Winch for general use?

anything but hf badlands

If you plan on winching up vehicles(I have no idea if you do or don't) then 2500 isn't going to cut it. I use a 10 000 lb Superwinch on my car trailer, and even with a snatch block it's really had to strain on some deeply stuck vehicles, especially old tractors that have been sitting in the same soft farmer's field for the last 30 years. So you may wish to consider a heavier winch. It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

The winch on the car trailer is a Superwinch. I bought that brand because it was cheap, $300 for a 10k winch so I also bought a spare right away. But it's still a brand name that I trust to be somewhat reliable, unlike the stuff you get at Costco or Princess Auto. I stayed away from the better brands like Warn or Ramsey, even though they're more reliable IMO, because they're a bigger target/magnet for thieves. That's something I have to keep in mind, living in a big city with my trailers parked in a yard in an industrial area.

The winch I use on my dump trailer is an 8000lb Warn. It's not permanently mounted however, so it usually rides in the back seat of the truck until its needed. It's mounted on a steel plate mount that's welded onto the slide-in part of a receiver hitch. The receiver hitch itself is just an old hitch from a vehicle I scrapped, mounted on the front of the trailer and reinforced with some steel arms. Its awesome when you need it, like loading a big piece of scrap equipment from a place that has no forklift to load you. Its even come in really handy just securing down an awkward load with the cable. Each side of the trailer has tie-down eyelets mounted that are big enough to work the cable hook through, so I can zigzag it around if needed. You might want to consider keeping your winch removeable like that, if you don't expect to use it all the time. Keeps it out of the weather, and keeps it out of sight out of mind.

When you mount whatever winch you go with, have a secure snatchblock mount done right away too. It doubles your winch's power, and can come in super handy. Lastly, powering your winch. When I got the winch mounted on the car trailer, I mounted a battery and had the wiring done to keep it charged off the vehicle. That didn't work out well for me. Batteries wouldn't stay charged, and I killed a few before I gave up. I'm sure it's just a bad ground(s) somewhere, but hell if I can find where. Even the factory charging circuit on the dump trailer is a dud. And talking with other scrappers, its a common problem. So now I just run the winch on either trailer directly off a battery. I use a deep cycle group-31 sized battery (that's the battery size for big trucks). It lasts quite a while. For charging, I either take it home at night and throw it on a charger, or if I'm going to be somewhere a while, while loading or something, I'll just boost it off the truck. To connect the winch to the battery I use those large plastic 2-cable plugs like what are used to hook up the battery on an electric forklift, or you see the same plugs on the front of tow trucks to plug their booster cables into.
Hope this helps.

Hm. I have a small winch on my stake truck. For power I just hook jumper cables from the battery in my truck to the terminals on the winch. Is there any reason NOT to do that?

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

Hm. I have a small winch on my stake truck. For power I just hook jumper cables from the battery in my truck to the terminals on the winch. Is there any reason NOT to do that?

That's a lot more load than your alternator is designed for. It's really hard on the alternator as well as being hard on the battery. This was explained to me by my battery guy (he's the guy I sell my scrap batteries to. He has a shop selling batteries, both automotive as well as doing a lot of off-grid stuff. He's also a licensed mechanic), and was confirmed by the owner of a small local shop that rebuilds starters, alternators, and motors. It's something that done enough, over time, will wear stuff out a lot quicker.

Don't get me wrong; it's something I've done myself before, and still do from time to time when I'm in a pinch, like say I've forgotten to charge a battery or forgotten the spare battery itself. But considering the winch is something I use a lot, I do whatever I can that minimizes (or even just -maybe- minimizes) the chances of something screwing up at a really inconvenient time.