Every Car Trailer needs a Winch

Just like my old car trailer I started out by using my old trusty “Come-Along” hand operated winch to pull a parts car I bought from a friend in Milwaukee. The problem with these is the spool is very small so you must constantly stop and reset everything. This can be dangerous on a car without park or a parking brake and flat out takes forever.

Since I didn’t anticipate the trailer being used more than a couple times a year at best I figured a cheap winch would be a good fit. Harbor Freight had a sale and I picked up a 12,000lb winch for under $300 out the door. When I put a winch on the old car trailer I simply welded angle iron to the tongue since we were painting the whole trailer.

This time around I had an almost new powder coated trailer and I didn’t want to grind off any of the powder coat. So I decided to fabricate a modular winch mount that bolts (clamps) onto the trailer instead of welding to it.

I built it out of scrap materials I had laying around: 2*2 square stock, 1*1 square stock, some u-bolts from my original Silverado, and extra black spray paint Dannmar sent me to fix shipping damage, and the car battery out of the aforementioned parts car. I only had to buy the winch and the battery box.

When loaded it pushes against the fence and pulls on the u bolts. The steel is isolated from the trailer with rubber.