How big a winch do I need for my car dolly?

Burly-
I did a long hard search on winches. I ended up going with a company called ENGO that was started by a former Mile Marker winch employee. These things stood up to a hella test done by and offroad magazine shootout. I ended up buying a 10,000 lb and it has been awesome. Here is the link I bought it from- which is cheaper than you can get it from the ENGO site itself!

ENGO Winches - Save Up to 30% and Free Shipping | 4WheelOnline.com

I think mine was like $340 shipped to my door for a 10K winch! I love it! Right now that same winch is $299 with free shipping!
Aaron

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Libertytow

at 15 degrees average tow dolly ramp gradient resistance is 3000 lbs on a 2000 lb load

---

Just registered to ask: Do you know how math works?

I'd like to know what the tow dolly is being pulled with.

a 2000 lb. vehicle with good tires on a flat level surface should move with approx. 10% of it's weight implied in force, or, about 200 lbs. of force should get 2000 lbs. moving on a flat level paved surface.

As mentioned by many, the gradient resistance up onto the dolly is where the most effort will be needed.

Lifting a vehicle straight up takes more force than the actual weight of the vehicle.

When rigging wire rope through a snatch block or pully, you MUST be aware of your angles your wire rope is entering and exiting your snatch block/pully. It's at these points more force is implied on your wire rope. More often than not, catastrophic wire rope failures occur when angles are too steep and the working load limit/safety design of the wire rope used for the application aren't sufficient.

Anchorability is another piece to the puzzle. Figure a 66% "anchor factor" with brakes locked. This oughta keep you safe. Experience will teach you how far you can stretch this.