Second I plan on having a battery on the my trailer to power the winch and was wanting to use the trailer plug to recharge the battery. I am under the impression that i need some sort of circuit breaker between the plug and battery to keep it from over charging. Is this correct?? and if so where do i get one??

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Your truck should already be wired to re-charge the battery but you may need to add a small fuse in the fuse box under the hood for the battery charging circuit. IIRC they are shipped without this.

 

IMO 8 or 10k might be a bit overkill. The 1.5 times rule I remember from four wheeling but there you are pulling out a stuck vehicle. So unless you are planning on dragging cars on with wheels that do not roll I would think 3500# would be plenty.

As for the battery, no need to worry about over charging. If it where to overcharge your truck batteries would be overcharging too. You will want to unplug the trailer when using the winch or run your truck as the 12v charge wire is live all the time and you will be running down your truck batteries as well.

 

One and a half may be accurate considering you are pulling up an incline, and the max rating is only for the bottom roll of cable. The more cable wound on the drum, the lower the rating is. Don't forget that winches are rated single line pull. You can always use a pulley block to double the rating.

 

save your self some money!! get a small winch and use a snatch block!

have no experience with the one you posted from ebay but i would imagine its more than enough if it pulls like it states..... i mean is this a daily thing to rescue someone or once every couple months?? if you were using it for business i would probably stick with the warn or a big name but for what it sounds like you need..... save the dough!!

i didn't see it making note of having a wired remote or other way to engage it so I'd make sure you got that covered in case your battery is dead

 

We have a small 1500lbs winch with 75' of cable and use a snatch block. Double the line up and pulls just fine. I've pulled anything from a broken down late 80's 3/4 to small garden tractor onto the trailer and anything between. Also Pulled pallets of salt from back of trailer toward the front to even out the load. Pulled a late 50 Ford tractor that had rear tires LOCKED up. Did a triple line pull with two snatch blocks. Winch suprisingly did a pretty good job.

 

Thanks for all the help guys. Now that i think about it 10k may be a little over kill. I currently have an OLD homemade winch which i have no idea what it is rated at. I was winching a 3/4 chevy truck on my tilt bed trailer that had sat for a long time so this meant the wheels were locked up and it was sunk in the dirt. I had to use 2 snatch blocks and triple line it to pull the truck up on my trailer. Now im not complaining because my winch isnt in the best of shape anyways but this may be why im thinking so over kill...haha

I think im going to do some more shopping around. If you guys have any suggestions please let me know.

 

Harbor Freight usually has some good deals on 1500 and 3500lbs winches for under 100 bucks. We have one we use for hoisting deer during hunting season and I bought one for my dads shop to use as an overhead lift for misc stuff. They both have held up very well and no issues. The one we have on the trailer is a Warn ATV winch I got from local big box that was clearanced out.....still spent under 100 on it.

 

I bought one for my dads shop to use as an overhead lift for misc stuff.

shyco: :wtf1: you must have big balls!! it must work.... just stand clear of that bad boy when your doing it eh??

 

a 3k and a snatch block will load just about anything you can pull with your truck. If whatever it is, is stuck, a chain off your tow hook will unstick it, then bring the trailer over to load it.

 

The heat is the big issue with the smaller winches....That is my main reason for doing double line pulls and triple vs single. Take as much AMP load off the motor as possible. Dont do excessive long pulls either. Yes they're cheap winches but, with a lil care, will last a long time as long as you think about what your doing first.

 

As you are right they are not meant for overhead lifting due to the braking capability. But as you stated you worked with cranes rated up to 50tons. We're talking a 1500 single pull winch that has been used a hand full of times to lift 500lbs at the most from ground to the bed of truck or vise vs. Have also lifted a motor to mount on a stand ect. I have 100% confidence in its ability to do so.


***Cable on both the overhead and trailer winch have been upgraded from 1/4 or 5/16 to 3/8" from a prior winch I had(cable was never used)***

 

. I have 100% confidence in its ability to do so.

:badidea: omg!! you missed the point, I think!! what the "winch" is attached to to do the overhead lift is hardly important in this case. I'm sure the winch "can" do the dead lifting, based on the numbers and snatch block all that crap..... but why use something that is made for horizontal pulling as a lift, to basically dead lift an object, regardless of its weight it just sounds not smart !!

its not a hoist~!! a hoist is made to lift weight and securely hold it up! I can totally appreciate a ghetto rigged thing in an emergency "we gotta get this done" kind of situation but otherwise your just asking for a catastrophe(imo)!!! if you don't value your life or limb then that's your deal! and I'd guess nothing will ever go wrong..... but if it does, I'm sure your going to be really pissed off when the winch "we only used a couple times for something its not meant to do" breaks and drops your high dollar long block on the ground, and cracks something or ****s up your forged crank or bad ass connecting rods you just spend a grip of money on!! only then to realize it was a bad idea to be a cheap ass and not nut up and buy the right tool for the job!
:think: I guess I'll just never understand that mentality, or maybe its just my luck! but i know I'd be the unlucky bastard who gets a smashed toe, or worse, from trying to cut corners on tools!

totally not trying to flame you or be condescending in any way, but when I saw your comment about lifting with that setup, I just had to comment!! after all there is a reason a winch is a $200 and a hoist is $1200 lol!!

 

I value your opinion and thats great you have one. The cradle I have made for the winch sits as it would on a truck, trailer, ATV. The cable runs down to the snatch block and back up. The amount of weight put on the drum is far less than what force would be put on it in a max single line pull. (I didnt just mount this thing unside down with the chincy 1/4" bolt supplied) I have a 1/4" plate cradle mounted with industrial rollers for the overhead beam.

If you want to get into safety, reliability, load cap. I would be FAR MORE WORRIED about your front hitch setup with that winch trying to pull your truck out vs. my overhead set up that you've never seen. Whats the rating again on your front rec...Ohh yea a lot less than what your winch cap is. But im the one thats wrong, right. (wait thats the other guy.....lol.. I've been drinkin)


Back on topic.........A 1500-3k winch for your trailer will be fine. Watch what cable comes with it though. I would suggest you upgrade most of the smaller winch cables to a 3/8". Pick up a snatch block to help lessen to load not only on the drum but also to help keep the AMP load down on the winch.

 

i'm confused.... but you mentioned you've been drinking so maybe thats it lol!

 

I've got a pierce 2k atv winch that I use a snatch block with to pull cars up the ramps onto my trailer. I think it was $75 from piercesales. 50ft of cable, can be blocked twice and still have cable to load the car.

 

This Featherlite is my third car trailer. I have had winches on all. Have had batteries for the winches on all but this one.

As an idea to think about: I got tired of the batteries going out because they just sit around and sulfate most of the time. So, either a maintainer needs to be wired onto the trailer (requiring it to be near an outlet) - or - you don't run a battery.

I hard-wired a jumper cable quick-coupler onto the winch and wired the truck for it. Now, when I back up to the trailer, I plug in the cables and run the winch. I also have an electric tongue jack, just for giggles. So, I don't have to store a battery on the trailer anymore. This also keeps people from trying to borrow it, as it will only work with my truck (or my dad's that is also wired).

Without a battery, the electric tongue jack doubles as an anti-theft device.

Not this exact coupler, but same style:

 

I have a 8K Warn Winch in my trailer, it may be over kill but it was only $300.00....