Enclosed trailering

[SparkyRnD]

Something else to consider is winch sizing. If your car weighs 3,000lbs, and you have a 3,500lb winch, you are already below what you really need. Most manufacturers suggestion taking the fully loaded, wet weight of your vehicle and multiply that by a factor of 1.5 times. So, if your car is around 3,500 pounds wet, you need to be looking at a 6,000lb capacity winch (and this is assuming winching on level ground, etc). But that is just the beginning...

The listed capacity rating of a winch is for the first roll of the drum when all of the cable is unspooled (ie: you can see the entire metal drum, and all of the cable has been unwrapped and is stretched tight out to your car). After that, each subsequent roll reduces the winching ability by approximately 10%. That means a 6,000lb winch will have the following:

roll 1: 6,000
roll 2: 5,400
roll 3: 4,860
roll 4: 4,374
roll 5: 3,937
roll 6: 3,543

As you can see, by roll #6 you are already at the weight of the car used in the example, and again, this is assuming you are pulling the car on flat ground. And 6 rolls of a winch is about 3-5' of distance depending on size of the drum.

Why is this important? Well, imagine you normally winch up your driving car into the trailer. Now, factor in the angle / slope of your ramps. Now, imagine that you just had a bad autocross run where you blew a tire; or worse, imagine that you had a suspension, engine or transmission failure or a serious wreck, where your vehicle no longer rolls freely in neutral, you will wish that you had a larger winch. That 1,000lb cheapo winch from Harbor Freight now presents one hell of a safety problem for you, those around you and your car & trailer. Have you ever seen a steel winch cable break and fly back towards the two anchor points? If not, here is a video that shows what can happen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1NnL83UpuQ

Trust me, this is something you do not want to ever be around. All of this is to say that much like picking a suspension or brake system for your car, you really need to do some research and calculations before buying a winch. There are very important safety issues that have to be considered so that you can get the right size winch for your application.



Also, when winching you should consider the following:

1. putting a blanket or winch safety marker on the middle of the cable during winching (http://www.amazon.com/Tuff-Stuff-Win...p/B003OA26QE); this is for if / when the cable breaks, it will dissipate the energy in the cable and allow it to fall to the ground, rather than come flying back in either direction and hurting someone (note that if you use synthetic cable, you won't have the 'fly back' condition, it will fall to the ground instantly in the case of breakage, as it doesn't store the energy like metal cable does)

2. using a pulley block / snatch block (http://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-274...s=snatch+block). These are pulleys that attach to your car / strap, and the winch cable goes through the pulley, then hooks back to the winch or adjacent d-ring. What this does is effectively double your winching capacity. This does make the winching take longer, but it seriously reduces the amp draw on the winch and helps the winch last much much longer. Plus, your winch battery won't lose as much charge during this period.

3. make sure to let your winch cool down. Most winches are designed for 1-2 minutes of pulling, with approximately 20 minutes of cool down between runs. Now, I realize that almost no one follows that, but it is a good thing to have in mind when winching so that you understand how these systems were designed. Also consider how many amps you are pulling through the battery connected to the winch. These can also present a major fire hazard if the battery cables heat up too much.

4. make darn sure that your winch is attached to a winching plate (3/8" steel plate on average, at least the shape of the winch's largest dimensions), that is then installed on the floor, with another winch plate installed under the floor so that they are sandwiched together, using proper hardware too. This also needs to be done at a structural point of the trailer, and not just bolted to an empty wooden portion of the floor. Remember, just as a cable can break and fly off, a winch that isn't properly secured to the floor with proper hardware and mounting can rip out of the floor and come flying back at the car with more force than you can imagine.

5. as mentioned in #1 above, consider using synthetic winch cable. Not only is it considerably lighter, it also doesn't store the energy in the cable like metal does. This means if the cable should break, it will drop to the ground without having to have a blanket over it. This is a major safety issue that potentially save a life.

Here is a generic guide that has some good information:
http://www.grainger.com/tps/material...tion_guide.pdf

There are also a lot of other great guides online that you can search for, as well as videos of winching gone wrong.