New Garage has morphed into New House :)

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, I remember it. But, I don't see in the above posts what is in the concrete that the bolts screw into.

These things right here, the gold-colored ends (bolts + washer) are exposed:

I ask because my 12,000 lb winch bolts to the bumper with 4 bolts - and that's it. Granted they are the equivalent of G8's, but if what you have in the concrete is significant then you might not need the draw bar part of the equation. But, you have it so why not use it.

Which is exactly how I ended up feeling when I was figuring out exactly what to put into the cement... it's easy enough to add all this stuff, so why not. I don't have to use both methods together but I can, it's optional.

For max strength I'd make the plate of 1/4" thick material (my Warn bumper of made of 1/4" plate) a bit bigger than the bolt holes in the floor. Put those holes in it and then lay out the holes for the winch, centered as much as you can. Then weld nuts to the backside for the winch, just tacking G8 nuts to keep the heat down.

Then in the very center cut a hole just to fit the drawbar. Cut part of the drawbar off and slip it in the hole in the floor. Put the plate over it, and mark the top of the drawbar where it comes through the plate and then cut the drawbar down. To get the strongest weld you need maybe 3/8" of the drawbar above the plate so you can weld to it. But that may interfere with the winch. If so, you may need to space the winch up off the plate to clear the drawbar.

You will probably find that things are off just a bit between the drawbar hole and the holes to the bolts in the floor, so those holes will need to be a bit larger than the bolts and you'll need to use washers. But that arrangement should be very strong and will easily hold the force from your winch. Have fun!

A heavy-duty approach; typical of engineers, I guess. ;)

Seriously, thank you for the idea, I will have to measure and see how large such an assembly would actually be, and where to store it when not in use.

The Receiver hitch idea made perfect sense since I'd been using my brother's trailer quite a bit last year, and was already looking at how the winch mounts on that thing. That square tube stuff can be had as stock material.

The thought of angle iron + some sort of small base came into my mind if I want to use only the bolts in the floor.

Using only the draw bar, I'd want to effectively take your steel plate idea but flip it vertically and mount it + some supporting infrastructure (angle iron, that tube stuff, whatever) to the draw bar. And easily stored when not in use. :)

To make both a plate + draw bar assembly, um, hmm.... I'll have to take some measurements....

Storing the HD arrangement with the drawbar and bolts would be more difficult, for sure. But the bolt-only arrangement should be easy to store.

However, a drawbar-only approach puts the winch high enough above the floor that there is considerable leverage, and unless you have a lot of concrete around that receiver in the floor that may be a problem. And, even if you do you'll have to look at your winch to see if it can be used vertically. Some have a cover over the spool so can't. And even if yours can the piece will be difficult to store as the drawbar will be sticking out. But, it would be handy to use on a vehicle that has a receiver.

 

[ctubutis]

Storing the HD arrangement with the drawbar and bolts would be more difficult, for sure. But the bolt-only arrangement should be easy to store.

However, a drawbar-only approach puts the winch high enough above the floor that there is considerable leverage, and unless you have a lot of concrete around that receiver in the floor that may be a problem. And, even if you do you'll have to look at your winch to see if it can be used vertically. Some have a cover over the spool so can't. And even if yours can the piece will be difficult to store as the drawbar will be sticking out. But, it would be handy to use on a vehicle that has a receiver.

You guys are coming up with some good input, thanks. :)

My exclusive experience with one of these 12V winches comes from a similarly-sized one mounted to my brother's trailer, I should take pictures of that sometime.

They dug a pit at least 2' deep below that thing in the cement, the steel pin in the receiver will keep it there.

The bolts are approximately 15" square c to c, and I can put something 20" x 20" into that storage thing.

But I like the idea of connecting it to any vehicle with such a hitch! But I'd still need HD battery power back there, none of my batteries are in the trunk.

~~

Fuzzy reminded me on FTE that I haven't updated you guys in a while, so here are some current pictures. :)

It kinda looks like a Sears showroom atm and I still need to find new homes for some things, but I'm starting to use it for garage purposes again. :)

Remember that exposed steel I-beam that's gonna become a trolley someday?

I painted it Denver Broncos Orange. :)

[ctubutis]

You guys are coming up with some good input, thanks. :)

My exclusive experience with one of these 12V winches comes from a similarly-sized one mounted to my brother's trailer, I should take pictures of that sometime.

They dug a pit at least 2' deep below that thing in the cement, the steel pin in the receiver will keep it there.

The bolts are approximately 15" square c to c, and I can put something 20" x 20" into that storage thing.

But I like the idea of connecting it to any vehicle with such a hitch! But I'd still need HD battery power back there, none of my batteries are in the trunk.

~~

Fuzzy reminded me on FTE that I haven't updated you guys in a while, so here are some current pictures. :)

It kinda looks like a Sears showroom atm and I still need to find new homes for some things, but I'm starting to use it for garage purposes again. :)

Remember that exposed steel I-beam that's gonna become a trolley someday?

I painted it Denver Broncos Orange. :)

I used this kit I found at Lowes on the garage floor:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Epoxy-Coat-2-Part-Dark-Gray-High-Gloss-Garage-Floor-Epoxy-Kit-Actual-Net-Contents-384-fl-oz/3547112

It's got two coats, I sanded down the first one as best I was willing because the sprinkles didn't come out right, I tried to do the floor in 3 independent sections wearing only tennis shoes, that didn't work. So I got some spiked shoes and re-coated it. It came out "OK" but I know where the faults are.

[Gary Lewis]

You guys are coming up with some good input, thanks. :)

My exclusive experience with one of these 12V winches comes from a similarly-sized one mounted to my brother's trailer, I should take pictures of that sometime.

They dug a pit at least 2' deep below that thing in the cement, the steel pin in the receiver will keep it there.

The bolts are approximately 15" square c to c, and I can put something 20" x 20" into that storage thing.

But I like the idea of connecting it to any vehicle with such a hitch! But I'd still need HD battery power back there, none of my batteries are in the trunk.

~~

Fuzzy reminded me on FTE that I haven't updated you guys in a while, so here are some current pictures. :)

It kinda looks like a Sears showroom atm and I still need to find new homes for some things, but I'm starting to use it for garage purposes again. :)

Remember that exposed steel I-beam that's gonna become a trolley someday?

I painted it Denver Broncos Orange. :)

Looks good, Chris!

On the winch, with as much concrete you have below you should be good to mount the winch on the drawbar. However, I doubt many drawbars are rated at what your winch is capable of pulling, meaning 5000 lbs. The issue is that drawbars expect the majority of the load to be in tension, like trying to stretch them as you tow the trailer. But you would be using it as if you had 5000 lbs of tongue weight on it, and I don't think it will take that w/o bending where it comes out of the receiver.

If what your are going to pull comes easily then maybe you'd be ok. But, you don't have any way of keeping the drawbar in the receiver, so you need to make sure that you never have any upward forces. And the only way of doing that is to make sure that the winch is higher than where the hook is attaching to the vehicle. The higher you go the more leverage you have, and at some point the leverage times the pulling force will be greater than the wall of the drawbar can stand.

I think the safest thing is a plate that goes on the floor and uses the bolts in the floor to hold it down and a piece of the drawbar to prevent it from sliding. Next is to use just the bolts in the floor. Last is to just use the drawbar in a vertical position and the winch attached to it.

So, if it were me I'd make the plate w/a piece of drawbar through it for use in the garage. Then I'd weld a plate to another drawbar that could be put in the receiver of any vehicle whenever. It only takes 4 bolts to swap the winch to another plate. I do that from the front of Big Blue to my trailer.

And, speaking of moving it, you'll need to be able to connect your battery to it. While you can disconnect via the connections on the battery or winch, take a look at the connectors I used on Big Blue, shown in this post.