For the most part I agree,but not in every situation.My winch is bolted to the front bumper. Recently I was nose down dropping into a creek bed going between two trees when the rear slid into the tree on my left. There was maybe a foot of space with the tree on the right,which isn't much. The trees were just in front of my rear tires. We hooked up the come-along to the D-shackle on my receiver on the rear bumper and the other end to a tree strap (looped around a tree of course),cranked the wheels while ratcheting the come-along at the same time and it pulled the rear end away from the tree.
It's amazing how you can move a vehicle with a little head scratching.
Or I could have gave her the berries and trashed my 1/4 panel

 

*** a longs are made to take the abuse. I dont know about a boat crank, pulling a boat outta water and up slides take a lot less effort. I use *** a long on a carwash track chain and I crank on that baby and it handles it well. They do come with different ratings so make sure it can handle it. And like said before take care of it, dont let it rust out etc.

 

come alongs are nice, definitly helped me out of spots. Also using your high-lift as a come along works very nicely too..

 

mnore often than you think. But always unexspected

 

Oh yea I'd rather be slap in the face with horse crop than a coat hanger

 

i've used a few different brands of come-alongs at marinas and on the trails and you definitely get what you pay for... the cheap ones always bind up, tweak the frame, or the handle bends (luckily i've never had a broken cable but we never use worn out cables). "lug all" come-alongs are what we use to raise sunkin boats and i keep a 2 ton large frame one in my jeep, it only has about 15' of cranking distance but i would trust the thing to pull my jeep strait up a cliff.... as far as the hand winches that are on the front of boat trailers, they are pretty crazy strong, i've seen some good size boats (25'-30') on trailers that don't have electric winches, usually because the owner was to cheap to buy one but they still get the job done, if you can find one that has a high strength cable(i would think 10k should be safe) it should work, it'll just be alot more work and look kind of goofy

 

The idea of a hand winich or *** a long is great for those who cant afford a winch or for rear pulling, but the biggest downfall is the cable snapping..
So my question is, has anyone made one or tweaked one that used a heavy duty nylon recovery strap without the metal ends?
It would be cheaper then a winch, and you wouldn't have to worry about getting hit if it snapped...

 

http://www.lug-all.com/pages/webstrapov.php


i can't say i've used this personally but i have 4 other lug all regular come-alongs and i love them. we use them for sunkin boat recovery but the biggest one lives in my jeep and has saved my but countless times.. oh and as far as the cable breaking, as long as its in good shape it will never snap before the handle bends. they design the handles to be the weak spot so that will simply bend before any cables snap or other damage to the pricey come-along occurs. i've bent a few handles but never snapped cable.




edit: i know i'm talking about these come-alongs like they're great cuz they are, but like i said you get what you pay for and these run about 3 or 4 hundred dollars new. which is the price of a smittybilt 8k winch.

 

Or, you could have ran your winch line out to the side to a ****** block attached to a tree strap and then back to your rear d-ring. You need to chock the front tires so they don't slide forward before the back end moves over, but it works.

 

As for cost, I've bought used 6000 lb winches for 100.00 used 8000 for 175.00. They worked great, and I am still using the 6000 pounder on my 1948 CJ2A. You can buy a new 8000 lb winch for 299. That way you have a 12 foot long cord on the controller so you can be safe.

 

high lift jacks work well as come a longs also... just use them in reverse... also i had a buddy in the military who was snatchin someone out the mud and the chain broke... came in the back window and popped him in the back of the head knocking him out... not for long but enough where he doesnt remember it... lol... left a big ole lump... and that was just a chain...

hand cranks are held together with small hardware... designed only to pull a boat on a trailer from the water... which is like pulling 200 pounds... were talking about pulling a 4k pound jeep up hill and over rocks... it may work for a minute... still the galvanized hardware snaps...

there is no "look at the cost if it works"
there is no price on safety...

half tempeted to close this post because it is a stupid and unsafe idea...

 

huntingman, i'm not challenging the point your trying to make about them being unsafe. your right if the hand winches where galvy they would be way more brittle, but they're not, the trailers are though lol. all the handwinches i've ever seen have been heavy duty steel with some kind of rust coating that never lasts long... and i found a little bit of literature on what the OP was asking about http://handwinch.org/hand-winch-buyers-guide/

 

The OP stated that he has some boat trailer winches

 

sweeeet

 

As a owner of a 27ft. Formula. I would drive it up onto the trailer. And only use the electric winch for the last couple of inches.