Best Way To Mount A Winch On A Trailer (Updated On October 2023)

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Winches are often mounted on the trailer’s back. It is either near the rear of the front car or directly at the rear of the trailer.

Because the trailer may be detached from the primary vehicle, the winches are given their own battery connection.

They don’t have to depend on the vehicle’s battery for operational power.

The whole winch is housed in protected boxes called toolboxes installed to the back end of the trailer with its extra battery, ropes, and cables.

Let’s take a look at the best way to mount a winch on a trailer.

Best Way to Mount a Winch on a Trailer (4 Options)

Option 1

A winch mounting plate can be used to attach to the trailer’s floor bed. To secure the floor bed to the truck frame:

Use U bolts thru the floor bed.

Use a tow-strap winch plate with a lever and a 2-inch hitch Combo Bar to attach the winch to the truck if you want your winch to be detachable.

If your winch isn’t in the center, you may pull with a pulley block with a D-Ring attached to the center.

Install your trailer’s railing to mount the winches if your trailer just has a hardwood bed.

Option 2

You may put the winch on the floor within the cabinet and secure it to the floor using a bracket.

Your winch must be six inches above the ground to minimize cable hanging, and you can put the winch out of the path in the trailer this manner.

Option 3

You may place the winch underneath your trailer to use a ready-made in-floor winch mount.

Trim the floor to the dimensions of the winch mount, then install your winch and secure it with a bolt.

The Fairlead should then be attached to the Fairlead holder. Before purchasing, please read the installation guide.

Option 4

To hold the winch, you may place it on the trailer tongue within a tongue box and link it to the trailer chassis, or you can use anchoring brackets soldered to your trailer.

If your winch is not in the center, you can utilize a pulley blocker with a D-Ring linked to the center for your pulling purposes.

Also check: 5 Best Boat Trailer Winch Stand

Best Way To Mount A Winch On a Trailer (2 Methods)

Method 1

You hook up your vehicle’s power supply to the trailer-mounted winch using a fast disconnect in this way. This approach is best for light to medium-duty use regularly.

Make sure your vehicle’s battery has a minimum of 440 cold-cranking amps and a 60 A alternator. When operating around a battery, always use safety glasses to safeguard your eyes.

Choose a handy location for the fast disconnect at the back of your car. Two wires, a lengthier power cord, and a shortened ground cord are included with this disconnector.

Make sure the shorter cord is grounded to a clean surface on the vehicle’s frame, or use a grounding source if you have one.

Connect the longer power line to the car battery from the rear of the vehicle to the front, avoiding any locations where the wire may heat up or get constricted due to the operation of other vehicle components.

Connect the power cable to the automobile battery’s positive end and ground the battery by attaching a separate cable from the negative end to a secure grounding source underneath the bonnet.

Make that the in-line circuit breaker is connected to the winch’s power wire, connecting to the car battery.

Put a disconnector at the twin wires’ end that originates from the positive and negative pins on the winch.

This disconnector should be routed to the trailer’s adapter, where it will link with the disconnector from your car’s rear-end.

Method 2

The winch will not need to be powered by the vehicle battery in this way. The trailer may be detached from the primary vehicle and still utilize the winch because it is powered separately.

Nevertheless, it would be preferable if you still had a common means of charging your individual battery.

With little additional wiring, you may link the trailer connector circuit to the car battery to assure a periodic charge to the independent battery.

Before attaching the winch, make absolutely sure the battery is in excellent working order. Interaction with battery acid and other pollutants should be avoided.

To preserve the Battery and the Winch with interconnections from the weather, mount them in a toolbox. This will extend the shelf life of all components.

Before fastening them, drilling and cutting to align all parts in position may be required when attaching the toolkit to the trailer/truck.

Connect the winch to the battery in the same way you would a vehicle battery.

Read the manual’s recommendations and make sure the in-line power line for overload protection is installed.

Remember to disconnect the trailer’s electrical contacts from the vehicle’s electrical connections while using the winch. This connector is only for charging the trailer’s independent battery.

If the connector is left open throughout operations, the wire delivering electricity to your trailer battery will be overloaded, causing the entire circuit with the battery to be damaged.

Also check: Top Boat Trailer Winch