Pulling dead cars onto 4-post lift?

[Rickenbackerman]

I have this thing mounted to the front of my 4-post:
http://www.harborfreight.com/2000-lb-capacity-geared-winch-5798.html

It's a total piece of garbage. I use my 1/2" dewalt cordless drill with an 18mm socket and I can tell I'm working the drill really hard. It doesn't have the power to pull my chevelle up onto the lift. I thought about getting a ****** block to double the power, but then it would twice as slow. The gears are also starting to wear out after only a couple of uses and I'm tired of fooling with it.

Any of you guys use a 12V winch powered by a jump box? 120V hoists are EXPENSIVE. HF has a one ton for $250, but it pulls 18A! That will surely kick the breaker at my place.

I'm currently leaning toward this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/5000-l...-with-automatic-load-holding-brake-61384.html

Powered by this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-jump-start-and-power-supply-38391.html

The manual says the winch pulls 296A at full load, the jump box does 360CCA, so it should work, in theory, right? Thoughts? I could just use a battery, but I don't have a jump box anyway and it'd be nice to have one for, you know, it's intended use.

I also wonder if the 3500lb model would be enough? That would save me fifty bucks.

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

The Harbor Freight winch pulls that much current at full rated load. Pulling a car on wheels won't be close.

You can put a ****** block on the car, and anchor the winch cable back near the winch. It will cut in half the effort to pull the vehicle.



.

 

[Falcon67]

I have a 3500lb HF winch that I got with a coupon for $90. It can pull a long bed F150 up on a trailer using the existing 5' long ramps on the dovetail. A 2500 or 3500 should be more than plenty to flat pull a rolling vehicle onto a 4 post. $200 total investment if you count buying a deep cycle battery for the winch. I would not count on a jump box to power a winch for more than a few seconds. They are for starting cars, not powering a long pull with a gear driven winch motor.

 

[Rickenbackerman]

Thanks, Falcon. Exactly what I wanted to hear. I'll try the 2500# winch first, and if it's too wimpy, I'll just return it and go bigger.

I've been reading all sorts of stuff on the web about winches and jump boxes. I'm going to try it. Works for this guy:

 

[sublimate]

I have this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0043OV0IA/?tag=atomicindus08-20
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...ocrfRbm6a4AlO9hSBap4S27HKTvy-z51x9BoCBZ_w_wcB
It's pulled many of dead cars up a fairly steep driveway for me and never popped the breaker.
Cheaper too than that HF 12volt winch.

But if you do go the 12volt winch route just get a normal car battery to power it. Then when the battery runs low (should be good for multiple pulls) just put it on a charger. I don't think that cheap starter box will power a winch with any luck.

 

[dlcwent]

I have this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0043OV0IA/?tag=atomicindus08-20
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...ocrfRbm6a4AlO9hSBap4S27HKTvy-z51x9BoCBZ_w_wcB
It's pulled many of dead cars up a fairly steep driveway for me and never popped the breaker.
Cheaper too than that HF 12volt winch.

But if you do go the 12volt winch route just get a normal car battery to power it. Then when the battery runs low (should be good for multiple pulls) just put it on a charger. I don't think that cheap starter box will power a winch with any luck.

I've been looking for a set up. Thanks...this looks like it will work just fine. I didn't want to put in an anchor pot to get the job done. So this works by using the hooks on the front plate of the lift?

 

[Rickenbackerman]

I thought about the pullzall, but I want to go the jump box / 12V route. That way I get a jump box out of it. If it doesn't run the winch I'll just buy a 12V deep cycle battery. Everything I've read so far says it should work just fine.

 

[mtwaterguy]

The Pullzall is less than the HF unit. Buy it and the jump box and you're money ahead.

 

[christopizza]

Here's what I use:

http://www.harborfreight.com/440-lb-electric-hoist-with-remote-control-60385-9253.html

Bought 2 on sale a few years ago -- one is connected to a big *** picture over the fireplace that my wife wants swapped out for Christmas every year and the other went to the lift.

not much incline on my 4 post lift and it seems to pull up the ramps just fine. Most I've ever pulled was a Sport Trac. I may have used the pulley to double the force on that pull.

120VAC unit and they sell beefier ones.

 

[Rickenbackerman]

Now I'm so confused. christo, is that a direct lift? That's what I have, a pro park 8S. And the 440 pounder is enough? I do like the idea of the warn pullzall. I could think of lots of other uses for it.

 

[c4cruiser]

But if you do go the 12volt winch route just get a normal car battery to power it. Then when the battery runs low (should be good for multiple pulls) just put it on a charger. I don't think that cheap starter box will power a winch with any luck.

You can find relatively low price car batteries that will work great for powering 12v winches. Get a top post battery that is in the 500cca cranking range and a small battery charger. Get some marine battery terminals for the battery. These will have a threaded cable post and a wing nut which will make it easy to connect to a winch.

 

[tdkkart]

Always amazes me how much F^&king around someone will do to save $100.........

 

[Gotcha640]

Sell the 4 post and get a 2 post?

 

[atty5420]

Always amazes me how much F^&king around someone will do to save $100.........

You're missing a major human factor here. Money has nothing to do with it. At some point in this quest it becomes a personal challenge. "Is this thing going to kick my ***, or not?". The general answer is "NO", and we're going to figure out a way to extract ourselves from this predicament. A portrait of Ben Franklin has little significance at that stage.

Is it the most economical? Probably not. Could we have saved time and aggravation by spending the $100? Probably. Will we shrink away from the challenge at hand and sheepishly reach for our wallet??? Hell NO!!! Anybody can do that. You have to stare down the devil and win at all costs.

Makes perfect sense to me. It has always been thus.

 

[tdkkart]

You're missing a major human factor here. Money has nothing to do with it. At some point in this quest it becomes a personal challenge. "Is this thing going to kick my ***, or not?". The general answer is "NO", and we're going to figure out a way to extract ourselves from this predicament. A portrait of Ben Franklin has little significance at that stage.

Is it the most economical? Probably not. Could we have saved time and aggravation by spending the $100? Probably. Will we shrink away from the challenge at hand and sheepishly reach for our wallet??? Hell NO!!! Anybody can do that. You have to stare down the devil and win at all costs.

Makes perfect sense to me. It has always been thus.

Of trust me, been there, done that, a LOT of times.

 

[Rickenbackerman]

tdk, I make six figures. As atty said, money is not the issue. It's the challenge.

Anyway, I went to HF last night and bought a jump box. I got the most expensive one that also has a small inverter, because the middle one with the air compressor was sold out. All of the expensive ones were open box, and that should have been my first clue right there, but I bought one anyway. Brought it home and something was rattling around in the case. I split the case to investigate, and the battery was narrower than the two shelves it's supposed to sit on, so it was literally crushing the inverter board. I'll be returning it tonight.

Any suggestions on who makes a good jump box?

 

[tfalk]

I have one of the HF 110V 1500 LB electric winches bolted to the front of my 4 post... I've pulled my non-running 2300 pound kit car on/off with no problems, no ****** blocks or anything. As long as the vehicle is capable of rolling, I haven't had a problem yet. Not sure it would handle it with a flat tire but rolling weight/resistance is a lot less than dead weight.

 

[Rickenbackerman]

That's the thing... the car in question here is my '71 big block chevelle. Not really sure but I'm guessing it's in the 3800lb range. It rolls just fine, however.

 

[HeadsUp]

I have one of the HF 110V 1500 LB electric winches bolted to the front of my 4 post... I've pulled my non-running 2300 pound kit car on/off with no problems, no ****** blocks or anything. As long as the vehicle is capable of rolling, I haven't had a problem yet. Not sure it would handle it with a flat tire but rolling weight/resistance is a lot less than dead weight.

Do you have any pics mounted to your lift? This is exactly what I'm interested in doing.

 

[jonjon1]

my father has a bay of his garage that has a small incline going into it, its a 2 post lift in there but a good hill to go up, and he uses a small 110v grizzly electric hoist to pull stuff in there, I think it was a couple hundred dollars, its bolted to the cement knee wall and he has used it to pull bent sub frames too, he had a deville that was hit in the fender, he removed the fender and used that hoist bolted to the wall to straighten out the radiator support...

 

[Diesel Dan]

I like the idea of the Warn pullzall personally for what you want to do.

 

[1233user]

I like the idea of the Warn pullzall personally for what you want to do.

I use a 110 volt Pullzall to pull cars on my 4-post lift. It does the job, but it struggles when the tires are going up the ramps. The cars I have pulled up there weigh about 3600 pounds and they roll fine.

 

[Rickenbackerman]

I saw a youtube video where a guy was using a Pullzall to yank a UTV out of the snow. The ute didn't even look like it was stuck that bad and the Pullzall seemed to struggle a bit. I was worried it wouldn't have the nuts.

I bought a HF 3500# winch last night and got it mounted up. Ordered a jump box with a 22Ah battery the other day. I hope to be able to test everything out this weekend and will report back.

 

[Diesel Dan]

It does the job, but it struggles when the tires are going up the ramps.

But it still works and is self contained only needing a 110V extension cord.
Any electric winch will slow down under load. My 9K superwinch slows down pulling dead but rolling cars onto my car trailer but doesn't mean it's undersized or inadequate.

I plan on putting some anchor threads into the floor in front (near the wall)of my lift to drag dead vehicles in via a ****** block and winch vehicle from the other bay.

 

[Chitown_hillbilly]

I have THIS cheap 2K model from HF and it had no problem pulling a Reg Cab F250 4x4 up the steep ramps of a Deck over trailer.

 

[1233user]

But it still works and is self contained only needing a 110V extension cord.
Any electric winch will slow down under load. My 9K superwinch slows down pulling dead but rolling cars onto my car trailer but doesn't mean it's undersized or inadequate.

I guess I should have said that it REALLY struggles, to the point that it almost won't get the car up the ramps. I don't imagine it would last very long if it was used often for pulling cars onto a lift.

 

[Diesel Dan]

I it REALLY struggles, to the point that it almost won't get the car up the ramps.

Well that's no good.
Make one wonder if it was defective. Shouldn't be that tough.

 

[sublimate]

I guess I should have said that it REALLY struggles, to the point that it almost won't get the car up the ramps. I don't imagine it would last very long if it was used often for pulling cars onto a lift.

Mine's had no issue pulling even my old International pickup. It's not fast, but it keeps moving.

Make sure any extension cord you use is fairly thick gauge and not overly long. Otherwise you're probably getting too much voltage drop to it.

 

[KCobra]

I've been knocking around similar ideas as a backup if a car breaks and I can't drive it onto the trailer. Something interesting from the WARN user manual:

RUN TIME/DUTY CYCLE TABLE

LOAD 500 lbs. 1000 lbs.
(227 kg) (454 kg)

RUN Time 2 min 1 min

COOL Time 30 min 30 min

 

[mtwaterguy]

Always amazes me how much F^&king around someone will do to save $100.........

Actually it was $50.00

 

[Rickenbackerman]

Well, to anyone who says powering a winch with a jump box won't work... It worked flawlessly.

I got a HF 3500# winch mounted to the front of the lift on a big piece of aluminum L bracket that I've had kicking around for years. After trying that HF jump box and realizing it was garbage, I did a bunch of research and got this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KPU8F2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Yeah, it's expensive. But it's high quality, and I wanted a built in compressor. It powered the winch with ease and the winch yanked the Chevelle up on there like it weighed about as much as a feather.

The best part? Even after airing up four tires on another car with the box and yanking the car on the lift, the box is still sitting at 13V and reads about 110% in the scale.

Yes, there might have been cheaper solutions. But now I have a winch that works great AND an awesome jump box with which I can air up tires, too.

 

[2004.5cumminsman]

I use the warn off Amazon my self. Harbor freight sells nothing but **** in this deparment. You got burned once on there garbage, get a good winch and be done.

 

[kiatech]

tdk, I make six figures. As atty said, money is not the issue. It's the challenge.

Anyway, I went to HF last night and bought a jump box. I got the most expensive one that also has a small inverter, because the middle one with the air compressor was sold out. All of the expensive ones were open box, and that should have been my first clue right there, but I bought one anyway. Brought it home and something was rattling around in the case. I split the case to investigate, and the battery was narrower than the two shelves it's supposed to sit on, so it was literally crushing the inverter board. I'll be returning it tonight.

Any suggestions on who makes a good jump box?

Most people didn't believe me when I said HF rented tools, looks you found out first hand.

 

[theoldwizard1]

If it can be a 2 man operation or you have good blocks at the front of your lift (so that you can not pull in too far), there is a simple and inexpensive solution.

Install an anchor into the floor ahead of the lift. Attach a pulley to it. Thread a steel cable through the pulley. Attach one end to the vehicle that need to be towed in. Thread the other end under that vehicle, out the door and attach to another vehicle or even a garden tractor.

 

[ccrunch]

Do you have any pics mounted to your lift? This is exactly what I'm interested in doing.

Here's how I have mine set up...works fine so far. I've used it maybe ~15 times, Tacoma pickup, Alfa Spiders, and MKIV VW's.



Edit: I have it blocked up on wood so the cable doesn't drag across the tops of the lift's rolling jacks. It's very secure and doesn't flex at all.

 

[Diesel Dan]

Yes, there might have been cheaper solutions. But now I have a winch that works great AND an awesome jump box with which I can air up tires, too.

That's the main thing, doing what you want in your price range.

 

[toplessHO]

Ive got a Warn Pullzall NIB for sale
its the portable 24v model so is about double the price of the 120v ones.
PM me if interested.