Towing Issues: Mounting a winch on an 18 tilt 4 stationary trailer, winch motors, golf cart battery

Question
Hi, my question involves the best location to mount a winch on a tilt car hauler that has a four foot stationary front section and an 18' tilt section.  If I mount it to the tilting section it could limit how far the vehicle can be pulled up on the trailer, but if I try to mount it on the stationary part it would probably start to tilt the trailer down to the horizontal position before the vehicle is all the way onto the tilting portion.  I thought about a snatch block and mounting the winch to the side with the snatch block hooked to a tie down in the center of the tilt portion but this could still limit how far the vehicle could be pulled onto the tilt portion and would involve tilting the battery which could cause leakage or longer cables which could get pinched.  Have you ever seen a winch on this type of trailer?  How would you mount one if you were doing it?  Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.  Bob

Answer
Bob,

I would set it under the trailer deck with a splash guard around it) with a pulley mounted vertically through the deck at the front edge.  This would allow the vehicle to pull all the way to the front of the trailer without hitting anything and would keep the cable pulling straight inline with the deck.

Or else you can extend part of the deck over the stationary section and mount just the winch to that section with it designed to set down on the lower section when the deck is lowered.

A battery could be mounted to the deck as long as it is of a sealed design.  They have batteries on the market that have nearly the capacity of a golf cart battery but are a sealed design.  

I have a 12 volt sealed battery mounted under the cab of my truck (on it's side) that runs an onboard air compressor for running tools.  

Just remember to keep your battery cables big enough to do the job well, or you'll be buying new winch motors on a regular basis.  

Good luck,
Shayne Peterson
MobileHitch
http;//www.mobilehitch.ca/