Attaching Winch to Front of Tractor?

[EdGooding]

Go big or go home, baby!!

 

[D&D]

Go big or go home, baby!!

4500 foot capacity Did they make a quick attach version?

 

[troverman]

Electrical power would be the biggest concern. If you look at the alternators on most <60HP tractors, they are like 45-60A. The battery is often <600CCA. There's not many good places to mount a second battery. If you insist on doing this, get a high quality deep cycle AGM battery. Some tractor companies offer an optional upgrade alternator - Kubota has a 130A, for example.

 

[DarkBlack]

Are you sure about that? WARN themselves say that the PW's winch is basically an M12000 with a reversed direction and low-voltage cutoff, and the M12000 maxes out at 440A draw (still way too much for a tractor, but then he's probably not talking about a 12K winch, either).

I agree..750 amps is highly doubtful.
It would require a complete circuit resistance of 0.016 ohms at 12 volts. That’s not going to happen in the real world. What will actually happen, is your vehicle wiring would quickly heat and quickly raise resistance at any currents even approaching such a high load. Secondly, your vehicle battery and charging system would immediately drop voltage under such a resistance (.016 ohms is basically a short circuit), down to say…10 volts, that alone limits current to 625 amps. Add in the wiring resistance and you’re probably actually limited under 500 amps

 

[future_vision]

I think it'd be most helpful to know what the winch would be used for, and how often.

About two years ago I installed an 18K winch on one of the Unimogs, one of maybe two dozen winches I've added to various vehicles, basically to be able to upright a tractor if needed.

That was the most complicated mount to make to date, due to very little space to work with, but being able to pull the skid steer out a couple of times made it well worth it.

View attachment 849897

Completely forgot I posted this question. It's a Harbor Freight 12,000 lb APEX with synthetic rope.

I see using it for multiple things. One is that I am clearing land and many of the trees and underbrush is in areas where the tractor just can't go. Too many boulders and such.

One of the other uses would be in a timber frame barn construction as well as some conventional stick frame construction. I envision being able to put together some pulley systems for lifting and moving timbers, trusses, etc around

 

[Fxfymn413]

The OP stated it is a HF winch which have a 10% duty cycle. If it is operated in accordance with that having enough battery to operate it should not be a problem.

I use an Anderson type connector for 12V power and have a ball mount welded on the front of the tractor so I can use a cheap HF winch to get me out of those situations where the tractor cannot get traction, but I'm not deeply buried, such as sliding off the road while plowing snow.

 

[future_vision]

Electrical power would be the biggest concern. If you look at the alternators on most <60HP tractors, they are like 45-60A. The battery is often <600CCA. There's not many good places to mount a second battery. If you insist on doing this, get a high quality deep cycle AGM battery. Some tractor companies offer an optional upgrade alternator - Kubota has a 130A, for example.

I'm not certain what battery I have on the tractor. It's a Kiot DK6010. I'll have to check next time I get over to the property it is on.

 

[future_vision]

Keep an eye open with some of the local farm auctions. Or, even tractor and dozer wrecking yards.

A small hydraulic winch might be very nice for a tractor.

Hmm. Never thought of that. Problem is I already sunk the money into this one. I guess I could potentially resell it but it's brand new so I am sure I would lose money on the deal.

 

[future_vision]

Are you sure about that? WARN themselves say that the PW's winch is basically an M12000 with a reversed direction and low-voltage cutoff, and the M12000 maxes out at 440A draw (still way too much for a tractor, but then he's probably not talking about a 12K winch, either).

I am. Harbor Freight Apex 12,000 lb

 

[future_vision]

Did you notice the crack in the lower left of that plate?

I actually didn't Good catch. What is the significance of that?

 

[MossRoad]

I actually didn't Good catch. What is the significance of that?

Just an observation. If you're planning to mount the winch there, you might as well get that welded up proper, too.

 

[steve tym]

I have an 8,000 pound hydraulic winch set up for the TPH. Not sure I've ever used it. Wait, I did to pull a 40' conex.

 

[Fields_mj]

Completely forgot I posted this question. It's a Harbor Freight 12,000 lb APEX with synthetic rope.

I see using it for multiple things. One is that I am clearing land and many of the trees and underbrush is in areas where the tractor just can't go. Too many boulders and such.

One of the other uses would be in a timber frame barn construction as well as some conventional stick frame construction. I envision being able to put together some pulley systems for lifting and moving timbers, trusses, etc around

Get yourself a Group 31 marine starting battery, preferably the heaviest one you can get. I use one to run a 13k Xbull winch. I use the winch to drag 16' logs up onto my trailer. I can normally drag about 2 cords worth without totally draining the battery, but I'm also doing lots of 8' to 10' pulls, not supper long pulls. It takes me about 3 hours to get the trailer fully loaded. I don't have the battery connected to any kind of power source when I'm doing this. If you can have it connected to an alternator, that would be even better. I bought Anderson plugs to do that, and was going to use a cheap set of 2 awg jumper cables to route power to the back of my truck. Before going through the work of wiring power to the back of the truck, I decided to do a trial run with just the battery (I took a backup battery as well), and didn't end up needing the spare battery.

I also buried my 1710 in a sand bar and used the winch and battery to pull it out. The frame was in the ground, and I had dug everything the bucket could reach trying to push myself backwards. The winch had to do 100% of the work. I had to make 3 full length (+75') pulls to get the tractor out of the sand bar, and up the hill (backwards - poor traction from the loaded ag tires). The battery held up fine. I do 2 or 3 loads of logs per year, and just replaced the battery this winter. I didn't maintain it very well and let the water get really low, and then forgot to put it on the charger after the last trip last year. Coincidently, I use the same size battery in my 1710, and it was bought at the same time, and I also had to replace it this winter as well. Originally I had them in a '93 F250 diesel. I ran them in that truck for about 2 years before I ended up parking it. The tractor battery needed replaced at the time, so I dropped one in the tractor. I had just bought the winch, so I used the 2nd one to feed that.

Attached are some pics of my trailer and a load of black locust that I brought home, as well as a pick of a pin oak log from a tree that I had to take down in the back yard. I hang a snatch block off the overhead trolley to keep the cable up above the load.

 

[troverman]

Good luck getting a Group 31 battery into the tractor battery compartment.

 

[Fields_mj]

Good luck getting a Group 31 battery into the tractor battery compartment.

They fit in my little 1710

Probably won't fit in anything new though. I'd just build a tray that allows it to sit somewhere else, even if that somewhere is above or below the winch.

 

[aircommuter]

Probably a second plate welded in if you are going to attach there. Since it’s already broken.

 

[Fields_mj]

I probably should have included this in my first post, but for the intended use of skidding logs, you're MUCH better off using the tractor's drive train to do most of the work in comparison to an electric winch. If you NEED to winch a quantity of logs up out of a ravine, you'll burn up an electric winch relatively quickly. If they must be winched instead of simply dragging them out, then you really need a PTO driven winch. If you're skidding across relatively dry ground, you're actually better off pulling with something like a 4wd 3/4 or 1 ton truck. The tractors are good for getting into places that trucks can't access, and tractors can get better traction in less than ideal ground conditions, but the tractors are also very very slow. So long as the ground is dry, I can skid more weight with my 4wd F350 than I can with a 25hp 4,000 lb tractor, and I can skid the logs at least twice as fast going down the logging lanes.

For the other uses, a 12v winch should work fine. I've had some small projects like that (elevated deer blind) where my winch has come in very handy. Lift and/or pull in one direction with the tractor and loader while lifting and pulling in another via the winch and its remote control.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

We need to know more about the winch in question.

I have a Warn VRX on my UTV that only draws 160A under full load with a 2500 lb pulling capacity

Yes, it's not the same grade and capacity as something mounted on a Jeep but it's enough for my needs and the winch he's referring to may not be any bigger.

I had an occasion where I was clearing my trails and a hardwood stump pushed the tractor's step back into the rear tire. It sounded like a card in a bike's spokes on steroids.

I used the UTV's winch to pull the step back into position, or at least away from the tire. It had enough oomph to drag the tractor a bit during the process and I had to put the UTV up against another tree to keep it from being dragged.

 

[arrow]

This is probably somewhat of a newb question. I have a Harbor Freight winch and was originally thinking I'd have to attach it to the back with a towing receiver or some configuration like that. Then I noticed the front of my tractor has this plate on the front as shown in the image below. Can a winch mount be attached there? If so what would be the best way to mount?

View attachment 849596

These winches are very slow and power draining for what you describe as others have stated.
I feel you’d be better off with A capstan type winch for the work you describe.
There are larger ones as well.

Portable Winch PCW3000-A Gas-Powered Pulling Capstan Winch, Honda GX35

Born to meet the demand for an even more portable model than the original PCW5000 winch, the PCW3000 capstan drum winch is nothing less than a technical gem; delivering incredible pulling power, in the smallest format Portable Winch has ever made. Powered by Honda GX35 4-stroke engine...

americanforestry.com

 

[LouNY]

I enjoy reading all these thoughts on winches and winching tractors. I thought I'd just throw out a comment and thought. Putting a 12,000 winch on the front casting of a tractor can be a bit of overkill, but nothing like being able to hopefully pull anything needed.
Now I'm sure everyone has seen the pictures of these compact tractors being broke in half, some from 3 point backhoes and some for other reasons.
One thing to think about when the larger tractors are getting towed out from getting stuck a great many of them have a tow cable mounted up on the front for pulling the tractor, however that cable runs under the tractor all the way to the rear fixed drawbar mounting or actually around the drawbar to pull the tractor without pulling it apart.