I happened to have some terminal covers from another battery, so I popped them on. This is a real, live, charged battery. The trailer is full of metal stuff (like those load leveling bars sitting on the wood). It would be quite an experience if something metal touched both battery terminals, especially with a monster battery like this that can deliver 3600 amps.
You ever see a battery discharge through a wrench? It’s not pretty. Be safe, kids.
Now it was time to give it a try.
I used the included strap to run through the trailer’s D-rings and then attached the strap to the winch’s own bracket using their supplied U-brackets. Hook up the cables, and off we go.
Hit the “IN” button, and the car comes to you. Pretty easy, right?
Well, half yes, and entirely half a dumpster fire.
The tow strap on the SC300 is on the passenger side of the vehicle, but the winch was centered on the floor of the trailer. If this was a really fancy winch that had one of those geared slots that nicely rewinds the cable, it wouldn’t be a problem. But the Winch2Go does not have that.
It will happily load the entirety of the cable spool onto one side of the drum, mangling, crushing, and ruining the cable in the process.
And, if you’re not careful, it will gladly try to suck the controller cable into the bowels of the cable spool and nearly sever it.
Yes, dear readers, I pretty much destroyed everything on the first use. All of this was covered in the instruction manual, mind you. But, you know, who reads those? The control cable wasn’t completely destroyed, so I kept using that. Unfortunately, the instructions are very clear about not using a mangled pull cable, so I had to replace that.
5 comments
Nice, I just installed a Warn VR8000 on my trailer that i got on Facebook marketplace for $500 CAD. I used a hitch reciever off a parts truck I had, and a $79 Amazon portable winch plate that xomes with a locking hitch pin for a bit of security. Bit of cutting, welding, and paint and it is the best trailer mod yet for loading the non running junk I like.
Now that I have a winch, I will never want to have a trailer without one. I want to figure out a way to use a snatch block to allow for more convenient winching of vehicles that have tow points in different spots. Your setup sounds nice!
Thought this was the primary purpose of Harbor Freight’s winches. A 5k is like $200 bucks.
Though the “winch in a box” would be a great option for someone with like, a Subaru Outback who goes to the snow a lot. You could throw it in when necessary, but don’t have to get all Battlewagon-y just to have an option if someone’s stuck.
A winch that’s critical for getting the race car on the trailer is not something where I want to tempt fate with Harbor Freight “disposable tools.” If this was a non-critical application, it probably would be a totally viable option. There are a lot of tools I would and have bought from Harbor Freight. I don’t think a winch is going on that list 😃
Your snowy Subaru idea is on point, though.
Funny enough, I have a 1995 Outback with 350,000 miles on it!