Bought a used Warn 9lb winch to mount on my trailer to pull up dead cars/trucks onto the trailer. My question is where would be the best/ideal place to mount the winch? Should it go on the deck or up higher towards the top of the neck?

Anyone have any ideas on what would be better to power it? Battery on the trailer or make leads to run up to the battery on the tow vehicle, like a quick disconnect?

Eric

I would put it low on the deck easier to brace and less leverage when pulling cars up. On the battery it just depends on how you want to do it. If you run leads from the tow rig you'll always have to have the tow rig there to winch something up on the trailer. Putting batteries on the trailer you always run into the issue of them disgcharing unless you charge them or have a way of charging them from the truck. I personally would run leads with quick disconnects to the trailer for the winch

-ben

Another point for down low is so that you can run the cable under the front vehicle so you can winch a second vehicle on.

Just keep a 4x4 with a metal cap of some sort on the end so you can make the cable do a /\ when you pull the car up on the deck.

I can see reasons for putting it low and high..

putting it up high would make it alot easier to get the car up onto the deck, but low would help once it's on the deck.

Maybe keep a snatch block handy that you can put up on the neck of the goose for the hard-to-pull ones?

I've though about this mulitiple times and have come up with what I think is the best answer for me. I tow many different trailers from tags to goosenecks so the issue becomes multiple winches or a removable mount. However the best setup seems to be mounting the winch in the rear bumper of the truck. This gives you a couple of big advantages.

1) you can power off the truck
2) you can use it with almost any trailer
3) you can hook to a snatch block on a gooseneck and pull from a high point
4) you can use it without a trailer

There are a couple different manufactures that offer rear bumpers to accept winches. I will probably go with this one.
http://www.reunel.com/tow_bumper.html

On my 32 foot goose and 18 foot bumper pull, I have the winch mounted on the deck as far forward as possible. I have dragged vehicles with no axles onto the bumper pull this way.

I'd like to sink the winch into the deck some, so that I can pull cars more forward on the trailer. As it is now, a long car (like a 75 Buick Electra) will hit the winch on the bumper pull trailer if I pull it as far forward as I want. And when putting two vehicles that barely fit on the goose, the same thing happens with the front vehicle if it's a car - wants to hit the winch.

Also good point about having the winch low on 2-car goose so you can run the cable under the first car to pull the 2nd car on the trailer. I do that a lot.

If the winch was mounted higher, and I was working with a nice car, I couldn't pull the car all the way forward because the winch would be pulling upwards from under the front bumper of the car, and screw the front bumper all up, especially a plastic bumper.

I like the idea of the winch in the back bumper of your truck if you can make that work for you, but that's a more expensive option if you have to buy a bumper.

Batteries: I have a smaller car battery (like for a Honda) mounted on the trailer. Not connected to the tow rig's charging system. I just put a battery charger on the battery every 2-5 pulls. Would be more convenient to hook a charge wire from the tow rig to the trailer battery, or run cables directly to the tow rig battery with no battery on the trailer. Running only off the tow rig battery should work, but I would leave the tow rig running while winching, and I would make sure you use large enough cables for that length.

id make a reciever mount for the winch. you can then put recievers on whatever trailers you own and move the winch around,or you can stick it into the hitch on your truck to use it without the trailer.

power the winch from a trailer mounted battery and wire your plug so that the truck can charge the trailer battery when driving.

I saw and episode of trucks where he put a solar charger on the trailer to keep the battery charged up while it was not being used. might be expensive though.

I saw and episode of trucks where he put a solar charger on the trailer to keep the battery charged up while it was not being used. might be expensive though.

Harbor Freight has some cheap solar chargers, but my problem was finding a place to mount the solar panel on a bumper pull where I wouldn't break it. But on my goose, I might try this - I don't store anything over the goose, and as long as I'm careful and don't throw my safety chains up there when I unhook them, nothing should ever hit it there.

I have one panel that plugs into a cigarette lighter to supposedly maintain the battery in a vehicle that sits for long periods of time. If I get some time, I might cut the cig lighter plug off of it and see what I can do with it.

when pulling the car up tight to the front can't you just unhook the cable and pull off the rear axle??

Rich had a good idea with using a pully, id think that would be ideal as you could have a few locations to attach the pully for various pulls..

I hope to eventually run a cheep-o winch and I will have it tied into the battery and small RV power converter in the sleeper cab to keep it charged..

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f56/chevyman_57/trailer/DSC00450.jpg
That's how I run mine on the bumper pull. The receiver part is nice for removing it when it sits, or I can stick it in the receiver of any vehicle I want. I just used it in the back of the truck to winch up the lid of my septic tank. :barf: I just put battery cable ends on the winch, and hook it direct to the battery. I bought a 680cc amp battery, never charged it, installed it right off the shelf and winched my truck on and off about 6 times before it needed charging.

I would recommend putting a mount at the back of the trailer to hook up a snatch block, too. Then you can run your winch line to the back of the trailer, up to the front axle of the car and winch it right off the trailer, too. I would mount the winch low. When I tried pulling from high up, it damn near picked up the rear end of the truck (being winched) when the front tires were going up the ramp. I have a bent steel "cap" that goes across the trailer where the dovetail starts and just let the cable slide across it, it doesn't bother it at all.

when pulling the car up tight to the front can't you just unhook the cable and pull off the rear axle??..

I mean that the car physically hits the winch when I pull the car too far forward.

I hope to eventually run a cheep-o winch

I have been running the Harbor Freight 8000 on both of my trailers for like 3 years now (100+ vehicles towed?) with no issues. I have a Ramsey soft cover for it, so it's not sitting in the rain all the time.

Sounds like mounting it low is the way to go and like said above mounting it low will be alot easier when bracing it. I'm think of sitcking it in a chest type tool box and make a trap door that way it will be locked up and out of the weather.

On using a small solar panel to keep a battery charged would there be any risk of over charging the battery?

I've though about this mulitiple times and have come up with what I think is the best answer for me. I tow many different trailers from tags to goosenecks so the issue becomes multiple winches or a removable mount. However the best setup seems to be mounting the winch in the rear bumper of the truck. This gives you a couple of big advantages.

1) you can power off the truck
2) you can use it with almost any trailer
3) you can hook to a snatch block on a gooseneck and pull from a high point
4) you can use it without a trailer

There are a couple different manufactures that offer rear bumpers to accept winches. I will probably go with this one.
http://www.reunel.com/tow_bumper.html

I was shooting ideas of this around before.. but i was gona fab a custom mount behind the bumper between the lisc. plate and spare tire. then have a flip up Lisc. plate to reveal the fairlead. Kinda trick look and keep the stock bumper too.. not to mention the hidden winch. kinda "stealth"

I believe fabfours makes a bumper that similiar with a flip up liscence plate to reveal the winch. If you use your stock bumper and just mount it behind you will definetly save alot of money

if its a gooseneck deckover, mount it in the neck
will get it up on the trailer easier, and if you mount it low, your cable will hit the deck hooking cars up.....
up high and a V chain are all i need
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/286249/fullsize/dsc00724.jpg

physically look at this trailer...
its gonna rub the crap out of my deck in front of the dovetail if i didnt mount it up high......
pulled this one up no problem....
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/288366/fullsize/dsc00729.jpg

Here's my idea. I have a reciever winch mount with a ball on it too. Tubing slides into the hitch, winch is right near the bumper and the ball is boltrd through the tubing. This way I can hook any trailer up and have a winch. I don't tow down the road with it so its a little bit of a pain changing recievers but this way I can always have a tuck mounted winch that can go truck to truck and trailer to trailer

I saw and episode of trucks where he put a solar charger on the trailer to keep the battery charged up while it was not being used. might be expensive though.

These work great and are cheap. I bought mine off of ebay for $23 including shipping.

personaly, on a GN, I would set the winch up so the height is adjustable. you could use a set of pins, much like the table on a press, for adjusting the height. If you have the height of a GN, you might as well take advantage of it.

As for power, I think the best bet is a big battery on the trailer(like a 8D), and then run cables with welding disconects to the truck, so you have full power to the trailer, and charge it.

This is what I wound up doing.

http://www.texas4x4.org/gallery/albums/album408/Trailer_Winch_1.jpg

http://www.texas4x4.org/gallery/albums/album408/Trailer_Winch_2.jpg

I used two runs of #2 welding cable (one red/one black) 40' long to get direct power from the truck battery. Will get to give it a pretty good test this coming weekend, supposed to pickup a dead 91 Ram 4x4.

I vote for the winch in a reciever so you can move it around take it off.

Also get a cheap one -- so you have more money for other stuff.

Get a snatch block for heavy crap and funny angles. I used one just a few months ago to winch a truck off a trailer with the block located at the rear of the trailer between the ramps...

Power it off the truck if you can --- seperate battery if need be.