups.

 

[wkpoor]

Blast Chamber, you were wise to install the structure for the winch. That 12K has some real power and as I found out, when the whole front of my trailer flexed, just what it takes to contain those things.

 

[Groo]

you don't necisarily need a roler, just something to keep the cable from abrading. I'd think a piece of hardwood might be the easy way of saving your cable

 

[WantedWolf]

Blast Chamber and wkpoor, Both very nice projects,

The ideas and outcomes on this site are so helpfull and inspiring.

Keep them coming

 

[wkpoor]

you don't necisarily need a roler, just something to keep the cable from abrading. I'd think a piece of hardwood might be the easy way of saving your cable

Thats what I did at first. You can't imagine the down force that cable puts at first when starting a load up onto a deckover. You would need plenty of spares. Plus a few times the block got dragged back up the trailer and couldn't be dislodged without letting the load back down. Amazing amount of tension on that cable. Thats when I decided to put a roller on. Life got simpler from then on.

 

[rcrcomputing]

I went to sam's and got a winch. 10000lb for about 380.00.
It came with a reciever hitch bracket and a cable you can run under the truck and mount by the reciever hitch. I then modified the extra cable that came for the front of the truck and made a extention that would reach to the trailer where I mounted a receiver hitch.

Then, I made a roller with two bars on it and cut two holes in the car haulers trailer bed. The roller slides into the bed when needed. However, I did find out to never underestimate how low a car can go after the front wheels pass the roller on a dovetail.

Since the roller has guides on the sides that stand up a total of about 3 1/2 inches off the bed, as soon as the cable clears the roller, you need to remove it on "low to the ground" cars.

OTOH, I question whether I even need a roller. The cable sliding across the bed for a few minutes doesn't even seem to bother the paint on the trailer...

 

[RollTideRam]

Thanks for all the replies. I posted this question and then got busy and forgot to come back. I know I'll need a roller to help the hook over the angle iron self cleaning dove tail. I really like the one wkpoor has on his trailer. JC

 

[wkpoor]

If you wonder just how much cable pressure is on the roller look at my pics of the roller with the perfect cable pattern on it. That also why I need a 12K or better winch.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Just curious what you guys are pulling up these trailers? My trailer has a 3,000# winch on it and I have pulled up 6 or 7 cars ranging in size from my mechanics sons Kia, my dads Corvette 3 times, my uncles Corvette, my mechanics girlfriends Grand Am, my neighbors Dodge Ram 1500 4x4, my college buddies Grand Prix, and a Suburban 4x4. Also just screwing around I have pulled up my 5,200# tractor. All this was done single line.

It had no problem on any of these rescue jobs. The winch ratings are dead pull. Rolling loads are much easier. Of course there is the incline issue going up the trailer but it has never given out, just a little strain. I have a snatch block to double the pulling power but it was never needed. Interesting enough the Kia, Suburban, and Ram were all tranny issues. All the others were fuel pumps or blown head gaskets or loss of brakes twice on the Corvettes. Of course my tractor was just screwing around when I put the winch on to see what type of power it had.

Chris

 

[wkpoor]

Chris, If you have a drop deck trailer then you won't experience a fraction of the load I do. My guess is twice the incline is 4xs the resistance. Once I get the front tires on the deck its gravy from them on but starting out on the ramp makes that 12K really pull down hard. My FIL has a 6000lb winch and it won't even start a load up my ramps but it easily can pull a car onto a drop deck affair. One more thing is I need to cut half the cable off my winch. Its got 100' on it and I don't even need half that. Mile Marker told me I loose 400lbs of pulling force for every rap. I'm going to cut at least 50' off and make up ends on it for recoveries. One more thing is the larger winches maintain good line speed under load. I'll bet your 3000lb winch is very slow. With all that said I did pull my 9000lb tractor onto my trailer a few months ago with no snatch block (straight line pull) and it did well but larger tires with more weight on them may not roll any harder than a truck with much smaller tires.

my mechanics girlfriends Grand Am

BTW I thought you were the mechanic? Hehehe

 

[Diamondpilot]

I mean the mechanic that takes care of my airplane. I am capable of basic maintenance but never had a engine or tranny apart. I mainly work on trailers brakes, lights, and simple fixes on boats. Everything else I farm out. Never have any real problems with my stuff so I am able to maintain them but I am experiencing some tranny problems with my Saturn and a emissions code keeps coming up also. I need to get them looked at by someone with more knowledge than me.

Chris

 

[charlz]

WKpoor, does that Mile Marker have freewheel out or just power out? Their webpage doesn't really say.