hey, this is probably not the best place to ask but if figured this reltated to this topic best. i am in the market for a trailer winch, i figure it would make loading and unloading a lot easier, and if for some reason my car becomes incapacitated it will make life much easier. what types of winches are you guys running? i noticed at home depot they have a 3700 lb winch for about 340, but i'm not sure if that enough power to pull my cart up if for some reason one of the wheels was facing the wrong way. i notice that harbor freaight has chicago electric winches rated at 8000lbs for 300 and a 5500lb one for 250. i know a lot fo their stuff is crap but some of it is good deals.

and for those of you that have winches, what do you hook the winch up to on your 4th gen?

went to the track on my trailer the other day and all these things came into mind as my ramps shot out from the car and 7 guys had to pick up the back and push it on (for which i am extremely thankful).

and those of you that bought trailer ramps where did you find decent priced ones? the cheapest ones i found online were like 400 bucks, which is nearly total cost of my trailer in its original condition (i fixed it up)

 

i was using a harbor freight 2000lb. winch for awhile. $50.
the secret to making that one work is using a ****** block with it. in case you havent heard of one of those, its a pulley with a hook on it. basically, youll hook the winch's cable right there at the winch's mounting location, and then pull out slack. so youll be holding a big U of cable. in the radius of the U is where the ****** block goes, and thats what hooks onto the car.

makes for a 4000# winch for cheap.

 

that pulled your car up fine? what about if something was broken? do you have pictures? and where did you hook the winch on the car? sorry for the questions, your idea just sounds very good.

 

i understand now, i looked up some diagrams online. did you just make a mountinmg point on the front of your trailer for the return line of the winch? since the car is lower than the trailer, i would imagine one would use pulley on the ends of the trailer to prevent the cable from scraping the edge of it. am i correct with that assumption?

 

We are talking about rolling weight, not dead pull weight correct?
The 2500 is more then enough to pull it up. I have one and it works just fine. I have a inclosed trailer, already had to use it twice this past year, transmission problems and it pulled it with no problem at all.

 

hmmm. ok. where did you attach the winch on your 4th gen tho? the engine cradle? and do you have pulleys at the end of the trailer so it doesn't scrape and possibly damage the cable? from what i ahve read a rolling fairlead would cause premature wear on the cable, but i do not understand how

ok, i have made a diagram, let me know if it is correct
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...er/trailer.jpg

now if that was a 3000lb winch, according to rolling load i probably would not need a ****** hook, but i drew it in. the ont thing that is hard to tell is that the winch is not mounted to the wood, but a piece of metal frame right behind the wood.

oh, and i will use ramps, i just kind of ran out of room to draw them, lol

 

yep, your diagram is correct. i used a tow strap hooked to the k-member. leaving it uncovered in the rain a few times will leave it useless however.
you will need at least 3500lb rated capacity to get the car up the ramps on your typical open trailor. enclosed trailors will require less winch due to the longer/lower ramp.

i gotta add this though... where did you get the trailor? the axles seem to be dead center and i cant see the tongue. if you pull the car up on there, it looks as though it will be teeter-tottering with zero tongue weight. and make sure to get some good tires on it!

 

about how much is a cheap trailor neways? i was thinkin of gettin one but i dn, my car just has bolt on's but i plan to race it frequently.... good idea or not?

 

For mine I welded a loop on the cradle.
Basically put the car at the bottom of the ramp, reach under the car and attach the hook to the loop. A piece of wood will set on the door opening so not to damage the trailer or cable.

 

i bought the trailer for 600dollars and did everything else to it, and got the frame reinforced with some 2.5"id square tubing. i ripped off the old floor, sanded it down, rustoleum primer for rusted steel then used rustoleum industrial grade paint. on top. then i got 2x12's and floored it, then painted that with sealer. i think i am going to add some sandpaper to where the rear tires go on the trailer though because when i loaded it on the trailer and the wood was wet the tires spun and it almost slipped off. i forget who made it but the year it was produced was 1983 (its older than me! ).

its like 19feet long foor, 26feet long with the dove tail. i actually do get a decent amount of tongue weight, my truck gets a nice squat off it, i think i might try to use a hitch with a little lower drop because i think it might be better that way as right now it is angled slightly up when hooked up empty to my truck.
here's a picture of it all hooked up to my truck
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...P1010113-4.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...P1010114-3.jpg

it was actually pretty darn steady. i was crusing at 80 with it on the higway around here and there was a little bit of wind and that thing was solid. it think the leaf springs that are on it could definteily be a bit stiffer but other than that i am happy with it. i drove to the track on sat morn and the roads were a bit wet on the way there and it took about an hour with paved roads, higway, and dirt roads. it did better than i expected


ken95z, so you are saying you put a piece of wood where the cable scrapes the trailer?

 

Basically yes. On a inclosed trailer there is a gap between the door and floor when the door is open. I have a piece of wood that fits that gap. Not to sure how you can do that with a open trailer but I'm sure that you have the capabilities to fab something up.

Are those 14's wheels? Just make sure that you keep a close watch on the bearings with those. Every year we inspect and repack the bearings on our trailer, cheap insurance.

A equalizer hitch will help out on the squat, plus you might consider moving the car back a little bit to help out on the tongue weight. You really don't want a lot of tongue weight. Hopefully you have trailer brakes as well.

 

Here is some good information on trailer weight versus tongue weight, as well as an easy way to measure tongue weight using your bathroom scale.

http://www.hitchesonline.com/WD/tow_tips.htm

 

That's exactly how I did mine.
Need to figure out how much tongue weight you have and then position the car accordingly.

 

Set it up just like that site suggests, and after you get the car in the correct position, mark the car door sill and the trailer so you can line it up correctly when you pull it on. It looks way to far forward in the photo. I limit the tongue weight to 250#. And be sure to get a hitch height that matches the trailer and keeps it perfectly level with the correct tongue weight.

 

You're contradicting yourself. You say set it up like the web site says, then say that you limit your tongue weight to 250#. Unless your car and trailer weigh 2500# total you're light on the tongue. That site and my Haulmark trailer manual says:"Tongue weight (TW) is the downward force exerted on the hitch ball by the trailer coupler. In most cases, it is about 10 to 15 percent of GTW."
I go by the 10% rule. My trailer weighs 6500# so I positioned my car, after all my gear was stowed, to place around 650# on the tongue. Most truck platform hitches are good for 1000# tongue weight so that's not a problem.
If the tongue is too light the trailer will sway more than it should.

I bolted chaulking blocks to the floor so that I could get a positive repeatable placement of the car every time that I load it.