Why, yes, it is a winch in our cabinet.
You can also see the main 120v electrical box for the trailer on the left. We will consult an electrician about hard-wiring the XS Power HF1208 charger into the 120v power system.
The battery was going against the trailer’s front wall, so we weren’t that concerned about going with gorilla-strength mounting systems.
While the ventilated shelving in this cabinet is not the best, it suffices for now. And, look, it provides a convenient place to hang the hook!
Now that the winch and battery are good to go, it’s time to load the car, right? Well, not quite. We had to take the splitter off when using any trailer because the factory tow/transport hooks were used to strap the car down. On Project SC300, the factory front transport hook mounting holes were also doing double duty as the splitter mounting. And with the splitter being as long as it is, there was no way to leave the splitter installed and use the tow hook and also strap the car down to the floor without ripping off the splitter while tightening the tow straps.
Enter Mac’s Custom Tie-Downs.
Why did we choose the L-track instead of the more common and readily available E-track? Height. We were switching to a track-type tie-down system because we were also going to switch to a wheel-capture-type tie-down system. The straps had to stay under the height of the splitter, and the idlers (the loops that the straps pass through when they change direction) with Mac’s L-track system were much shorter than the E-track idlers.
We measured the length of the floor in the trailer and then called up Mac’s to have them give us a selection of track lengths that were semi-custom fit for our application. Mac’s was able to countersink drill the mounting holes in advance, and they were also able to supply all of the hardware that we needed. Be sure, though, when ordering the hardware that you figure out in advance how thick your mounting surface will be. It would stink to get a bag of hardware and have all the bolts be too short.
You need a lot of track and hardware to cover the floor of a 28′ trailer! Do you really need to go across the entire length of the floor? Well, no. If you were only ever going to have one car on your trailer, and it was always going to be in roughly the same spot, you could go with a few separate sections of track for each wheel. Again, the splitter was a bit of a challenge for us because it is so long. That will make more sense in a minute.
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.