THSCC Forums

With the purchase of the new race car came the purchase of a winch to get said race car onto my trailer. Now I'm looking for hints/tips/advice for installing the winch on my trailer. What have others done and would/would not do again?

Thanks,
Matt

Matt,

Hand crank or electric?

For hand crank, make sure you can actually crank it without bumping into stuff and that you can actually conveniently do the cranking AND see what the car is doing without being forced to have a helper.

Make sure the winch stuff doesn't conflict with the trailer jack or anything else.

For either, think about cable routing. I ended up using some plastic electrical conduit to route the cable under the tire storage area so I could load/unload the car without having to remove tires or other stuff in the tire rack area.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Dick,

Thanks for the tips. I bought an electric winch that will be powered by either the tow vehicle battery (probable, at least at first) or a battery on the trailer (possible addition later). I'm hoping to put the winch just aft of the trailer jack to keep it out of the way of just about eveything else.

-Matt

Talk to Mike W. He has an electric winch for his trailer. He wired it up so it can plug in to the tralier hookup from the tow vehicle for power. You need to have a plug set up for brakes and power, 7 0r 8 pin.

Adam,

Thanks for the tip. Already have the trailer, all wiring worked out for brakes, lights, etc. It's a 7 pin connector. I also know that there is a 12V lead to the trailer connector, so there's my power for the winch.

I want to hear about what people have and have not done in the past for installing/wiring a winch, and why they would/would not do it again.

-Matt

I hate to rain on the parade but there is one problem with pulling the power through the trailer plug. It will not carry enough current to run the winch with a load on it. It will however be able to pass enough current to recharge a battery mounted on the trailer. This is how I set up the winch on my employer's trailer.

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

Don't know if I can agree with George's comment on the 7-pin connector not being able to handle the current for the winch. How much can it draw? the larger pins on the 7-pin connector on my trailer are almost 1/4" diameter (from memory). Depending on the winch and the weight of the car, the current might be manageable. The best course of action would be to use the motor's nameplate current draw or measure the current draw of the motor.
Make sure that the wiring to the connector is in keeping with the current load or there will be a significant voltage loss between the tow vehicle battery and the connector. Also, provide a circuit breaker near the tow vehicle's battery for that circuit. Wiring routed under the vehicle is subject to abuse and a short in a heavy wire can be exciting.
Charlie G

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

The winch came with a wiring harness, of sorts, that has a 20amp circuit breaker in line. The wiring harness for the trailer connector on the tow vehicle also has a 20amp fuse on the line that supplies the +12V pin in the connector. And finally, the rated draw for the winch is, you guess it, 20A. I think I should be OK. Another thing to remember is that the winch will be pulling a rolling load of an astonishing 950lbs (!!!!!). It's rated rolling capacity is 30,000lbs. I think I should be OK on current draw.

Thanks for the input guys!!

-Matt