After opening the crate, we were pleased to see that nearly everything we would need to install the winch was there. The only other thing we would need is a power source.
A big winch pulling a heavy car is going to draw a lot of juice. XS Power’s XP series marine batteries are also touted as being great for commercial or fleet-type applications, and it seemed like this would be the ticket for our trailer winch use. With a gargantuan 120Ah capacity and the ability to deliver 3000 amps, we were sure that this battery would survive not only one race weekend but probably many race weekends without needing a charge, no matter what we did to it. Eventually, we’ll be adding an electric tongue jack to this trailer and possibly other 12v accessories, so the extra capacity will definitely be valuable.
XS Power also has a complete line of battery chargers to go with all of their cells, and they recommended we use the HF1208 with this XP3000 to keep it topped off. We will be permanently mounting the charger so that, once we have a nice generator, the battery will always be topped off during the race weekend while the generator is running.
OK, it’s time to mount the winch.
You can’t just run a few bolts through the floor of the trailer and expect the winch to stay attached when you start yanking a car up. Our local trailer shop handled this welding and fabrication job easily.
4 comments
I certainly understand your choice in winches, but just for those with more budget in mind I’ve been pleased with the meager 2500 lb winch I have on my open deck trailer. While I am equipped to run a snatch block if needed, so far I’ve been able to pull a GMC Envoy (~5000 lbs) up a set of 7′ ramps on a trailer without drop axles.
That said, I wouldn’t expect that winch to be able to pull a vehicle with something like a locked up wheel onto the trailer.
With an open-deck trailer and a not-too-crazy angle on the approach, a 2500lb rated winch can haul a 3000lb car. The key word is can. A little overhead won’t hurt. You’re absolutely right on the snatch blocks, and we made that comment in the Winch2Go article that’s linked in the intro paragraph.
With only one wheel dragging, a 17,000lb rated winch should probably be able to get the car on. It likely won’t be fun. It’d probably be easier to try to get a jack under that corner and do some fishy stuff. But, either way, you’re far more likely to get a broken car onto a trailer with a 17,000lb rated winch than with a 2500lb rated winch with only a snatch block. And, hey, you can still use a snatch block with that 17,000lb rated winch to get even more ugly pulling power!
To be clear, I haven’t used the snatch block yet.
Next you gotta get a monster slide in truck camper for the F-250, hitch and extension from Torklift to go with that schwanky new to you enclosed trailer. Then when it’s pouring buckets outside, the car is dry inside and you’re pounding beers inside the camper. Everybody wins. It also keeps the morning dew off the car.