Winch Overkill? (Pictures Inside)

So I finally got around to getting one of my christmas presents ready to go! I haven't had the chance to use it yet and I'm wondering how well the tongue of the dolly will hold up, but I'll soon find out. Do you guys think the winch is a little overkill? I did have the crappy 2ton worm gear manual boat winch that harbor freight sells mounted beforehand. Do yourself a favor and don't bother buying it because it crapped out after 2 cars and its not even worth scrap price. Pictured Below:



I purchased a Badland 9000lb winch from HF with a coupon in December - Total price: $247.00 after tax
3/8 plate from the local scrap yard & old truck receiver - Free
2ft of 2" 3/8 wall square tubing - $10
Box of Rods, Couple Disc's, Couple Cans of Paint - $45
Use of friends shop, stick welder, torches & plasma cutter for a day - $25.00 & Lunch

Grand Total: $327.00

Pictures Below:

2014-01-21_21-31-01_935 by woodmanyoel


2014-02-08_17-03-01_824 by woodmanyoel


2014-02-08_19-13-42_15 by woodmanyoel

I have my friends winch pictured on the dolly

2014-02-01_21-34-37_71 by woodmanyoel

I'm pretty excited to give it a go. I have been getting away with jacking vehicles up that dont run and backing the dolly under them. What a PITA.

I scored a couple lengths of #2 battery cable out of Buick skylarks that have the battery mounted under the rear seat. I gotta find the best way to splice them together to make one full run. I'm thinking I'll use a torch and some thick solder. Once I get the wire run to the rear of the truck I'll get a couple of these:


I'll run the system directly off from the truck to avoid placing large draws on the winch when the standalone battery gets low - which I'm told can damage the winch.

Which brings up another topic - I wanted to know what other people who run the BL winches are doing about the relay that is located on the positive wire? How do you insulate it and keep it from grounding out on the truck? I want to see how warm it gets under heavy use.. if its not to bad I think I might just plasti-dip the entire thing.

The next step is to get a trailer & get this mounted for trailer use also. The winch plate is 2" tubing so I can mount it to the back receiver or the front of the truck (after the 8" channel bumpers get fabricated.. that's a project for the near future). This allows the thing to be used on anything I put a receiver tube on. I'm hoping its more than an enough for what I'm planning on using it for (cars & getting unstuck if the need ever arises) but if I had to - can someone suggest where to get a decent snatch block that is fairly priced?



Thanks!
-WoodmanYoel

looking for a set of Anderson connectors myself. Awesome article here: Heavy Duty Winch Install With 'Extras'... - JeepForum.com

Looks Great! Have fun!

Originally Posted by joef1812

If you are pulling logs out of the timer afternoon

What does that mean???

all afternoon I should have put got typing to fast. I had a badlands winch mounted on my truck and I was dragging logs for firewood with it for several hours and I burnt the winch up. Got another one mounted on the trailer after the warn went out and haven't had any problems. If you make your winch removable from the trailer I would recommend sitting it somewhere dry when not in use