Having a winch post or a winch stand for your boat trailer winch grants you a lot of flexibility in its use. It is very useful in terms of allowing you to have many different angles to work your winch with.
Why Do You Need to Adjust the Boat Trailer Winch Post?
A winch is more effective if its pull is as straight as can be. In fact, winches are tested with a straight pull. The specs and features listed on a winch’s product description is always done at optimum situations. One of such optimum situation is the straight pull.
The straight pull renders the winch to be as powerful as can be. If the pull is at an angle, you will have a lot of power loss. Having a winch post that can be adjusted both vertically and horizontally offers you great assistance in making sure that your pull can be as effective as possible.
But the more important reason to adjust your winch post is to provide a better support for your boat. The trailer is used mainly for boat transport on land. If the winch post does not provide the right support, your boat may be rocking or swaying around the trailer during transport.
This not only damages the paint job and the looks of the boat, it can also potentially damage its hull. The bow rollers should be securing the boat in place firmly. The winch line should be taut and not relaxed. As much possible, you must make the distance between the boat and the winch as close as possible.
That can be done by properly adjusting the winch post both horizontally, along the trailer, and vertically.
The Adjustment
The adjustment part of the winch post is easy enough to do. If you have handled a wrench in your life, then chances are you can easily do it.
A winch post is installed or mounted on the trailer. It is secured by nuts and bolts, specifically in some models, U-bolts are used. Whatever kind of bolts your winch mount uses, a standard adjustable wrench should be enough to adjust and secure it. This is true of either adjusting vertically or horizontally.
All you have to do is loosen the nuts at the base a bit and that will allow you to shimmy the post along the length of the trailer. If you want to totally remove the post, then just remove the nuts one at a time.
Sometimes, the nuts are secured so tightly that loosening them by hand is hard. In such cases, you can easily solve the problem by using WD-40 or similar products. It can make the bolts easier to loosen. If that does not work for you, then the use of a power tool may be your best option.
If you opt for a power tool to loosen the nuts, you have to make sure that it only goes as far as loosening it. Using the power tool to remove the nut completely may damage either the nut or the bolt. This will make it harder for you to put the two back together as there will be abrasions on either parts. You have to make sure that once the nuts are loosened by the tool, you proceed with a regular wrench or, if possible, with your hands.
Once you have loosened or remove the nuts from the bolts, adjusting the post should be easy enough. Just remember to make sure that the main purpose of adjusting a winch post is to provide sufficient support to the boat. The boat should rest securely on the trailer. The boat should have as much physical contact with both the post and the trailer. The post can’t be too high, too low, too far back or too forward.
Once the perfect positioning is achieved, it is time to secure the post with the nuts and bolts again. It is advisable to thread the nuts on the bolts using your hands at first. This is so that you can avoid damaging the bolts with the tools. When the nuts are threaded nicely on the bolts, you can start securing with the tools to make the process faster and easier.
Hopefully, this short and basic guide has given you some helpful information about adjusting your boat trailer winch post. We here at Winch Mania are passionate about all things winch and try to provide accurate information about them.
If you need to learn other basic winching setups. Then you need only explore our site, or use our search tool on the top-right side of every page. We have info on how to attach a winch line on the drum, an in-depth comparison of synthetic and steel wire cables, or guides as to how to choose a used winch.
If you have questions regarding this, just contact us or put it on the comments section below. We’ll try to provide educated answers for you.
