What model Warn winch would you recommend to put on a Ford F150?
Then the best way to mount it?

I believe the Ford 150 is a heavy sucker so you are going to need one of their bigger winches..

What exactly do you want to use it for and how often do you think you will need it?

Over here about 99% winches are mounted on the front of a vehicle. That said, I have seen one or two mounted at the rear on the basis that when you drive into something and get stuck, its wiser to pull yourself out backwards onto ground you already know is firm...

Thank you.

Mostly I am thinking of using a winch to lower a boat on trailer into, and out of a lake on a steep bank.

I have not seen it done, but with a hitch ball mounted on the front, you steer the trailer as far as practical, then use the winch.

I have been in a rig with a winch both front, and rear.

I set mine up so it can be mounted front or back into a 2" receiver hitch. Costa little bit more to run power back to the rear and the front receiver hitch, but it sire is handy and you can take it off so as not to tote it around all the time when not needed.

I would like to see a picture of that.

How heavy is your winch, both power, and weight of winch?

Thats not an area I have any experience of either except I have seen some small portable electric winches being sold for this..

They are rated for about a 2000lb pull and easy to switch from the front to the rear of the true when in use depending on the circumstance..

I would guess they would only work with a relatively lightweight boat and trailer combo and are probably quite slow also??

wabigoon;
Top of the morning to you sir, hopefully this finds you and yours doing well.

So with the understanding that I'm now at the stage in life where I do everything within my capability to NOT use the winch in the toolbox - here's what I've done and why.

The typical back story with me is that when we started out "serious" 4WD traveling we installed a very heavy duty bush guard/winch mount on our Toyota and quickly went from a far too small 2000lb winch to a 6000lb Warn planetary drive.


So the upside of an open mount like that is you put it where it works best for front end winching - to my mind just above and in front of the front bumper.

The downside includes having the entire unit in the weather all the time, so the solenoids especially take a beating, as does the cable after a few years of road salt.

The next couple of pickups were '87 F150 4x4's - first a regular cab and then an extended cab. I mounted an 8000lb Warn planetary drive in behind the front bumper . We cut an access hole for the fairlead and cable with a plasma cutter so it was behind the front licence plate - which was then mounted on a hinge.

While that did protect the cable and solenoids better, the position is to my mind a wee bit low sometimes for winching. Then too, the last time I used it on the '87 extended cab I really, REALLY wanted to winch out backwards but of course could not.....

So after we tore the tire off off the bead because the only anchor point was almost 90� to the left of the truck - well you get the picture.

The next pickup was a '99 F150 and I decided it would get a QD mount so I could winch out backwards if the situation called for it.

Although you can buy them, I had a welding shop fab up a plate that the winch and fairlead mounted to that also has a universal hitch tubing mount welded beneath it.

Then I installed a front receiver on the pickup and ran heavy cable with welding cable quick disconnects running front and rear on the pickup.


As I'm a "belt and suspenders" sort of guy, I ran both positive and negative cables all the way back to the battery - as in I don't save wire and use the frame for a ground.

I use 2/0 cable too wabigoon - not cheap, but it's not going to burn the winch motor out by starving the amperage either.

The pluses of that sort of mount are that the winch lives in a toolbox in the back of the pickup - safe from the elements and thieves. The solenoids really love it there and when I drag the winch out to the box to test the connections before a major trip it has worked 100% so far.

The minus is that the mounting position on some trucks, like our present '03 Dodge is a wee bit low in my opinion. Older photo here before a whole bunch of additions on that rig.


Lastly I try to always pull on a single wrap on the spool, so that means I use a snatch block and by doing so cut my line speed in half but do double the pull strength.

Really I likely should upgrade the 8000lb Warn shown to a 10,000lb unit for that truck, but I'll likely not do that until I either give this one to one of the girls or get mad at it because it wouldn't extract me even double lining it.

So for your pickup - if it was mine I'd absolutely install a front receiver, then run QD cables front and rear and use at least an 8000lb Warn with the planetary drive like I've got.

Warn offers several levels of performance in their winches these days and if you think you're going to use it quite a bit I'd spring for the Premium line and would consider the Ultimate Performance series too.

Again it's got to pencil out for you when you crunch the cost/benefit all out though and I get that.

Oh, last thought for me is that the next winch I buy WILL have the synthetic cable on it for sure - even if I have to sell a few more Cooey's to finance that.

Hopefully that was useful information for you or someone out there this fine, still Friday morning sir. Have a good one.

Dwayne

Pete, waiting line at customs, I told my wife our boat could make a u turn in some of the boats ahead of us in line.

I don't know the exact weight of our boat, trailer, and motor.
It is a Crestline 14'. on a light trailer, with a Yamaha 4 stroke 8 HP.

Thank you Dwayne.
That looks like a good way to go.

wabigoon;
You are most welcome sir and thanks for the reply.

I forgot to mention that I double bag the QD connections with HD freezer bags and duct tape to keep them clean as well.

As another use for the QD connections, I've hooked up the booster cables on the pickup so they plug into them. No more lifting the hood or fooling with the cables underneath two vehicles.

I can also boost from the tailgate of the pickup now too.

Anyway just a thought and again hopefully of some use to you or someone out there this morning.

Dwayne

Thanks again Dwayne.
I was trying like a steer a while back to type more, but the "Fire" was in one of it's moods.
No matter how hard I hit the key with a blacksmith's hammer, nothing came up, that is, till several did!

I got to thinking, a semi portable winch could do duty on a trailer as well.

Dwayne saved me the trouble of taking a photo. Mine is setup exactly as he describes. Mine is a 9500 lb capacity warn and weighs about 100 lbs and that includes the tray it sets on that has the 2" square stub on it for the receiver. I use it on my 98 Dodge 3/4 T Cummins.

The only difference,I put mine on at the start of hunting season and take it off after that,unless I figure on taking an excursion where I would need it. I don't keep it in a tool box as it would be too heavy for me to lift out.I made a dolly and box it sets on and I keep it in the garage. I can wheel it up right to the receiver and slip it in. I also have canvas cover that I can put on to keep the road crud off of it while I am traveling.

I realize it takes twice the cable, but using a pulley, or call it a snatch block, how would a lighter unit work?

Yes, in theory but at half the speed..

But for you're application, I don't think you would need a powerfull winch? Don't know what others think?

I guess I'm thinking along the lines of a unit that could pull the pickup out if it is that, or walk.
Everything does have limits, of course.

Whichever you go for, I would think one with a keyfob remote would be worth its weight in gold when doing the boat launch/recover thing..

Forgot to mention. My electrical feed is hooked into a solenoid and I have a switch inside the cab that I turn on to power up those connectors that service the winch.

I have :m8000x2 m10000, m12000 &RE12000. The re is easily the king of power but slow as mold. It can't be stalled by less than 24k under any circumstances. For speed, ease of use and weight I like the m8000. I have one on a multi mount and a permanent mount on the back of my jeep. I have used the rear winch more than the front when self recovering mostly because of its speed over the re12 on the front. The 8274 is the KING of speed, but takes up a fair bit of real estate.

Can you show a pic of this, please?

I like the multi-mount the best for a pickup too. You have front/rear hookups and can use it a trailer too. They pile salt and mag chloride on the roads here in NY bad in the winter. They're not cheap, so being able to keep it undercover and out of the salt is nice.

Many fans of the old Warn worm-gear 8274 as it would hold 150ft of 5/16ths cable IIRC. With a spare cable rolled up to hook to the tree(far end) and the other to the snatch block that would work to give you a 70ft plus pull. I don't know if they make it anymore as it was quite spendy and I'd guess a bumper for it would have to be fabricated.

Exactly what I did. Goes on for hunting trips and comes off till I think I might need it. E Trailers sells a front end reciever for my 2012 Tundra. Superwinch 9500 lb cap. Many sell winch wiring kits to power up trailer winches that will get to your back bumper.

Wife made a winch cover with a clear window pocket for the license plate. Ca requires lic on the front.

Glocktard
They still make the 8274 it's been updated some, but still basically the same winch.

I am not finding a pic handy right now, but I made the rear just like the front, but I cut a piece out of the center and added a 3/8" plate drilled for the winch. I had to angle my spare up a bit to clear the winch. I ran welding lead through hose and conduit to the rear winch and mounted the solenoid facing up to keep it compact. I used a hawse fairlead on the rear as that is what i had handy when I built it.

And an m8000 is 1/4 the size of the re12

This winch just arrived for the project. It goes 150,000 pounds, it's own weight. One off and never been built. Dumbazz oil engineers that we are... Tough on the front of a Dodge.

Most of us have seen this photo of a moose 50' in the air with its antlers tangled in a power line. The line installers had miles of line laid out on the ground. When they started pulling them tight, they lifted the moose clear up there.

Now, think of the power needed to pull not only miles or heavy cable but a 1000lb plus moose. They sure weren't using a Harbor Freight Chinese import.