Bringing an old winch up to modern operations
A friend of mine gave me his old trailer winch that no longer worked. The motor, gears, and cable were still good, but the solenoids were no longer reliable.
I picked up a new block-style winch contractor like this one from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JlUgKZ I wired it into the existing cables and mounted it on the cover. I had to drill some new mounting holes but it tucked away nicely in the cover.
I then got a wireless remote like this one: https://amzn.to/3oHJh6Q
I used some piggyback spade terminals to attach the wires to the solenoid block and mounted the wireless receiver inside the cover using a wire tie. I kept the original three-wire remote socket in place as a backup.
I then picked up a plastic ammo can at Harbor Freight and bolted it to the winch plate. It holds the remotes and a Lithium Battery.
I mounted the winch plate to a piece of 2×2 square tubing. That slides into a receiver hitch I have mounted at the front of my trailer. It works well to winch cars up onto the trailer and is easily removed when not needed.