Winch to pull vehicles into garage

[madjack]

And I thought I had a steep driveway

 

[BobsInTheGarage]

I have done it!

Yesterday I completed the project of mounting a winch in my garage to pull vehicles that don't run, or trailers, into my garage for service.

I thank all who have contributed here. I started with a plan to mount a 12V winch under my workbench, and went as far as buying a 2500# Harbor Freight winch. It turns out that the most economical power supply was a battery to power the winch, and a three phase charger as used in boats to charge and maintain the battery. I calculated that I would need at least a 12AH battery with 132 CCAs.

When I went to buy the bracket to mount the winch lo and behold there was a beautiful 120V 1500# winch for sale! So much simpler. I was worried about the weight rating and asked my nephew who still remembers his physics to calculate the load on the winch pulling a 4,000# car up my 15 degree driveway. He returned with 668 pounds of pulling force needed. I didn't check his math, I liked the answer.

I ended up mounting the winch to a piece of 3/4" birch plywood I had laying around, adding a handle to it, and then putting in 4 concrete 'drop anchors' into the concrete. I looked at the shear strength and 3/8" gave about 500# of strength, so plenty for my load. I needed the winch mounted where I have carpet, and where I stand, so it is removable. I cut little trap doors in the carpet where the bolt holes are. The winch stores under the bench, then comes out for duty.

Given the angle at the spot where the flat garage concrete meets the sloped driveway I laid a piece of 1 1/2" PVC pipe transversely there, with big nails through it that hold it in the threshold. This lets the cable glide along as it pulls the load, no grinding on the concrete lip.

And it works! I ended up pulling my BMW 5 series in, 4,000#, which kept me on edge as I had no assistant. The winch has a wired controller so I was at the winch, pushing the button, while the car had no driver. Snap the cable and my plan was to run and jump in the car and save it from an uncontrolled adventure across the street. Just like in the movies, right?

 

[BobsInTheGarage]

Here is a video of the first pull:

 

[kbs2244]

If you put longer wires on the controller you could walk alongside the car, or even sit in it.

 

[BobsInTheGarage]

I like the long wires idea, it was unsettling to have the car unattended.

I was wrong on the shear strength of the bolts, mine are 3/8" which are 'allowed' 810 pounds, with an 'ultimate' of 3240 pounds. Here is a link to the chart:

https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/ssttoolbox/tsjoh2czwc/C-A-2016-DIA-designinfo.pdf?u=s8puyk

 

[Motown]

I can't remember where I saw it, but someone converted an old snow blower, to a pusher, for vehicles.

 

[lakeroadster]

I can't remember where I saw it, but someone converted an old snow blower, to a pusher, for vehicles.

I saw a fella at Walmart rounding up the carts with one of those remote control pusher "mules" and thought.. that would be slick for moving a trailer or a "dead" car...

 

[hedgehog]

great job on the winch, your shop floor is carpeted?

 

[eastbaysubaru]

Excellent idea for the winch. I'll probably copy that setup for my single-car side of the garage once I get that door operational. I don't have quite that steep of a slope either so it should be even easier pulling.

-Brian

 

[TractorJeff]

120v winch is the way to go!
His calculation is about right as I pulled a 6000lb dead tractor into the shop with a single line come-a-long a couple of weeks ago. Yes it was an upgrade pull, not a flat roll!
After 2.5 pages of over-engineering, Bob finally came along to set you all straight! As far as concrete construction adhesive, what do you think holds the roof supports up in underground tunnels?
Too many over-thinkers on this subject!

 

[prostreetamx]

I use 1, 1/2" bolt installed through a ring and bolted to a drop in insert in my floor to pull non running cars into my old garage. I just use a come along for now but Dewalt makes a pretty nice cordless portable winch I have been looking at. It's used to move stuff around at work sights. It doesn't take much of an anchor to pull a free rolling load even up a slight grade. My new garage has a door on the back so pull throughs are much easier.
I made the wired controller on my trailer much longer by cutting the cable in the middle and installing 110v style 3 prong cord caps. I can add as many 3 wire 110v extension cords as needed so I can steer cars onto my trailer by myself. I marked the caps on the winch control so no one plugs them into 110v.

 

[Jackfre]

When I poured my slab I put in 5 receiver hitches into the slab. I went about 8" deep with the concrete to support it and welded rebar across the outside of the hitch. I then welded a plate across the top of the insert with and eye in it so I can put a shackle into it. I am pulling low and this has worked with some pretty substantial loads. In your case, you could do about the same, but only to the depth of your slab. I'd core drill a 2-3" hole in the slab. Weld a piece of pipe to the bottom of a piece of plate, weld your attachment plate to that and drop a couple bolts into the slab plate. The red-heads would work well here. I made inserts for all 5 of my penetrations so they don't get filled up with dirt, sawdust and garbage when not in use.

 

[Dirtydan69]

If you put longer wires on the controller you could walk alongside the car, or even sit in it.

They make wireless kits that adapt to winches. I know HF was selling them in the past.

 

[kbs2244]

Wireless may even be cheaper.

 

[fastjohnny]

Wireless available on ebay or amazon, I've used them to add wireless function to dump trailers.

 

[denis4x4]

I put a 10,000# galvanized eye bolt on the front cross member of my Backyard Buddy. My trailer has an 8000# Warn winch with a remote. I can transfer a dead car from the trailer to the lift using a turning block. I raise the lift to the same level as the trailer, run the cable under the car to the turning block and then to the car.

 

[BobsInTheGarage]

Well so much good information! It looks like the HF wireless adapter only works with the 12V winches. Also the sales person at HF mentioned that they have a lot of them coming back for returns. I likely will use the plug idea, that is cool, as most times I will have a helper to man the car as it pulls in. The plug method of extending the remote also gives flexibility as to how long the cable ends up by choosing the length of extension cord, and doesn't necessitate storage of a very long cord under my bench. I will find out how many wires go to the switch, it is a thick cable, the controller has a forward and reverse button, I suspect 3 wires, maybe 4.

I too have a trailer with a winch, now that I think of it I could have used the eye bolt/turning block method as long as my process is to always winch the car from the street onto the trailer, then back the trailer up to the threshold of the garage, then run the cable under the car to the eye bolt/turning block mounted into the concrete at the front of the garage. More schlepping but pretty cool!

 

[BobsInTheGarage]

I added the ability to have a long cable running to the hand held remote that runs the winch. I used a suggestion from here, thank you! It turns out that the cable to the remote has 4 wires, and that it carries the current that runs from the wall plug to the winch. I cut it and used two short (one foot) extension cords to give me male and female plugs needed to add extension cords when I need a long wire, or no extension cords when I have a helper to guide the vehicle or trailer coming into the garage. Since there were 4 wires in the remote cable and only three in the extension cords I needed two extensions, I just cut off and didn't use the ground in the short extension cords. And it works!

To answer a question above I have carpet with a thick pad for about three feed parallel to my work benches where I stand, concrete elsewhere.

 

[mikegt4]

Good idea BobsInTheGarage
I have a winch that mounts in a receiver on the front of my trailer and, for security reasons, I always keep it in my van except when I actually use it. When I got the winch remote controls were not yet available so I modified my control cable by replacing the 10' wire with a 50' extension cord which allowed my to sit in a vehicle and steer it onto the trailer. Perhaps I will cut the wire and add some plug ends so I don't need to handle 50' of wire every time I use the winch.

 

[Falcon67]

Well so much good information! It looks like the HF wireless adapter only works with the 12V winches. Also the sales person at HF mentioned that they have a lot of them coming back for returns.

I just bought a 2500 HF winch for the box trailer. The remote works but it's a little funky in that the winch continues to run for about 2-3 seconds after release of the remote. Also, after reading the fine print the winch is good for 45 seconds of pull with a 15 minute rest. So it may to go back, we'll see. I can wire around the remote, but it takes a bit more than 45 seconds to wheel in the dragster. With this trailer I have to lift the nose WAY up and that's not easy even with the two wheeler I made for that job. So have to set it down about halfway in. But we're not loading the motor that much anyway. Don't expect much for $50.

However with the start/stop to protect the motor it loaded my 1600 lb dragster without issue. In reference to all the bolt strength discussion - the 2500 lb unit is held in the trailer by two short 5/16 lag screws run into the 3/4 plywood floor.

 

[Blue XJ]

I have installed a few anchor bolt into garage floors and for the most part they appear to be anchored good, but I have overtorqued a couple and then they would not hold.
You would be pulling at a much lower angle so it may be stronger in that direction. But you will never know how much weight you are actually pulling unless you hook up a weight indicator.
By saying that I would also not use the standard stud wall configuration either.
Now you could go on the outside of the wall that the winch would be pulling from and dig a 4-5' hole and install a 4" sch 80 pipe in the ground with concrete approx 3" from the outside of the wall. Then use two u-bolts to penitrate through the wall and attach a metal plate to mount the winch to on the inside. Then simply caulk the holes.
This way the pulling force is on somthing more solid than the wood studs or the 3" anchor bolts in the floor provided it is a standard slab.

How heavy of vehicles do you move? I only weigh 170 pounds, but I've been able to push every dead vehicle around that I have tried. Once it's rolling, it's USUALLY pretty easy to move.