Winch Mod


After taking the PU out last weekend and the top not wanting to come down I did some investigating. I found that the bearings in the manual winch crank were shot. I checked everywhere trying to locate the bearings or another winch. I finally found one online for around $200. I thought since the manuals are so high why not try something else. I found a 2000 lb ATV winch at  WalMart that is power in and out for $95. I modified the old winch mount to make the ATV winch fit. Mounted everything and gave it a try. WOW it goes up and then down with out bending over and breaking a sweat. Below are the pictures of the install.

The old winch.

This is the bearing that is bad. It has about 1/8" play in it. The new 12v winch. It is a 2000lb power in/out ATV winch.
We cut the old winch off the base. Then cut the back of it off and welded it to the base. The holes in the back of the old winch  matched the holes in the ATV winch.

Here it is mounted and hooked up. Ready for the test. The ATV winch came with 25' of cable. The cable was painted red to show where to stop when pulling it out. I added the lenght of my old cable from the red area. The mounting of the battery  and box. This also let me hook my converter up so I have battery power to my lights now.



This is where the manual crank use to go. I am adding a storage box here.



I replaced all the metal around the old crank hole. I could not find a small storage box made for campers, so I made one out of a rubber made container. A look at the battery box and wires ran to it.



A top view.





In the top right corner is the 40 amp circuit breaker that came with the winch. The fuse holder on the yellow wire is a 30 amp fuse for the power wire to the converter. Both are connected to a quick disconnect.

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