All- I bound up the original spare tire winch and replaced it with one from lucky 8 off road. Was actually a pain getting the old one off because the mounts for the cable guide bolts broke and the bolts would just spin and not unscrew so I had to brake them with a hammer and chisel.

Anyway, the new winch has an eyelet to crank the tire up and down and not the hex nut. The new winch goes up and down but is impossible to crank up once under load of the full weight of the tire. Any suggestions on a good way of cranking it up?

I did see an attachment that allows you to use a 1/4” socket wrench to crank it:

https://www.tuffantusa.com/product-page/discovery-4-late-model-1-4-wheel-winder-adapter

Thanks a bunch.

 

Update: I did buy that overpriced adapter from tuffant. Should be $15 not $45 and it took a little sanding to fit. The winch works fine with no load but will not lift the tire. Pretty sure I got a defective winch from Lucky8. I called them for assistance and the salesperson I spoke with was very nice but knew nothing about the winch.

I just ordered one from Amazon and will see and probably will return the winch.

 

The winches should never be operated without a load, either going up or down. The cable will get crossed and can be tricky to undo. But this may be why it seems to be okay with no load (again, bad idea) but then with a load the crossed cabling will bind up.

 

Yep, when I go then new winch I unspooled it under the load of the tire before installing for that very reason. It wouldn’t lift the tire once off the ground. So I assumed it was bound so I let it back down and out of curiousity tried to have it go back up without a load. It did and then when back down without a load. I remounted the tire and it again failed to come back up under load.

 

Ah, okay. Good to know! Well that sucks then. Returning sounds like a good idea. The Amazon one will probably be the same. Also the reason they have a hook version is those are to be used with teh same rods used to operate the jack. You will not the end looks the same.

 

I was using the hook loop rod for the jack but was afraid I was going to break. I couldn’t believe I had bound the new winch by just unspooling it so I bought the attachment so I could apply more force with a socket wrench. Still didn’t work. Hopefully third time will be a charm.

 

Update: The $60 Amazon winch worked well. The Tuffant attachment fit well with this winch. In hind sight I think the key is to never let the weight on the bottom of the cord to touch the ground and let the cord go limp.