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Yes i know it's winch, i figured the thought of a trailer wench would get Hustler in here.
So i ordered up a winch to go on my trailer the other day because the paint on my car gets to approximately eleventy billion degrees on a hot day. I have been going out the window Dukes style after driving it up on the trailer and i'd like to have elbow skin left after loading and unloading in Texas.
i ordered a winch and plan to center mount it on my trailer. the question is this. I have the normal little hooks in the front that came from the factory, as you know they are off centered. since I've never used a winch, I'm not sure if they are off center enough to cause the car to be pulled sideways as opposed to straight up the ramps or not. Do i need to rig up some sort of chain "Y" system to center the winch cable to the car or does it matter?
Doesnt matter. Steer the car using the wheel, hopefully you bought a winch with the long control cord, right?
Most people I see just use the tow hook (myself included).
yes it has a long cable, 20-foot I think. That is what i was thinking, just steer it on, granted the car has manual steering and the door cant be open to get it on the trailer. Someone told me i needed to make a Y so i thought I'd see how you guys were loading.
Edit: just checked and the cable is only 12-feet. that means it wont reach the back of the trailer which is about 20-feet counting the 14-foot car area and the hitch area. Maybe i do need to make the "Y"?
I use a tiedown strap between the eyes to hook my cable onto. the car will come on straight with it on one eye, but the cable wont spool correctly onto the winch drum. Mine is a 1500 lb ATV winch, it came with plenty of cable for my 12' trailer, and pulled the car on easily even after I broke a balljoint, and dragged it on skidding one wheel.
yes it has a long cable, 20-foot I think. That is what i was thinking, just steer it on, granted the car has manual steering and the door cant be open to get it on the trailer. Someone told me i needed to make a Y so i thought I'd see how you guys were loading.
Edit: just checked and the cable is only 12-feet. that means it wont reach the back of the trailer which is about 20-feet counting the 14-foot car area and the hitch area. Maybe i do need to make the "Y"?
Which cable? The steel cable isnt the one Im talking about. Its the yellow handheld in the picture.
If the steel cable isnt long enough, youll have to extend it somehow, perhaps with a tow strap. If the hand held control isnt long enough, well, thats a much harder problem to solve. Mine has a 30ft cord and reaches the back of the trailer pretty easily, so I just walk the car in as I run the hand control and steer through the window.
The wife joined amazon prime and i clowned her mercilessly for it, now it turns out to be a nice deal with free 2 day shipping. don't tell her i said that.
My trailer winch is a ghetto POS that came with the trailer. There are just two posts with no controls. I hook the jump pack up in one polarity and it powers in and reverse the polarity and it powers out. I just line the car up to the ramps, hook the cable to one of the tow eyes and reel it in. If the steering needs to be adjusted a bit, I turn off the jump pack and walk over to adjust the steering wheel.
I bolt it to the trailer with two bolts finger tight and keep it in a box with the tie down straps otherwise so it doesn't sit in the weather. It's not rocket science. Finding a good functioning wench is much more work.
Go to Home Depot and get about 30" of the biggest chain they have. Then get 2 hooks, and install them on each end of the chain. Hook the chain to the front tow hooks. You now have the ability to hook your winch to the center of the car. This makes pulling a car up the trailer easier, as it takes out most of the need to steer.
As a side bonus, you can use the chain to strap down the car, pulling engines, zombie defense, and all sorts of other stuff.
Go to Home Depot and get about 30" of the biggest chain they have. Then get 2 hooks, and install them on each end of the chain. Hook the chain to the front tow hooks. You now have the ability to hook your winch to the center of the car. This makes pulling a car up the trailer easier, as it takes out most of the need to steer.
As a side bonus, you can use the chain to strap down the car, pulling engines, zombie defense, and all sorts of other stuff.
exactly what I did a few days ago. Winch came in and it didn't mount the way I thought it did. I have to hit the welding shop next week and get it mounted and life will be grand when it comes to loading and unloading.
Trailer wench questions
