Close enough, right?
One thing to note is that there are actually several styles of L-track available from Mac’s. There are two different types of round track, some square track and then a recessed-mount track. Mac’s will help you choose the right one.
And, regardless of which style you choose, you can install these super rad-looking end caps so that you can avoid tripping on the pointy end.
In case you are wondering, securing 40 nuts underneath the trailer is still a two-person job. It also sucks. A lot. There’s not a lot of space under an enclosed trailer. And there are likely spiders. Or, if you’re really unlucky, bees or wasps. I was not unlucky, thank goodness.
You will need a helper to hold the countersunk bolt in while securing the nuts. The fasteners that Mac’s supplies are not locking-type fasteners, so we used a little blue thread locking compound to help ensure things wouldn’t back off. It’s probably a good idea to inspect these at the end of the season when you are doing trailer maintenance.
You do your trailer maintenance at the end of every season, don’t you?
But maybe do a little bit of sweeping first to ensure you get up any metal shavings or other nasty bits that you don’t want in your tires.
We’re looking at the splitter about to crash into the flap of the trailer door on the ramp. It is exactly the same height. Ugh. What to do?
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.