Trailer Winch Project with Pics

[Stanley Steamer]

Last year one of the wheel motors went out on my Husky 42" zero turn mower and I had a hard time getting it back on the trailer, so when Harbor Freight opened a new store here in Athens last Fall, I snagged a little ATV 3000lb pull winch on sale for $49....got the Wife and Maw-in-Law to buy me one of the little wire feed welders and a metal chop saw and I just jumped right in to learning to weld...I had only had maybe 4 weeks of welding instruction in school....2 weeks in the 7th grade and 2 in the 8th grade.....got a Buddy of mine to show me the basics of welding and decided to make me a welding table as "practice" before attempting to add the winch to my trailer.....Here's what I came up with....



I finally got my mounting plate holes drilled out by being patient and using 4-5 bits to get to the final size I wanted....and my welding table is coming in handy already!!.....





I bought some 2" by 1/4" thick square stock to make the post for the winch to sit on.....chop saw works like a charm too.....




I measured the length I needed and cut it so as to have the winch plate clear the front panel on the trailer.....



I made a very basic design to hold the winch on with some angle iron pieces that I cut and drilled......and I took the paint off the trailer rails before welding and primer'd them back after welding them on....





This is what I ended up with when everything was painted and bolted down to the trailer.....I used bolts so that I could remove the winch when I don't need it to save some weight on the trailer tongue.....or else I need to make a water proof cover for the winch and leave it on there all the time......








This is the business end of the winch and I will either use a charged 12V battery sitting in the trailer(or make a angle iron holder for one), or add longer, heavy gauge wire to the provided wire if it won't reach the battery on the Kia....either way, I'll add an inline fuse holder and some alligator clips to attach it to a battery.....it comes with a wireless keychain fob and has a free spooling feature for paying the 30ft+ cable out.....





I need to give the trailer a good washing so that the new paint doesn't stand out so badly..I haven't washed the trailer since I bought it, so it's about time....I haven't tested the winch yet, but hope that it'll hold up to pulling the mower onto the trailer if ever needed....or heaven forbid I have to use it to pull the Fat Girl on the trailer..... ...


I'm not a welder or an engineer, but I hope it'll work if I ever need it to......I better keep my day job I guess??..... .......

 

[RainMaker]

Looks like a real pro job to me - congrats!  Let us know how it works!

[hubcapsc]

I'm not a welder or an engineer, but I hope it'll work if I ever need it to......I better keep my day job I guess??.

It looks good to me. I wish I was a welder. Some older guys who were really good welders
showed me some stuff at a mill I worked at one summer. I don't remember much, the one guy,
Andy, said "watch me, and do it like this"... he did all that fluxing and cleaning and ran a nice three
or four inch bead. He handed me the equipment, and I "did it like that" and ran a nice
three or four inch bead. They were shocked   . I'm sure it was a fluke. Don't let me near your
welding equipment!

-Mike

[Stanley Steamer]

Looks like a real pro job to me - congrats!  Let us know how it works!

Thanks.....I am a little concerned about the wiring that runs through the tongue there to the tail lights...I hope it didn't get fried when I welded the small piece of angle iron down there??....I'll check the lights when I go to use the trailer again.....worst case scenario is that I have to replace that section of wiring.....

[da prez]

Just a suggestion, a gusset (angle brace) from below the winch toward the tongue will increase the strength and avoid the ooooops. I know you are not pulling a lot, but better safe than sorry.

                                         da prez

[Stanley Steamer]

I'm not a welder or an engineer, but I hope it'll work if I ever need it to......I better keep my day job I guess??.

It looks good to me. I wish I was a welder. Some older guys who were really good welders
showed me some stuff at a mill I worked at one summer. I don't remember much, the one guy,
Andy, said "watch me, and do it like this"... he did all that fluxing and cleaning and ran a nice three
or four inch bead. He handed me the equipment, and I "did it like that" and ran a nice
three or four inch bead. They were shocked   . I'm sure it was a fluke. Don't let me near your
welding equipment!

-Mike

I tried to get some even welds going....didn't work everytime, but I did chip the slag off each time, brushed it good, and added more welds when I thought it needed it......especially to the 1/4" plate on the riser there.....I didn't care what it looked like and let the paint cover it all up.....

[Stanley Steamer]

Just a suggestion, a gusset (angle brace) from below the winch toward the tongue will increase the strength and avoid the ooooops. I know you are not pulling a lot, but better safe than sorry.

                                         da prez

I've thought about bracing and have to be careful so as not to impeded the jack handle rotation.....I'm HOPING that with the welded angle iron there at the bottom, it'd take a LOT to ever snap it loose/off....I used large 7/16 bolts too......I know enough to know I may not have the best design....guess I'll find out the first time I use it......

[Stanley Steamer]

I already see another improvement I can make.....add some small "wings" at the bottom of the 2" square stock where it meets the tongue on each side to keep it from twisting either left or right in case I can't winch something from dead ahead??....overkill??...it sits tight to the tongue and has a pretty good sized bolt holding it on.......

[bigfish_Oh]

Looks good, I have 2 trailers needing the same, but I get buy. My smaller HF winch drug a 3000# tractor onto my trailer with one flat locked rear wheel

I'd be so happy with that, I'd do a "jig" ...

[old2soon]

s s just don't go hollerin at the guy what done the weldin and such like iffin it fs up. Seriously looks good. Should hold up well. Iffin it don't i'll ALWAYS thunk it shoulda. As a suggestion-if you go to leaving it on full time-couple more holes for padlocks. Lotsa folks in this here world ain't as honest as we hope they be. Just sayin. RIDE SAFE.

[the inspector]

Nice job Stan....looks real good. Like I said I also am going to do this same project ASAP for the same reasons. I will post a image of my trailer with some really heavy wheel chock I bought from Calif.
If you see it you may want to weld yourself up one like it, it will give you some insight. The table also looks good!

Ron
"the inspector"

[Gryphon Rider]

I already see another improvement I can make.....add some small "wings" at the bottom of the 2" square stock where it meets the tongue on each side to keep it from twisting either left or right in case I can't winch something from dead ahead??....overkill??...it sits tight to the tongue and has a pretty good sized bolt holding it on.......

All the following is my opinion as a former mechanical designer and current engineering student:
Your connections to the frame look solid and your bolts look large enough.
The structure of the combination of your post and the trailer's frame is better able to withstand a sideways load than a rearward load.  A sideways load is resisted by the 8 welded connections of the angles that are the "fenceposts" of the front section of the trailer's "fence".  I suspect your 2 x 2 post would bend where it connects to the top of the fence before the trailer's frame would bend.  A rearward load is resisted only by the top rail of the fence, which looks like 2 x 2 x 3/16 x 4' long to me.  A quick calculation tells me that when your winch is pulling 3000 lbs the flex in the top rail of the fence will allow your winch to move approx. 1/2" to 3/4" back.  Do this enough times and steel will fatigue and break where it is forced to flex the most.  If it weren't for your handcrank, the simplest solution would be a diagonal brace down to the tongue.

[Skinhead]

Can I borrow your trailer??

[KY,Dave (AKA Misunderstood)]

Nice job.  Got some trailer cutting/welding to do myself.

[Stanley Steamer]

Nice job Stan....looks real good. Like I said I also am going to do this same project ASAP for the same reasons. I will post a image of my trailer with some really heavy wheel chock I bought from Calif.
If you see it you may want to weld yourself up one like it, it will give you some insight. The table also looks good!

Ron
"the inspector"

I will most likely have the Kia hooked up to the trailer and running(if I use it's battery to power the winch), but it makes sense to have the trailer wheels chocked to maybe take some strain off of the 2" hitch/ball assembly......

I think I'll test it out this weekend by bypassing the hydraulics on the mower and see it it'll pull the mower up onto the trailer??.....I would think a rolling load would be a lot less taxing on the winch and not require the full 3,000lb effort?.....

I also bought some of the battery post clips to add to the wire from the winch...I have to see if the stock wire is long enough and if not, I'll add an additional length of the proper-sized wire....along with an inline fuse on the positive wire???......

[Stanley Steamer]

Can I borrow your trailer??

Sure....you can come use it most anytime......