[Stripes]

I need some suggestions on a decent winch to pull a car into my 24' enclosed trailer. Max car weight is 5000 lbs rolling.

Appears warn and most all are made in China. The issue I am finding is most winches are only rated to run for 2 minutes with a 15 minute cooldown. At 5 feet per min pull rate loaded, it would taketake 19 minutes to get it in a trailer! There must be a winch made for car haulers with longer run times??

[Jim Zeek]

superwinch

[Elarson]

I'll second the vote for Superwinch.
I haven't ever timed it but it takes something like a minute or less to drag the car into the trailer.

Eric

[Trulyvintage]

I am never in a hurry when I load or unload a vehicle - sometimes I have to unload one car to put a second in - sometimes I am loading & unloading (4) times to change vehicle position(s) for drop off.

There are a handful of 12VDC winch motor manufacturers in the world - when you buy a winch you are buying a brand.

Harbor Freight Badland winches are independently tested & rated best value.

I use mine almost daily - it has never failed.

It has power in & out along with a clutch release to free spook the cable.

12K model can be found on sale as low. as $289.
( Super Bowl Sunday Sale ).

Get the mounting plate & wireless remote control ( sold separately ) - install a length of dimensional lumber equal to the winch plate footprint as a shim under the plate so the roller fairlead clears your deck.

Properly wired 7 way trailer plugs have a 30 amp 12VDC fused hot lead from your vehicle battery - this charges the 12VDC deep cycle marine battery I have installed adjacent to the winch.

The 12K Model has a cable tensioner that helps somewhat to keep the steel cable from getting tangled on the drum - I like the slow speed of the low gearing - keeping tension on the cable at all times will minimize cable tangle..

I use the winvch to load & unload all vehicles - if you park on an upgrade & block your wheels -,line the vehicle straight - keep the front windows rolled down & go to town.

The wireless remote has a long range - I have a 34 foot enclosed car hauler with the winch mounted at the front - with cable spooled out it is over 80 feet to the front of the vehicle - the slow motor speed of the 12K model allows me to walk around to check clearances while loading loading & unloading - gravity keeps tension on the cable so when loading on an upgrade the vehicle does not roll forward once it enters the trailer - gravity assists in unloading allowing the vehicle weight to do all the work.

I try to haul two vehicles at a time to keep full.

That takes patience for loads to line up ....


Jim

[The Boss]

I have the Harbor freight one myself - will drag a car with 4 flat tires in park up onto my trailer.

[muscle_collector]

i quit paying the money for the ramsey on my electric ones. we use them daily and drag cars on trailers with no wheels and tires all the time. i was burning up a ramsey once a year. i switched to the harbor frieght badland 12k one and they will last 2 years and this is loading over a thousand cars a year 7 days a week. the cool down time is all bs. i still have a ramsey hydraulic on my rollback however.

[Trulyvintage]

Remote is under $40 - you can use a 20% off coupon - it works for me with all the cable deployed from the 12K winch inside my 34 ft. enclosed car hauler trailer.

Of course - some folks might call the HF Tech Line - they will probably take issue with that ....,,,


Jim

[Stripes]

Jim
People don't take issue with your opinions. We appreciate your experience. We also appreciate others opinions, including the techs that deal with HF winch issues every day. It's called crowdsourcing. The process of these forums is to gather up experiences and opinions of many so that a greater understanding can be reached. It's not Jimsourcing. If it is a waste of your time, don't feel obligated to respond. Everyone who responds may not have the benefit of your experience, some may have a different perspective. I learned a lot from all the responses. I am as thankful for their responses as I am for yours. Your comments attempting to smear me for seeking additional information on this topic reflects negatively on you.

[Interceptor]

Badlands 4500lb here, pulls a big-block 63 Chevy pickup on no problem.

[61-63]

+3 for the Harbor Freight. I have one of the big Warn $2000+ jobs but it pulls the car waaay too fast for me so I bought one of the $299 12,000lb HF wenches and it works fine. I set a deep cycle battery beside it and put a full size early 60s car on the trailer in one pull.

[GT182]

+ 4 for the Harbor Freight Badland winch. A couple of friends of mine have one in each of their race car trailers, and they both work great.

[72projectbird]

I just acquired a used Badland 12k winch for free, so I guess that's what I'm using lol.

[Stripes]

I really thought Harbor Freight winches would be really talked down here. I checked the Badlands 12k owners manual and it says:

This Winch (Badlands 12k) with a 5% duty cycle at its maximum load must be allowed to rest for at least 14 minutes, 15 seconds after every 45 seconds of continuous operation.

A 4000 lb load has a line speed of 8 feet per minute. So, theoretically, if you pushed runtime to a minute, you would move 8 feet. Then wait 15 minutes. Then pull another 8', wait for 15. Pull another 8. That's 33 minutes minimum not counting the 6' ramp.

I know everyone isn't doing this, maybe that's why the winches burn up in a year? I hate it when the stats don't seem to match the practice. Who knew the max cold start on this winch is 45 seconds? (per the owners manual)

manual > Failure to carefully observe duty cycle limitations can easily over-stress a Winch contributing to premature Winch failure.

[Trulyvintage]

For the first few years - I used to buy the extended warranty - but I never used it.

If you decide to buy on - just get a (1) year - you only get (1) replacement winch
in any warranty period.

I usually use my winch for (18) months - then gift it to a customer.


Jim

[Trulyvintage]

Read what you just posted.

I have never pulled a 100% load with my 12K Badlands winch.

I have loaded & unloaded (2) vehicles - (4) winch uses in a relatively short period of time.

At least one of person who uses their 12k Badlands winch daily posted about their experience .

If you want to ignore advice you sought posted on the thread you started .....

Jim

[Stripes]

I'm not ignoring anything. I'm taking it all in!

I just got the phone with HF, Badlands tech department. They say "we find people ignore the duty cycle and then complain when their winches burn up." He did say a 6000-pound pull should have a 1.5-minute duty cycle as it was 1/2 the rating. That's 11.1 feet you can move a 6000 lp load before a 15 min cooldown.

I really expected there to be a trailer winch that could be rated to pull 5000 lbs over 25 feet continuously without potential damage. Meanwhile, the Badlands 12k appears to do the job of pulling cars into trailers, although it is not rated for a continuous pull.

[Trulyvintage]

Originally Posted by Stripes

I'm not ignoring anything. I'm taking it all in!

I just got the phone with HF, Badlands tech department. They say "we find people ignore the duty cycle and then complain when their winches burn up." He did say a 6000-pound pull should have a 1.5-minute duty cycle as it was 1/2 the rating. That's 11.1 feet you can move a 6000 lp load before a 15 min cooldown.

I really expected there to be a trailer winch that could be rated to pull 5000 lbs over 25 feet continuously without potential damage. Meanwhile, the Badlands 12k appears to do the job of pulling cars into trailers, although it is not rated for a continuous pull.

That’s right ....

Ignore first hand advice from someone who uses a 12K Badlands winch
on a daily basis to load & unload cars from an enclosed trailer ....

Instead .......

You actually call a “ tech line “ to seek advice from someone who likely has no real world first hand experience using a Badlands 12K winch ......

It is a $300 winch

Either you are some type of engineer or you just are not mechanically inclined ....

This is a waste of my time

Jim

[grrrrregg!!!]

Badlands 12K, how much do these weigh. Anybody worry about tongue weight. How much is to much

[Bills Auto Works]

Originally Posted by grrrrregg!!!

Badlands 12K, how much do these weigh. Anybody worry about tongue weight. How much is to much

I believe the 12,000# winch weighs 86 lbs, the 9,000# is about 15lbs lighter due to the one size thinner cable. I personally don't worry about tongue weight as the lighter of my two trucks is rated to haul a 15,000 lb trailer.

God Bless
Bill

[The Boss]

You can't go wrong with it - we wouldn't give you bad advice. There are enough of us here who have them, use them and trust them. If it was **** we would tell you so.