Thread: Car trailer winch advice

I've seen larger than 5mm cables on some hand winches on boats which weigh less than that and seen them break. My inlaws boat is a 5.5m ally boat with a 50 or 60hp on it and has 6mm cable and my old cruiser had about 8 or 9mm cable on its winch (big high mount warn).

An old car I was having removed from my yard many years ago snapped the cable and it was 3/4 stripped out so not as much weight in it.

What is the "dead weight" of a landy? Over a tonne maybe? Plus the fact you are pulling it up an incline. I'd seriously consider having a larger cable, equivalent to or greater than the weight you want to pull.

You don't want to be in the way if it snaps (probably why a lot are going to webbing straps now).

Thats just my opinion to add into the discussion.

it depends on the configuration of the trailer, if its got steep ramps then no, 800kg isnt enough for a full weight landy.

if its a tilting trailer and the winch is on the tilting part of the tray then yes 800kg might be just about enough while the cables in good nick.

depending on how much winch rope youve got set it up for 2:1.

The trailer in question:


The winch itself has 1:1, 5:1 and 10:1 ratio's on the gears.

From the sound of things, I'll have to upgrade the cable, so what size and material is reommended?

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

The trailer in question:

The one with the inbuilt air brakes at the back - horrid things that make fuel consumption really bad.

The winch you have will be fine. As long as the vehicles are rolling without flat tyres or locked brakes.

You need about 50 kg force (max) to overcome rolling resistance.

Most landies are under 2 tonne.

Your trailer looks like it has a maximum slope of about 0.3 m in 1 m.

So you should need a maximum of 470 kg (proportion of mass in horizontal) + 50 kg (rolling resistance) to load a 2T landie.

you'll need more than that...

remember the winches are sold on their BEST winching ability which means bottom line pull. once you get some turns on the winch, the effective ness of the hand winch goes down and the stress on the gears goes up. Ive snapped the teeth off of the gear that drives the winch a couple of times. I generally no longer use the cheap hand crank winches on trailers any more I either tow it up, use a winch from a vehicle if its not running OR use my tirfor.

Originally Posted by garrycol

The one with the inbuilt air brakes at the back - horrid things that make fuel consumption really bad.

Air Brakes:
Doubled the fuel consumption on the Commodore towing the empty trailer.
Ineffectual, though, when a 101 is on board.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

you'll need more than that...

remember the winches are sold on their BEST winching ability which means bottom line pull. once you get some turns on the winch, the effective ness of the hand winch goes down and the stress on the gears goes up. Ive snapped the teeth off of the gear that drives the winch a couple of times. I generally no longer use the cheap hand crank winches on trailers any more I either tow it up, use a winch from a vehicle if its not running OR use my tirfor.

So, the winch itself bay not be up to the task.
I'd rather have teeth snapping than cable breaking.
But, I wouldn't want the teeth to break either.
This was not a cheap hand crank. Are there stronger hand cranks about?