When you're looking for a trailer winch, it’s important to remember that they are rated by weight capacity. Before you choose to buy or upgrade one, you should understand what's the need of it. A winch plays a major role in lifting the weight to the trailer. Once a car or any kind of load is winched into place, it needs to be secured on the trailer by using proper trailer tie down equipment.
Trailer winches help to pull the load onto the trailer while it’s on an inclined launching ramp. They are mounted either on a dedicated winch stand on the trailer tongue, on the support for the bow stop or on the trailer’s hitch ball using an adapter plate. A reel or spool holds 20-50 feet of cable, rope or webbing, and has a snap at the bitter end (the length of the rope depends on the winch size and capacity).
Forms of winches
Basically there are two types of winches available in the market - manual and electrical. Hand-cranked manual winches multiply your strength, allowing you to pull a relatively heavy load against gravity and friction. They also have a ratchet to hold the weight at any point on the trailer so it doesn’t slide back causing major accidents and damage. Some of the models of trailers have a lower gear ratio to multiply the strength even more and for providing extra power.
Electric or Wireless
On the other hand, electric winches take the help of motors, powered by the tow vehicle’s battery and electrical system. They are far efficient than manual and also become easier to lift any weight. Some electric winches use a pulley or block at the load's bow eye to double the pulling power. In such cases, the length of the winch cable must be double the size compared to normal ones. If you have a five car hauler trailer and needs to lift significant amount of load, it is better to install pierce wireless winches. You can lift the weight very easily with a help of a remote control and also it has a great weight lifting capacity.
How to choose the capacity?
Winches are rated by their weight capacity, not by the length of the load. Choose one to fit the weight you want to load. As a rule of thumb, it is better to opt for trailers that are installed with 12k pierce wireless winch. Powerful winches are crucial to ensure safety both for the user and the vehicles.
Most trailers have a standard winch assembly bolt pattern, so upgrading to a stronger one is easy if the current component is inadequate.
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