What to do with winch??
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What to do with winch??
My dad got me a 3,000 lb 40 ft winch with 3/16 cable for chistmas. It is a nice gift, but I am not sure where it would be the most useful.
I have a 1996 f150 4x4 off road plow truck.
Since I have a plow up front I can't really mount it there.
I don't get stuck, so the only thing I would use this for is pulling cars, or pulling cargo onto trailers.
The reason he got this for me was 2 years ago when I had to move my tool box to my current job, we gave several running starts but could not get the box on the trailer, finnaly we had to really slowly pull it up with a hand com-a-long.
I don't own a trailer, so I can't put it there.
I was thinking of somehow mounting it to the hitch, or mount it in the bed of the truck in a way that it can be removed, or moved aside easily.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I don't what this thing to go to waste in my garage.
I have a 1996 f150 4x4 off road plow truck.
Since I have a plow up front I can't really mount it there.
I don't get stuck, so the only thing I would use this for is pulling cars, or pulling cargo onto trailers.
The reason he got this for me was 2 years ago when I had to move my tool box to my current job, we gave several running starts but could not get the box on the trailer, finnaly we had to really slowly pull it up with a hand com-a-long.
I don't own a trailer, so I can't put it there.
I was thinking of somehow mounting it to the hitch, or mount it in the bed of the truck in a way that it can be removed, or moved aside easily.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I don't what this thing to go to waste in my garage.
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Joined: Sep 2003
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The easiest option would to be build a mount onto a 2" square tube to slide into your receiver hitch but that wouldn't be much help if you need to be hooked to a trailer. As far as mounting in the bed it would need some form of support going to the frame, something similar to a removable fifth wheel hitch setup. Just remember that a winch draws a lot of amps, so you will either need to run battery cables to the rear of your truck or have an auxiliary battery mounted either with the winch or separately. Another idea if you make a mount for the receiver hitch is using the trailer (+) circuit to charge the battery for the winch when your not using it. You might also be able to make some form of a mount on your bumper but if its too tall it could get hard on your tailgate. Another idea would to build a mount for the winch behind your bumper and above your hitch. By putting your license plate on a hinge or making it easily removable you could run your cable through the area where your license plate would normally be. I think that with a winch as small as a 3,000lb that you would have clearance but if not the bumper could be moved back slightly without too much work.
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Thanks for the advice, I have thought of many different ways including building a plate to slide in the hitch but then like you said that would make the hitch useless. But I did not think of mounting it behind the bumper. I will have to look at that, 2morow. I have a rear tank with a skid plate, so I don't know if it will fit above the hitch. Do you think I can mount it directly to the back of the hitch (it is rated 7,500lbs). Thanks alot for your help.
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I thought of putting in a battery and charging it with the trailer harness but I was debating on weather to make it perm or not. But if I put it behild the bumper the I can easily put a small battery out of the way in the corner of the bed.
What kind of battery do you think I should run? The circuit breaker for this is rated at 50 amps. thanks again for your help.
What kind of battery do you think I should run? The circuit breaker for this is rated at 50 amps. thanks again for your help.
Senior User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 126
Likes: 2
Typically on a winch you would want a deep-cycle battery, but with it only being a 3,000 pound winch you could probably get by with just a regular car battery. To put into perspective we have a 4,000 lb winch on our polaris ranger that runs off of an atv battery. Also with a winch that small mounting it to your hitch shouldn't be a problem so long as you keep a relatively straight-line pull when using it.
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