Master Lock Electric Winch, Portable 12-Volt DC Electric Winch, 2953AT

Let's not get carried away. This is not a big winch like the ones you see fastened to the bumpers of monster 4-wheelers. It is much simpler than that. And for what it is designed to do it works very well. For infrequent light duty winching this is the perfect tool. It has a built in handle for carrying, detachable power and control cords, and enough cable to get you within 25 feet or so of whatever you are winching. It has a 2000 lb rating, and will pull that much easily. Not quickly, but easily. It has a manual crank that can be attached to the shaft. It also has a very handy mounting plate designed to slip over the ball on a ball-hitch. The clutch is manual, and drag is set by means of a threaded knob on the shaft. It is very simple to use. Simply connect the power and control cables, loosen the clutch, pull the cable to whatever you need to pull and hook it up. Then tighten the clutch and press the button on the control handle and start winching. Be patient. There is only one speed and it is slow. But it works. I have tested the winch by hanging it from a beam and picking up the front of a truck with no problem. Then we really put it to the test by using it to pull our garden tractor out of the mud. It was a long pull so we needed to add a tug strap but it was easy enough to hook up. The pull was painless. The winch is slow because it gets it's power through gearing. It is quite a drain on a car battery, so it helps to leave your engine running while you pull. Not something you would want to use every day but very handy to have around. For my money this is a 5-star tool. Great for the boat owner or for use around the farm.

So far so good, I used it to pull a boat out of the water across a road, onto a cradle, maybe 1200 lbs, its pulled onto rollers on a wooden ladder frame, not across sticky ground. Not a huge grade up, but at first its tough up the bank to the roller gear I drop and then remove. I use a Deep Cycle Gel cell from the boat, (120 amp hr) It works fine. I do not double block. Its very slow, but sure, nice thing is I can hang it on a bolt or hitch, remove it from the cradle and store. Only issue, no reverse, and locking unlocking mechanism on the twist wheel where you put on the handle can get jammed, takes the handle and some effort it the nut slips on the handle mount and tightens on the one under against the plastic, second nut holds the handle off the wheel. Cursing and pliers. Check it before use. Get the right spacing and tighten, lock nut perhaps or lubricated washer might help.

I agree with the comment about let's be realistic here but I was very pleasantly surprised at the performace. I bolted this on to the front of my trailer so that I could pull stuff up a set of ramps and drag to the front to balance the load. My ramps are long but the grade must be at least 30*. This little beast pulled Bubba the Steam Cleaner right up the ramps and dragged it to the front of the trailer without a noticeable change in pitch or effort. Bubba is ~300# with wheels only on the back and two rubber snubbers on the front. I had to keep the cable held up a bit so Bubba jumped a bit on the ramps. I had some rubber left on the ramps from the scraping and I could care less. Excellent performance. After unloading Bubba, I loaded a BIG engine crane. Rolled it to the back of the trailer, looped the cable around the top and the winch easily pulled it over and dragged it to the front. I can't ask for more than that. BTW, after I loaded Bubba one of my off-road buddies told me that you need to leave the engine running while winching to protect your battery. Amazon, their sale price/free shipping and standing behind their product does it once again!!

My first use of this was when I needed some safety insurance when I cut down a 60 ft pine tree, because if not felled correctly it could hit the street electric wires, or my house electric wires, or the house; naturally none of those scenarios were a wanted option. I climbed the tree tying a 75 ft rope 3/4 up toward the top of the tree, then tied the other end of the rope onto the end of this Portable Winch's wire which was fully extended, which the back end of the Winch via it's mounting plate was tied to another tree now nearly 100 ft safely away, that all was in the exact direction I wanted the tree to fall. I then hooked up the power to the Winch via the supplied wires and clipped it to my garden tractor 12v battery, and using the supplied remote control switch I turned the Winch on and let it take up the slack on the ropes to get it firmly taught just right, then I notched the tree, then turned on the Winch again and took up just a little more slack, then I did the back-cut on the tree, then went over to the Winch and pushed the button letting it slowly wind it's wire up as it firmly but slowly pulled the tree to lean further and further toward the Winch's direction, and in a minute or two it pulled the tree over enough then it fell exactly toward where I wanted. Sure I could of used a come-along and I did have one handy, but this was easier, faster, and more fun. Next time I get my tractor stuck in the mud I'll use this to pull it out the same way which will be easier and faster than using my come-along, not only that this Winch has a 30 ft cable which is great. I love it. It's perfectly what I wanted, and on sale was a great price, and so well worth it anyway! It's a great light duty puller, and if you keep within its rated range, it's perfect.

For a few years now, I've been finding myself in situations where it would be helpful to have winching abilities. Nothing too heavy duty, not pulling stuck trucks out of off-road mud pits or anything like that...but needing more pulling power than I have otherwise. This unit has consistently come up in search results as something that seemed to meet those needs. The tipping point that convinced me to buy it finally was that I acquired an old Crown Victoria station wagon in non-running condition and needed a way to get it on a Uhaul Auto Transport, which is their rental car trailer and is not winch-equipped (probably for liability reasons). I got air in the tires, knocked off a seized brake caliper, towed it out onto the road with the truck and tow strap, and then used the Master Lock winch to pull it up onto the trailer. I did not attach/anchor the winch "correctly" and am fairly sure its manufacturer would not endorse how I used it. However, at the end of the day it, a shackle, a couple straps and a cheap pulley hook acting as a snatch block got a 4000lb car with a dragging drum brake on a trailer. I found it sufficiently powerful, though I did trip a thermal overload or circuit breaker of some kind inside it a couple times. It is very noisy as others have noted, specifically the ratcheting clutch mechanism, and it requires constant tinkering with the clutch release to pull out a lot of wire rope in one go, but it did the job beautifully. I did also use it attached to a parked vehicle in my driveway to unload the station wagon, and that time, I did hook it onto the hitch ball. The hitch ball mount works very well. You just need to be mindful about possibly dropping it when moving or adjusting the position of the winch. I found that it nicely "wedged" against the hitch ball and kept the winch more or less suspended horizontally rather than trying to droop towards the ground, which was a nice effect, whether it was designed-in or not. About the photo: I initially attached the winch to a D-ring which is welded onto the trailer until the majority of the weight was up on it, to avoid causing any issues with the surge brake. Then I moved it to the hitch safety chain loop as shown. Although it doesn't have much of a guide to ensure this happens, I did notice that the cable wound up more or less evenly on the drum and didn't require a lot of adjustment while winching it in.

Using a; Anbull SMPS 110V AC to 12V DC Converter Power Supply Adapter Switch Transformer Max 50A 600W as a power supply, as well a chain attached to it as an anchor, and an additional pulley. I hauled a 27ft, 3000lb boat out of the water on to the land. Allowed winch to cool off periodically, it did the job. The only complaint I had was the wire rope was damaged inside the reel by the load being applied, leading me to question the quality of the wire.

It works for what it is a little cumbersome to use, and I wish it would extend on the remote

This product has incredible value. I got mine for ~75$ CDN no shipping. It shipped quickly. The winch performs very well and is capable of towing my 1500 pound boat and trailer to the back of my property. Keep in mind, this is a very slow winch and pulls at a rate of about 3-4 feet per minute. The winch is very loud and sounds terrible, but does the job. If you want to attach the winch to a tree you will need to use chains around the tree and not tow straps because the ball hitch mount is fairly sharp and will cut your straps. You will also need a portable 12v battery if you plan on using the winch away from your car battery. I just reordered another identical winch for when this one dies. I would estimate that based on the construction of the plastic and mechanics, this winch will probably last around 2-4 years. You can only power winch the cable in. You cannot power winch anything out. There is a lever to manually winch anything in if the winch does indeed break in the middle of power use. Buy it.

Excellent produit