If you have more than one "wench" say an even dozen, they can push it up on there. If you use come-alongs, use two. One to pull, the other to reset when that one runs out of cable. Helps to have two wenches in this method as you will get tired. If you have a winch, then you only need one wench to steer the derelict on the trailer. Morale of the story: More tools = Less wenches. Getting it off the trailer is easier - I like to use a chain, a tree and 4wd. After further review, I like this one best. The only improvement I can see is if you have nitrous on the tow vehicle! Couldn't you just back up to it, jack up your truck take your drive tire off and install a rim without a tire. Tie a rope to the non running car, wrap the other end around the rim and drop it in gear and wind it up.
Here's one I ain't seen mentioned yet: Jack up the front of the dead car with a floor jack. Back the trailer up to the car and roll the front wheels on. Jack up the rear of the dead car. Carefully back the trailer up to the rear wheels and roll the car on the rest of the way. I have done this.
Waaayyyyy too many dramatic ending possibilities there, and 99% of them are not good! I have seen a guy with a gin-pole truck lift the vehicle front up in the air and then, we back the trailer under the load, then set the front on the trailer. Repeat the process with the back. Works great if the vehicle is not a roller, or has one or both axles locked up. No way in hell I'd do that with jacks!!!
F--k a Come a long, especially cheapies!!! 1990, I found a 1957 series 62 Caddy, that was to be buried to fill in a drop off for a Prison expansion in Alto GA. Paid the old timer $100 for the car, went to get truck & trailer, and buy a "mid priced" come a long. Caddy had a '68 GA tag. Back the trailer up, hook up, Caddy barely budged. Old timer ties an old tire to the front of his tractor to push Caddy from rear....helped some. So old timer tells me to add this pipe to the come a long, and put more *** into cranking it on the trailer. So then you could play a tune on the cable..."Damnit boy...use some muscle!", he exclaimed. I proceed to plant my feet to the front of the trailer, and pull with all I can! SNAP! Cable breaks, pipe makes a half moon shaped gash in my nose, and I bust my head on my truck rear bumper. (Have a friend hit your nose and eye with a hammer, and you'll get the same sensation!) Also busted my tear gland in my right eye, streams of water and blood for a while from my right inner eye. Come to find out, the right rear wheel brake was locked on the Caddy. We finally got it loaded with his antique come a long that he used to deliver breached calves at birth( he told me after the fact! ). BOTTOM LINE...PAY A ROLLBACK!!!! To add the same car ripped my right arm open months into the build, had to go to the E.R. for rust in my eyes, from tiny safety gl***es, engine backfired in my face, all I could smell for a week was my burnt nose hair. Yes, I stripped everything for another project Caddy, and gladly crushed that nightmare in 1993. Good riddence. Sept. I just picked up a '50 New Yorker. When the roll back started winching, in the first few inches, the wheel hit a stump, steering wheel spins right, and a piece of broken windshield lodged in the steering wheel rips open my hand! He we go again! Pay a roll back, step way back, and watch!
I'll NEVER use another come-a-long ever again! With a winch, a shovel, some chains and/or straps, an off-road jack, and a block and tackle, you can recover damn near any vehicle. A come-a-long is for people wanting to take their chances on either successfully recovering a car on the cheap, or finding the quickest way to visit an ER somewhere.
remember to bring an old blanket with you to toss over the cable, it'll catch the backlash if the cable brakes
i pulled my 45 gmc onto a trailer with the farmers tractor i bought the truck from, we unhooked my truck, placed blocks under the rear of the trailer to hold it up, chained the trailer to a large post to keep it from rolling forward and then used a long chain to hook onto the truck and pulled it on, the truck had flat tires and they were frozen solid and would not roll, i could of used my own truck to do the pulling but he had the tractor right there anyway.
I bought a cheap (China) electric winch to load the trailer - so far, so good (don't expect to get too much out of it, just buy a name brand). But I made a different choice as to voltage - I got a 115 V AC. I use it with an extension cord to load the trailer, but also to pull heavy boxes up the ba*****t stairs (milk crate full of cast iron).
if i had been paid for all the time i wasted ****ing around with come-alongs,harbor freight winches... i could have purchased a really nice trailer with a 8000# warn winch. i'm gonna treat myself to a tilt bed trailer with a 8000# winch because my ghetto setup is ********. i have worn out at least 10 harbor freight winches, they are junk! everyone failed to mention the circut breaker kicks and you have to stand there and wait for it to reset,takes just a bit longer every time. gets pretty tough to find help with **** setup.
Worst car I ever had to load on a trailer was a 1967 Checker Marathon station wagon a few months ago. Car had sat since early 1970's. All four drums extremely rusted up and it was a junker, they had used a backhoe to drag it to the front of a lot that was cleared across the street. Guy actually gave me $40 to haul it off. My neighbor dragged it to my yard with a lot of effort using his 2wd Dodge dually diesel. I pulled off the front clip and the 327 4 barrel Chevy it had. Since I knew it wasn't going to go up on the car with a come along I used an engine hoist on the side to pick the front up with the engine hoist on the side of the car, with the help of 2 friends I backed the trailer up under the front wheels, let it down on big garbage bags under the front wheels. It still wouldn't slide with the come along so used engine hoist on back of car, slowly backed up while one guy worked come along and other guy watched to make sure everyhing was OK. Put back wheels on garbage bags and finally got car on. Learned garbage bag trick from loading jet engines onto KC135 tankers. PS the car had one single early 60's Corvette valve cover inside the car. I dug through a lot of junk but couldn't find the other one.
So the garbage bags caused the tires to slide up for easy loading ? Interesting tip! I'll have to try it sometime.
Doing it, and doing it safely are 2 different things. I've seen a comealong chain break and hit a dude square across the chest at work. ****ed him up pretty bad, but if he were 4 inches shorter or stooped down, he may have been dead. I'm not trying to get hurt over a ****in truck. ***...
I did something similar a few weeks ago. My buddies dad has a tractor with lifting forks. Car had no engine, no hood. We hooked to the front crossmember and lifted with the tractor. We backed under the front and set it down. The *** end was buried on the groungground, we forked under and lifted it, and pushed. No tractor at this next house though.
No question about it a big winch is a real ***et for a car trailer. I've gone from using a come-a-long to a 2500# winch with 25 ft of cable to an 8000# winch with 95 ft of cable. Another nice thing to have is a remote switch (cordless) so that you can control the winch plus steer the car/truck being loaded. Probably 99% of the cars I've hauled on my trailer were inops and loaded alone.
Yep the bags made it easy to slide. Loading jet engines on trailers on KC135s required you to slide the trailer sideways, it couldn't steer sharp enough to get in the plane. I see some people on here aren't fond of come alongs. Use a decent one and keep it properly maintained and it should be fine like any piece of equipment. If it's extremely hard to crank it it's overloaded and you are asking for trouble.
The Jalopy Journal
