Loading trailer

[reynoldston]

I am picking up lawn tractors for repair. A lot of the time the reason I am picking them up is they don't run or move by themselves. Now if I have a heavy tractor
that moves a little on the hard side it become a problim for me to load. Has anyone ever install a winch of some type to load with? If so what have you used?
If you use a winch what do you power it with, a spare battery? How did you mount it? Seeing the hard part is getting the tractor up the ramp so I was thinking of maybe just buying a cheap come a long from Harbor Freight just to try that.

 

[motoman]

I have a cheap H-Frt come along and have pulled trees and cars (up gravel driveways) with it. It is slow going, though.

 

[wjjones]

I am picking up lawn tractors for repair. A lot of the time the reason I am picking them up is they don't run or move by themselves. Now if I have a heavy tractor
that moves a little on the hard side it become a problim for me to load. Has anyone ever install a winch of some type to load with? If so what have you used?
If you use a winch what do you power it with, a spare battery? How did you mount it? Seeing the hard part is getting the tractor up the ramp so I was thinking of maybe just buying a cheap come a long from Harbor Freight just to try that.

A boat winch would work.

 

[Rivets]

We had a bracket welded to the front of the trailer which we could drop an electric winch into. Very simple, two 3/4" square bars mounted on the winch, two square tubes welded to the trailer. When you needed it, drop the bars in the tubes. We mounted a plug on the back of the truck (like a trailer plug) for power. Best to get a switch with a remote switch. When not in use we could store it in the truck out of sight.

 

[wjjones]

We had a bracket welded to the front of the trailer which we could drop an electric winch into. Very simple, two 3/4" square bars mounted on the winch, two square tubes welded to the trailer. When you needed it, drop the bars in the tubes. We mounted a plug on the back of the truck (like a trailer plug) for power. Best to get a switch with a remote switch. When not in use we could store it in the truck out of sight.

Yep you get a hand crank winch, or electric would work well to keep from breaking your back.

 

[mowerguy]

We made a similar thing to what Rivets made at the shop where I work at. We have a number of trailers including two goose necks a few car trailers and utility trailers. We made a plate to set the winch and car battery. And then instead of using square tuning we used round stock. We made a bracket for each trailer and now the winch can be moved from trailer to trailer very easily. It really comes in handy quite often.

 

[jekjr]

A boat winch would work.

If you need more than a hand crank boat winch you can go to Tractor Supply and get an electric winch of any size you would need. You can mount a deep cycle battery on the trailer and use it to power the winch. You can an RV type plug on the truck and trailer and recharge the battery as you drive the truck, or you can just hook a trickle charger to it regularly.

 

[exotion]

I am picking up lawn tractors for repair. A lot of the time the reason I am picking them up is they don't run or move by themselves. Now if I have a heavy tractor
that moves a little on the hard side it become a problim for me to load. Has anyone ever install a winch of some type to load with? If so what have you used?
If you use a winch what do you power it with, a spare battery? How did you mount it? Seeing the hard part is getting the tractor up the ramp so I was thinking of maybe just buying a cheap come a long from Harbor Freight just to try that.

I have 2 pieces of square 2 in steel bars welded in a frame that's the perfect width if I put my tailgate down I can put the assembly (weights prolly 60 pounds) across my bed. Of my truck holds the winch and just pulls stuff up. We made it movable because the company I work for has 5 trailers and they didn't want to install a winch on all of them.

 

[de dee]

I am picking up lawn tractors for repair. A lot of the time the reason I am picking them up is they don't run or move by themselves. Now if I have a heavy tractor
that moves a little on the hard side it become a problim for me to load. Has anyone ever install a winch of some type to load with? If so what have you used?
If you use a winch what do you power it with, a spare battery? How did you mount it? Seeing the hard part is getting the tractor up the ramp so I was thinking of maybe just buying a cheap come a long from Harbor Freight just to try that.

I got a boat winch thats good for 2000 lb.s and later I got a 3000 lb. elec. winch I plug it in the truck. the winch id attached to the tow bar ( front of the trailer) like you see on boat trailers,

 

[RoperGuy]

It's a good idea to keep some rope and a snatch block behind the seat of your truck, simple but effective, even add another to the front of the trailer if wanted