Your truck is your best friend when it comes to utility purposes. Whether you are using it for transporting any items or just for a good ride, it is undoubtedly very useful. If you want to further your truck’s utility performance, a gooseneck trailer is certainly useful to add.
Unlike any regular trailer, a gooseneck trailer is far more durable and can hold up a lot of weight. It’s not like a typical flimsy trailer you can almost see anywhere nowadays. Gooseneck trailers are for use in heavy-duty tasks, like towing cars, tractors, and ATVs. Every vehicle that you can tow can fit on a gooseneck trailer. By purchasing one for your job, you won’t have to pay other third-party companies to do the transport for you.
So what gives? Why does this trailer have a funny name? Well, it’s called gooseneck trailer for a good reason. The reason why is because this trailer looks like a goose. At the start of the trailer, you can see two metal beams shaped like a gooseneck. These two connected metal beams are what link the trailer to the vehicle.
At a Glance
Why You Should Add A Winch To Your Goose Neck Trailer
Now, there are many jobs where a gooseneck trailer is capable of doing. However, it only works if you have a method to place stuff there in the first place. Say, for example, you are going to load a car that broke down onto the trailer. How will you be able to do that? Well, you can choose to push the car through it, but it can be heavy and cumbersome. So how will you be able to move it to the gooseneck trailer?
The answer you are looking for is a winch. A winch is a tool that does the pulling or lifting job for you. By having a winch to your gooseneck trailer, you can now easily tow any object to it. No need for any manual labor because the winch will do the heavy lifting for you. You can tow any vehicle into the trailer with the winch. What more do you need?
The only thing that might hinder you from purchasing a winch is either price or how to install it. For finding the right winch for the job, I highly suggest WARN winches. They are extremely capable and are durable. Many customers even say that nothing can go wrong with purchasing WARN winches. However, they tend to be more expensive than others. So you might want to consider some options.
If you are having trouble with which winch to buy, refer to our article Top Winch Makers: Who is The Best? Now back to the point. If you are having trouble how to install a winch to the gooseneck trailer, then fear not! We are here to teach you exactly that! In this article, we are going to discuss which positions to put your winch on and how to install them.
Where Should You Put Your Winch?
Now that you have decided to use a winch for your trailer, where should you put them exactly? There are two primary ways you can place your winch.
- Place It At The Top Of The Gooseneck Trailer: You may notice that a gooseneck trailer has two ends that connect to the vehicle. When you look at them from a top-down perspective, you will see that it has a sort-of triangle shape. Here is the spot we want to place our winch.
- Place It At The Middle Beam: Again, we are going to look at the beams that connect to the trailer. Here we see two beams, right? There should be a beam there that connects the two beams. You can also choose to place the winch there.
- Place It At The Bottom: When I mean bottom, I mean the flatbed-level of the trailer. You can also choose to place it there.
In terms of performance, they work practically the same. So feel free to pick which placement you want across the three options.
Mount Ideas
Feel free to get creative once you try to install the winch. There are many forums around the internet specifically discussing these ideas. Here are some ideas that I thought of:
- Making The Mounting Winch Portable: Many of us can’t afford to buy multiple winches for different vehicles. So what one can do instead is make the winch mounting portable instead. The case can be different for each vehicle and trailer. So try to experiment a bit and see how it will work for you.
- Use Pulley Block: Instead of installing the winch at the back of the trailer, why not install it at the back of the vehicle? That way, you can use the winch aside from trailer uses only. So how do we then use the winch for trailer purposes? Well, use a pulley block! A pulley block can redirect the flow of the winch line. So instead of bolting a winch, we just bolt a pulley block.
However, take note that I haven’t yet tested this idea myself. But I am considering this option fully.
Implementing these ideas can be tough since we have different vehicles. So try to experiment around and see what works for you.
Installing The Winch
Now that we established where to put your winch. Let’s now dive into how to install it!
- Mark the Center: First things first. Find the center of the trailer and mark them. Also, find the size of the winch and see if it has the room it fit in there. If it has, mark the placements on where you should put the winch.
- Mark the Mounting Plate: Winches come with a mounting plate in them. Mark the mounting plate and its holes in them.
- Drill The Hole Markings: Make sure they are correctly aligned to the winch mount placement.
- Bolt The Winch Mount: Now that we have some holes, simply bolt-in the winch mount and secure it tightly.
- Place the Winch On The Winch Mount: Each winch has specific details on how to install it on a vehicle. Refer to that handbook for further instructions.
There are different mounting configurations you might want to look into. It is important to know these terms since they might come up in your winch handbook.
- Foot down: In this mounting configuration, the winch’s four mounting holes are at the bottom.
- Foot forward: In this mounting configuration, the winch’s four mounting holes are facing forward.
- Foot down OR foot forward: The winch can be mounted either in the foot down position or foot forward position.
- Foot forward AND foot down: The winch is designed to have four bolts that are used for foot forward mounting position, and two are used in the foot down position. These winches cannot be mounted in the foot down position only.
Conclusion
A winch is a worthy investment to add to your vehicle. I assure you that it will make your job fast and efficient. With that said, happy winching!
If you want to know more about installing winches, check out this guide How to Mount A Winch On A Trailer.
