How much winch is enough?

[alaarp]

Bought a 10k rated dual axle trailer with brakes on both axles and auto stop box and wanted to add a winch to the front to hoist either of my tractors onto the trailer if they fail to crank. So I bought a HF 5000 pound rated winch and was planning to have a mount welded to the trailer for this purpose. Now, a buddy of mine who does a lot of welding and has built trailers from scratch tells me he had a 5000 pound Warn winch on his trailer and it would not pull a Ford Mustang onboard. He says I need to buy the 12,000 pound rated winch at least for tractors. Has anyone else had experience with winching tractors on trailer? How about opinions on Harbor Freight winches, especially the 12k models?

 

[JPRambo]

I have a HF 2500 lb winch on my trailer. If I don't double line it it will not pull my 93 jeep pioneer put it. Need to double line it foritto work at rated weight. Most winches are rated at the first wrap of the line on the spool. After the first wrap they are derated considerably.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Double line a HF 5K winch and it should do fine for "pulling", but do you mean actually "hoisting" something or pull it on??

Only problem I've had with HF winches, is the duty cycle.

SR

 

[MTGreen]

Remember the winch rating is for when there's only one layer of line/cable on the winch. Each subsequent layer of line/cable is rated for substantially less. So if you are pulling with three or four layers of line wound on a 5,000 lb winch spool your actual pulling power may be a half that or less. I seem to recall that Warn had a chart on their website at one point that showed the actual pulling power at each subsequent layer of line.
You don't mention how heavy your tractors are but there are a lot of factors involved in addition to weight like how steep are the ramps, the rolling resistance of the tires, the drivetrain resistance, etc.
The only benefit to buying a lower power winch is that it generally pulls in a little faster versus the same brand and design rated for the higher power.
Unless you have a subcompact/lawn type <2000 lb total weight tractor, I would recommend paying a little bit extra and getting the 12k.

 

[RandyT]

Double line a HF 5K winch and it should do fine for "pulling", but do you mean actually "hoisting" something or pull it on??

Only problem I've had with HF winches, is the duty cycle.

SR

The thing is the other big winch companies don't publish duty cycles and just say to use your best judgement. What I am finding from the 4x4 sites is the duty cycle under full load on a Warn 12K winch is 30-60 seconds, as compared to the HF which is 45 seconds.

 

[nisaacs]

Like others have said, read the fine print. Unless you are doing commercial recovery, a winch use for the home owner is rare. A rolling load is pretty easy, so 5k should be fine, you can always double line. If you mount the winch permanent then size/weight is not so important, but if it is portable than get a lighter one. You don't want a 100 lb portable winch to pack around. If you mount it permanent be sure and cover it.

I have/had several 8k that are/were permanent, I also have a 3k portable.

 

[sea2summit]

I find it hard to believe a 5k winch won't pull a mustang onto a trailer. Only time I ever had to pull my tractor onto my trailer I used a 5k chain hoist and while it took forever it got the job done.

I think 5-7.5 should be fine, if you have a "sticky" spot or need more pull just have the pullies ready for setting up mechanical advantage and you'll be fine. Probably easier on the trailer frame anyway to use multiple points to anchor on really heavy moves (7.5x2=15k, that's a whole lot of stress).

 

[alaarp]

Double line a HF 5K winch and it should do fine for "pulling", but do you mean actually "hoisting" something or pull it on??

Only problem I've had with HF winches, is the duty cycle.

SR

Pulling the tractor on to the trailer.

 

[alaarp]

Remember the winch rating is for when there's only one layer of line/cable on the winch. Each subsequent layer of line/cable is rated for substantially less. So if you are pulling with three or four layers of line wound on a 5,000 lb winch spool your actual pulling power may be a half that or less. I seem to recall that Warn had a chart on their website at one point that showed the actual pulling power at each subsequent layer of line.
You don't mention how heavy your tractors are but there are a lot of factors involved in addition to weight like how steep are the ramps, the rolling resistance of the tires, the drivetrain resistance, etc.
The only benefit to buying a lower power winch is that it generally pulls in a little faster versus the same brand and design rated for the higher power.
Unless you have a subcompact/lawn type <2000 lb total weight tractor, I would recommend paying a little bit extra and getting the 12k.

The tractor weighs around 4500+ pounds with FEL and implement attached.

 

[MTGreen]

The tractor weighs around 4500+ pounds with FEL and implement attached.

I would think a reasonable minimum would be the 9,000 lb model in my experience, roughly double the weight of the load to make it useful at any angle or winding depth.
Full size trucks averaging 6k or so use a 12k winch, and Tacoma/Ranger size trucks at 3-4.5k use a 9k winch