I am going to buy a winch to permanently mount inside the front of my 24' v nose car trailer. I'll use it to gently pull my race car in after a hard day at the tracks.

I know nothing about winches. I'm seeking advice from people who know stuff. Here's what's important:

1: permanently mounted in my trailer
2: strong enough to slowly pull race car up the ramp and inside
3: how do I wire it? Will it get power from the trailer connector to my tow vehicle?
4: it would be great if it's braking feature is reliable enough that it can take the place of strapping the front of the car. (I'll still strap the back)
5: I'm a little afraid of the pricing I've seen so far, but I know nothing
6: brand name and reliability (I should retype this post with this item at the top of the list- it is most important to me.)
7: a wireless remote with a range of about 40' would be great, so I can park the car without assistance.


I bet I'll think of more later.

 

In general, you never want to use a winch line in place of a hold down strap.

I would be most likely to put a battery in the trailer that is charged from the truck. But it doesn't HAVE to be charged. You can connect it to a charger when you get home. Running the winch against just the battery will work. I've done that without any issues. A small winch might run directly against the power provided at the 7 pin connector, but you need to check the draw from the winch (I would be unlikely to try this method).

Warn is a good brand. I have two Mile Marker winches and they both don't have a working free spool. I've heard that other brands have problems. Mile Marker's service was pretty poor.

Weight rating for you is less important than for others that need a winch to get them unstuck. Your rolling mass is easy so you may be able to get by with an ATV winch. You can get wireless controllers with ATV winches.

 

agree that this is a much lower duty application than winching for recovery purposes since your car should roll easily, and I assume the ramp into the trailer is pretty shallow. Any idea of the angle?

I was looking into a similar application a year ago, and couldn't find that much helpful information, so I'll follow this thread too.

I also agree that the winch cable isn't a substitute for strapping the car down.

 

What does the race car weigh? 3500 atv winch should be plenty for you assuming the car is around 2k and free rolling. You can feed the cable out and use a pulley to gain pulling power if needed. For your dedicated use you could also shorten the cable since you have less wraps of cable on the drum giving you full power.


Read about vehicle recovery to learn about winches and safety. It will be overkill for your application but you said you know nothing about winches.


Get power from a battery sitting near the winch. The shorter the power wires the better. Do not try to use power thru the truck to trailer connection.


Do not use the winch cable to secure the car. Use your regular straps to secure at all 4 corners.


Some like and some do not like the harbor freight winches. Other brands are usually better. My used gooseneck trailer came with a harbor freight 9k or 12k on it and has pulled trucks and cars just fine for me with flat tires and or locked up brakes across concrete and up the steeper ramp.


I would buy this but it may go against your #6
https://www.harborfreight.com/3500-l...ake-61257.html

 

Man that's a lot of good feedback. Thanks guys.

The trailer ramp IS the back door (as you assumed) it is about 6.5-7' and the trailer is relatively low ride height.
With that said, the race car still scrapes usually.

The trailer is 24'long and the winch will be all the way up front. Add to the 26' length, the fact that the car will begin its cable-assisted journey about 8-9' from the car. And the cable hook will likely grab the car about 2' in. That's 37' minimum for the cable travel. Is this common for a good winch?

I really dont like the idea of having a battery in the trailer dedicated to the winch. Charging, and storage... something just feels wrong about it. I'll have a generator to use soon- are there any 120V winches?

yes the car will be relatively low load compared to pulling a rock crawling Jeep up a hill, but it is common to have broken stuff and/or flat tires on a race car, so I want a decent winch.

What about mounting? What is standard winch mounting procedure? Don't they all go on the front bumper of a Jeep?


Thanks guys! I look forward to more feedback.

 

The race car weighs 2,950lbs.

 

The problem with trying to do this without a battery is that the instantaneous draw is actually quite high for all the 12V winches. Your truck or whatever 12V source won't put out enough instantaneous amps to run the winch. The battery, even a smaller one, provides the current much better, if that makes sense.

I know nothing about 120V winches, other than they seem to be more rare. Although I've seen then used in industrial settings. No idea about the current draw on them, but again, may be a limiting factor when running from the generator.

 

I agree with what was posted above. You need a battery in the setup. Keep it simple.

37' of winch length is easily a common length for a truck winch. My 9500 lb winch came with 100' of steel cable. I reduced that down to 85' when I replaced the steel cable with thicker synthetic rope. Most ATV winches are around 50'.

Here is one place that sells ATV winches that I've seen good reviews for.
VIPER Classic Winch | Moto Alliance

They have a good variety of winches. The one in the above link is pretty inexpensive, but it's only 2500 lbs.

For mounting you're going to have to come up with some way to tie the winch into the frame of the trailer. If you were to put the winch in a cradle and then bolt a 2" receiver tube to the trailer's frame you would have a winch that you can put on the back of your truck if needed. All winches I've worked with mount with just four bolts. You could mount the winch to the wood floor of the trailer with those four bolts. I won't recommend that as it might rip your floor out. So you need to tie it into the frame of the trailer somehow.

Here's a thread that directly addresses what you're trying to do: http://www.sccaforums.com/forums/aft/28131

 

I don't see an issue if mounted to the floor if you use a large plate on the other side to spread the load over a larger area.

If worried about batt inside the trailer mount it outside on the front A frame in a box. You could also run your brake away switch off it.
Dave - - -

 

Take a look at Superwinch. I have the 5500 in my enclosed trailer for the same purpose, to winch my race car in and out. Once its time to replace the cable line, I plan on going with the synthetic rope. Winch is powered by a separate battery, inside a battery box, vented to the outside, next to the winch, and is wired to the trailer battery wiring so its charged while hooked up to tow vehicle. Pulls my 3500# car into trailer with ease.
https://www.superwinch.com/products/...railer-winches

 

Get a GOOD winch. I've had my 4500 Superwinch since 1997. Works flawless, every weekend for 20 yrs. I got a Ramsey remote fob for it, makes it nice not to have to deal with running over a cord. So many I've heard just love their Harbor Freight winch, but don't use it regularly. Mine gets 4000# put on it every weekend. I can't find the 4500 winch I have, seems they don't offer that style anymore? They offer a 5000# model.

Mine looks like:



This is the remote:
https://www.quadratec.com/products/92142_100.htm

Mount it to the floor and back it up with some plate on the other side or tie it into a crossmember in some way. You don't want it pulling through the plywood!

Wire it with BIG cable. Battery cable sized. Anything smaller will limit the current(power) and will sacrifice pulling capabilities.

Mount the battery in a box (or outside in a box ). A nice group 31 sized battery. Anything smaller will just limit your time available before charging. Think about putting a solar panel on the roof of trailer to charge it while parked. I plug my trailer in all week, so I have a trickle charger bolted in the trailer to charge the batteries

 

Superwinch and Bulldog are both great winch manufacturers to consider for your race car trailer. Here's an article that discusses winch options for enclosed trailers that you may find helpful:

https://www.etrailer.com/expert-36.html

 

 

Here is my $.02

We have two Circus wagons that we load and unload off of flatbed car trailers every weekend in the summer at fairs and festivals. The trailers have aluminum toolboxes mounted on the toungues with Superwinch winches (4500 lbs.) and a battery that is charged from the tow vehicle. (Or a seperate charger) They have been in service for 15-20 years, pretty much without a problem. Each wagon weighs about 2500 pounds.

Biggest issue we have had is the plug for the controllers. The cables always get pulled too tight and one now has issues. This could probably be eliminated with a wireless remote, but I am afraid I would lose the remote. LOL

The battery I have is nothing special, but when I replace it , I plan on putting in the biggest one I can fit in the box to give me more reserve when pulling the wagons on at the end of a long weekend.

As far as using the winch to hold the front of the car, I agree with the previous posters. The cost of what you have invested in the race car versus the cost of a couple of tie-downs and the time it takes to put them on, makes it a no-brainer. It isn't worth the risk, not even that one time, when you are only going around the block.

 

Ditto, I would never rely on the winch to "Tie down" the front of my car. Always use straps. I do leave the winch attached(loosely) just so I don't have to reach down to attach/unlatch.

I met up with some racers a couple weeks ago and they were using the winch to hold the front of a very nice, freshly painted race car. They were all about "not scratching" the car as it was the first time out. I heard them mention about the winch holding the front. I was like.....

To each their own, but after 22 yrs of hauling cars I would not rely on a winch brake to hold anything. I cringe when I see people using those 1" straps from Harbor freight .