- How big a winch do I need for my car dolly?
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So Harbor Freight has a 2000 lb. winch on sale for sixty bucks this week.
Is that big enough to pull cars onto the tow dolly I just bought?
I know the cars WEIGH more than 2000 pounds, but since the winch isn't
actually LIFTING all that weight, is is sufficient for the task?
Thanks!
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Rule of thumb here for stuff like this is always go a bit bigger than what you need. You might not need it, but I'd bet ya $5 you won't regret it. I personally wouldn't jump on something like that just because it's cheap, I'm sure you will get what you pay for.
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You'll need more than the weight due to resistance.
People may laugh at me, but that's ok. I laugh all the way to the bank.
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If the car you are picking up is a rolling load
The 2K might work because you are not pulling a long distance or up a steep grade
BUT
Most of the cars I pick up have a couple flat tires, OR rear brakes locked up, OR trans locked up, OR tires missing
and so on and so and so on
So unless you are loading a nice rolling load
I don't think a 2K will cut it
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
depending on the speed it turns, you could put a snatch block on there and double it
I'm inclined to agree with the others tho about tough jobs
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you never know what you will want to try to move with it. and I don't think a disposable winch from harbor freight is a good idea.
Nothing wrong with Harbor Freight winches. I know a lot of guys that 4 wheel with them. I'm got an old Ramseys, but when it dies, I'm going with a Harbor Freight rig. The guys with the Harbor Freight winches take a little longer than the guys running Warns, but that just gives you more time to shoot the ****.
2000# is probably a little on the light side though. If the car has 4 tires that are properly inflated and it rolls nice, you'd be fine. But the first time you pull something up on flats, or with the brakes locked up you'll be wishing you have bought something with a little more oomph.
Something else to thing about is a monsterous come along/cable puller. I bought my last one from harbor freight, and have loaded dead cars very fast. Plus I can use it in my garage if need be for lifting, moving stuff around, as an impromptu sheet metal puller on my derby cars, etc.
The biggest winch they had at Harbor Freight (we use HF too for everything), was a 12,000lb winch, that's the one we bought. I'll tell ya there hasn't been a time that it let us down. I'm not sure of the brand, I'll get back and let you know if you want. I believe it was somewhere between $300 - $400, but it's awesome. You can pull a full size truck out of the woods with flat tires, stuck in the mud, over tree stumps, 25-30 feet away with that thing... LOL I'm speaking from experience, done it. Get a bad ass winch you will not regret it.
The 12,000 is the badlands brand, they sell for $399.99, but if you get a coupon out of the back of a magazine, you can save 20%, so knock it down to $320. And then laugh at all the guys that spent big bucks on the warns lol.Originally Posted by AAElectronicsRecycling
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2k shoud be fine for what your doing. I think everyone talking about flats locked up brakes and what not forget that your talking about a tow dolly not a trailer. Your not going to tow anything with flats or locked up breaks with a tow dolly. At least I hope not. If all your loads have good tires and are rolling 2k shoudl be enuff unless your parked on a san fransisco hill.
2000 would probably be fine assuming anything you put on a dolly would have full tires and would be free rolling. you may want to keep a snatch block with you just in case, when i still had a tow dolly it just had a hand winch i am pretty sure was intended for a boat trailer and it always worked fine and it was real heavy we pulled the dead car to somewhere that was slightly downhill. just make sure you dont use the winch to hold the car on the dolly, make sure you have a good set of tie down straps, i have seen more then 1 winch cheap and expensive let go of a heavy load
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to answer your ? you could i wouldn"t 2000 lb winches only have a pull resistance of about 1k lbs combine that with rolling resistance any kind of mired resistance and gradient resisitance and you will find a huge shortcoming with anything short of a geo metro a
a 3k lbs taurus would destroy it even in neutral
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I put a old K5 Blazer on my buddies trailer with a 2000lb winch and it did just fine. Trailer is a 20ft dove tail with a pretty steep ramp. As long as the tires aren't flat or axle locked up, 2k pounds of pulling power is plenty to get a car on a trailer or dolly.
Id like to see a picture of how you set your winch up on your dolly.
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at 15 degrees average tow dolly ramp gradient resistance is 3000 lbs on a 2000 lb load
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
i use a hand winch. i clip one side to the trucks step bumper and the other to the vehicle im pulling.
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Sounds like WORK to me. I tried using a brand new hand winch I bought to load a Bolens garden tractor. Half way on the trailer, it broke.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
Not sure how that gets figured out, but if you were lifting a 2000 lb. load straight up, it would have a resistance of ... 2000 lbs. If you're pulling/pushing that same load up a 15 degree incline without a lot of rolling resistance from flat tires, or stuck brakes etc., pretty sure it'll have less than 2000 lbs. resistance. I know 4 guys were able to push a Honda Accord on to my car trailer one time (2400-ish lbs. prepped) and I'm pretty sure we each weren't overcoming 800 lbs. or so of resistance?
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
lo9oks like this and its quite fast and easy. they're also called come alongs
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This is what I tried and broke: Big Red Hand Winch, 1100 lb. Line Pull - Tractor Supply Online Store
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simple at 15 degrees being pulled the high side of the load shifts to the load side when your 4 buddies started pushing innertia over came the gradience
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