Installing a winch

[mazzerman]

Hello all
Has anyone ever installed a winch on the rear of their Surf?
I know the norm is on the front, but i need it at the rear to winch my jetski onto the trailer attached to the towbar.
I know some people will say put it on the trailer, but i drop the trailer straight into the sea to launch the ski and i dont think the winch will last to long submerged in sal####er.
I have though about attaching a raiser from the towbar hitch, but that will then interfere with the rear tailgate dropping down. also though about putting it on the inside of the rear window but above, but there is nothing strong enough on the inner roof to handle it.
Also thought about attaching it to the spare wheel carrier on the tailgate but i dont think that will be strong enough.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Cheers
Marty

[marky]

Your trailer & winch are galanized so should be ok ensure there is plenty of grease on the cable. alternatively put winch on the front youve nothing to lose by that & its probably cheaper. i had a speed boat and the trailer and winch were fine i used to drag it out with a rope then hook it up and drive off. front winch drag jetski onto trailer then winch trailer onto beach hook up drive off

[mazzerman]

installing a winch

No the electrics on the winch are external and wouldnt like being underwater to much.
Putting it on the front is outta the question as the trailer is on the back and i need to winch the Jetski onto the trailer at the back of the vehicle, not the front.

[andy]

How about having a receiver bar on the back , then you could remove the towball slot in the winch and then drag the jetski onto the trailer ,then replace the towball and drive off .

The only other way would be to have the winch inside the vehicle , on the load space floor .

http://www.4allfours.co.uk/receiver.htm

[Guest]

No the electrics on the winch are external and wouldnt like being underwater to much.
Putting it on the front is outta the question as the trailer is on the back and i need to winch the Jetski onto the trailer at the back of the vehicle, not the front.

Possible solution although it would take some doing to make it look good would be to mount the winch inside the cab with a standalone fairlead bracket. You could drop the tailgate (as long as you aren't ging too far in the water) and run out the winch. Once it's on the trailer you could unhook the winch and shut the tailgate.

Alternative would be to see if there is enough space under the window when it is down to run the winch cable through the back door. There probably isn't but it might be an alternative.

Other than that you need to get a rear winch bumper (ARB probably do one) and just make sure that the winch you hace can run immersed. I am sure you must be able to get a winch that will do that. Motors run immersed even electric ones as long as all the contacts and cables are sealed.

Cheers

[mazzerman]

I like that idea Lucky, and the one on the previous post about the load space floor.
Dropping the tailgate and pulling the cable out to the ski sounds good.
Not sure what a "standalone fairlead bracket" is though and where it would mount inside the cab?
Any links to one would be handy for me to get an idea how it would work.
Thanks for the replies guys, great food for thought.

[andy]

This might be useful ,although you might not want to cut the floor about .

[RUB]

winch

Hey Mazzerman

try towsure they have a light duty 12 winch that hangs on a tow ball
for pulling caravans, boats and trailers.

type "winch" in the green search box.


www.towsure.co.uk


R.U.B.

[mazzerman]

Thanks for that RUB, gonna call Towsure 2moro about the winch towbar mounting plate, after all i do have one of their towbars fitted so it should be compatable.
Will let you know.

[rusty]

Thanks for that RUB, gonna call Towsure 2moro about the winch towbar mounting plate, after all i do have one of their towbars fitted so it should be compatable.
Will let you know.

Winch on front
Extra tow ball on front
push trailer down
retrieve jet-ski
reverse back up

Sorted!!

[Guest]

I like that idea Lucky, and the one on the previous post about the load space floor.
Dropping the tailgate and pulling the cable out to the ski sounds good.
Not sure what a "standalone fairlead bracket" is though and where it would mount inside the cab?
Any links to one would be handy for me to get an idea how it would work.
Thanks for the replies guys, great food for thought.

Sorry what I meant was, mount the fairlead (the rollers for the cable to come out of) on some stout angle iron (the rollers should already be i a mounting which you mount to the angle iron). These things normally mount in the winch bumper and are there to make sure the cable runs true and doesn't snag.

Seen it done on the back of another 4x4 in 4x4 magazine, can't for teh life of me remember what it was though.

Cheers

[jeff_2k7]

y not fit a hand winch and spend the cash on some goodies fur more surf goodies

[RodLeach]

Ok i know if it was me fitting a winch on the back of my surf and as i gather you have a rear door mounted spare. Then i would fabricate a bracket to hold it in the massive cavity on the underside of the surf where the spare goes on underslung surfs. Then fit some sort of plate to protect it and then cut a hole in the rear bumper section for one of those thingamagigs that has rollers on it for the winch cable....would look very neat and tidy and you could probably work out the electrics to run inside of the truck so you could control it from just inside the tailgate.....i think that would be a good height for pulling a jet ski on a trailer ......but hey thats just my 2 cents worth